Of late I've been devouring any book about goats I can get my hands on, and hounding friends for gems of information on these beautiful creatures. They are a fascinating animal in many ways and their psychology is intriguing. So far I've found two great little books 'Goat Husbandry' by David Mackenzie, 5th edition, 1993. A quick look on the inside cover and one can see he's been writing with authority on goats every decade since the 1950's! Thats some wealth of experience. The downside, to this, and to most available books on goats is that I find the feeding sections are difficult to understand and are laced with various mathematical equations for figuring how much of what feed is required depending on its percentage protein content to give in what quantities to which goat depending on a variety of factors. It gets complicated!
My favourite book to date has been 'The New Goat Handbook' (1987-not so 'new'!). Its fun, it has fantastically endearing photos of goats at their best, and the feeding section is easy to understand. The charm of this book is that its aimed at the smallholder scale ie those of us with a couple of goats, rather than the large scale commercial dairy farmer.
And how did I happen upon this charming book? I had ordered Goat Husbandry via Amazon from one of their second hand suppliers. The supplier then emailed me to let me know he also had The New Goat Handbook, and wondered whether I might be interested, he also mentioned that he loved goats but circumstances means he himself can't have any. Hmm, astute marking, I thought to myself, and declined the offer thinking I'd spent enough on goat books recently. Goat Husbandry arrived promptly in the post, and along with it also came ... The New Goat Handbook with the following note 'Hi Rebecca, have it anyway with my compliments, should make good bedtime reading. Thanks for sharing your blog with me, loved it. regards Eliot' Well what a marvelous thing to happen, what a gentleman, it made my day that did.... its made more than my day, I've been thinking about it a lot and will always look on this book with a smile and a nod to that generous soul. Thank you kind Eliot of Sevsbookery.
I love goats...The next place I live must have space for one. Thanks for the inspiration I find here!
Posted by: patry | March 30, 2007 at 05:41 AM
Hey, I checked out The New Goat Handbook, Vriend, from my library. I love how it considers whether different practices are humane and ecological. A very well-written book!
Posted by: G. E. | June 27, 2009 at 11:41 PM