The price will be 60 euros per animal for females over six months old registered in the herd book, and 40 euros for sheep under six months old and 45 euros for goats under six months old. Applicants must be in possession of the sheep/goat holding code. In addition, at the time of delivery, they must prove that they have an animal registered in the herd book of that breed. Likewise, they undertake not to slaughter them for a period of one year and the lambs and female goats must be crossbred exclusively with males registered in the herd book.
ORIGIN
The phylogenetic origin of the Galician Goat is in the ancestral representative Capra hircus aegragus , of European origin, which in its secondary racial form would derive in the primitive Pyrenean trunk.
The oldest testimonies, collected in Cova de Pala de Vella (located in the municipality of Rubiá, east of the province of Ourense) document remains of domestic animals such as cows, pigs, sheep and goats. Roughly, it can be said that the oldest remains of goats date back to the fourth millennium B.C. in the middle of the Neolithic.
Since the middle of the 20th century there was a rather marked regression in the censuses of sheep and goats, directly related to reforestation. These resulted in the significant reduction of grazing areas used by these species, being relegated in the case of goats to the more mountainous areas, where reforestation was more complicated.
The sector is currently undergoing professionalisation, with more and more farms raising exclusively goats or together with sheep, since it is an ideal formula to optimize the natural resources that the Galician community possesses.
OPERATING SYSTEMS
The herds of goats in Galicia were always linked to the mountain areas where they were exploited in veceiras (community herds), usually mixed with sheep. There were also small herds in lower elevation areas, along with cattle, which served as complementary production.
As far as farming systems are concerned, they range from purely extensive herds, where goats sleep outside at times of the year which the weather permits, to semi-extensive holdings, where goats are collected at noon or at night only, spending all day away.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BREED
- Rusticity and high adaptability to the environment.
- Greater disease resistance than in other species.
- Agility, which allows you to access places almost unattainable for other animals in search of food.
- Special ability to digest cellulose, which makes it able to take advantage of woody logs that other species do not eat through the so-called browsing.
- High prolificacy, deliveries of 2 and 3 kids.
- Permanent polyesteric.
- Improvement of the environment in which it lives.
The geographical distribution of these animals is, mainly, by the mountain areas of the provinces of Lugo and Ourense highlighting in this sense the areas of Ancares and O Courel, in Lugo, and the mountains of Baixa Limia and Queixa, in Ourense.
MORPHOTYPE
They are straight-sided or subcontval, eumetric and sublongillian. Red coat, accepting the different shades, from blonde to retinta.
Breed characteristics by regions:
- Head:
Brachycephalic and small head. From straight to subchonsal frontonasal profile. Pinkish snout. Ears of small or medium size, thin, erect and movable. Presence of beard or goatee in males and less frequent in females. Antlers are larger in males than in females, with a greater predominance in bow or aegagrus or ibex and a smaller proportion in spiral. Accepting females bow horns.
- Neck
Thin and long neck in females, males thicker and stronger, presence of hoops or gorgueras.
- Trunk
Wide and well developed thorax with arched rib. Rectilinear dorsolumbar line or slightly saddled. Belly bulky and collected, especially in males. The tail is short and erect.
- Udder
Udder collected and well implanted, covered with pyosity, with well differentiated and small breasts. 5 extremities. Thin limbs with strong and marked joints and robust tendons. Good. Strong hooves.
- Coat
Completely uniform coat, red with different shades, from blonde to retinto. Hair is short and shiny in females and medium in males.
- Height and weight
Depending on the system of exploitation and management applied, it is estimated that the average weight and elevation range in females is 40-50 kg. and 60-70 cm. In males, 55-70 kg. and 70-80 cm.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
The main and almost unique objective of the Galician goat farm is the production of meat, highlighting in this sense the sale of piglets with weights of 10-12 Kg. , fed only with mothers' milk, or slightly older kids, 3-4 months, with higher carcass weight and generally cereal-based priming.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND CURRENT SITUATION
The geographical distribution of these animals is, mainly, by the mountain areas of the provinces of Lugo and Ourense highlighting in this sense the areas of Ancares and O Courel, in Lugo, and the mountains of Baixa Limia and Queixa, in Ourense.
STUDIOS
At the end of 2010, INORDE began the acquisition in different areas of the Autonomous Community of goat specimens for the creation of a "Foundational flock of Galician Goat".
Currently we have animals from five different areas, namely Lobios, Allariz and Bande in Ourense and Cervantes and Puebla de Brollon in Lugo.
At the moment we have four cover groups (four lines), with which we hope to obtain the first copies at the end of 2011.
