Re: [pyrnet] intro:)(OT,LONG)

["Gordon Crump" <hermit@duo-county.com>]

>

> What does one do with their goats? I know they're
> cute as hell.  I tend to stick to more mainstream
> livestock (horses).  Argus the Wonder Pyr loves to
> graze with the horses- it's quite a site.
=======
   Sue, there are dairy goats and meat goats.  I have dairy goats.
They will give up to a gallon or more a day of the freshest, tastiest
milk anyone ever had.  Their milk is the milk of the Bible (milk and
honey).  Three-fourths of the world's population drink goat milk.
Only in  some places in Europe ,the US and Australia and New Zealand
are cows a major source for milk.
   It has some magical ingredient that promotes health and is a kind
of a curative for many ailments.  Almost all ulcer patients can
tolerate goat milk.  Allergic children can usually tolerate and thrive
on goat milk.  Unfortunately, we don't know what that ingredient is,
and only see the results of it when we use goat milk.  It is the prime
nourishment for young Pyrs, or indeed any infant person or animal.
   A couple of instances from my personal experience:

   An Amishman had two little red-haired boys. about three months.
They could tolerate neither cow milk, nor artificial formulas. He said
he didn't have much money, so I loaned him a doe (female).  Before the
first week was over, they were both drinking lots of the milk and
ready for baby food.  A year later,when he returned the doe, they were
fat and sassy and trying to get into everything.  He admits nothing
was changed except for giving them goat milk.

   A neighbor had a fine horse, and had a fine colt.  The mare
however, refused to let it nurse.  It was rickety and  had spindles
for legs it couldn't stand on.  Following the rule that infant animals
need l0 percent of body weight in milk to thrive, the colt came out of
it in a week, was even running a
little. It took him awhile to gain his normal weight, but again,
nothing was changed except giving him goats milk.  The neighbor had
tried buying milk out of the store and the colt had just slipped
further away.  So, to me, if it waddles like a duck and quacks like a
duck, it must be a duck!  Although there is little scientific (what do
they know, they were still saying the moon was a reflection off the
sun until well into the 1900s) evidence, not because it doesn't exist,
but because it simply has not been done.  The USDA
owns dairy(cow) farmers and isn't going to do anything
to spoil its own investment.
   Goat people generally don't talk about the  benefits of goat milk,
because they have been pooh-phoohed about it, but they know its value.
   The second reason people go into goats is that they are loving,
affectionate animals, with high intelligence and great pets.
    They are also money makers, done right.  I had a herd of 55 Nubian
(the kind with the long ears) does.After six years, my records were
put on an insurance computer and the profit per doe, per year averaged
$571.  That was only from sale of offspring.  There isn't a beef
cattle man anywhere who can
claim as much.  So, that is the reason for breeding goats over a
comparable herd.
   They suffer from a bad press.  Goat females do not smell, as in the
comic strips.  Males smell only during a brief breeding season.  They
are clean, usually won't even eat after each other.
   There is lots more, but do not wish to completely freak everyone
out.  Anyone with goats needs Pyrs. End of that statement.

   Hermit in the Woods, drinking goat milk and eating goat cheese and
developed into a formidable guerilla fighter.