The Spanish goat, also called the brush goat or scrub goat, came originally from Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 via Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 to the USA. It is now a meat and brush-clearing type found widely in the U.S. The term "wood" (Florida), "brush" or "briar" (North Carolina, South Carolina), "hill" (Virginia), and "scrub" (midwest Pennsylvania) goat tends to be used in the Southeast and elsewhere. Until recently, these goats were kept mainly for clearing brush and other undesirable plant species from pasture lands.

History

Around the 16th century Spanish explorers brought landrace

Landrace

A landrace is a local variety of a domesticated animal or plant species which has developed largely by natural processes, by adaptation to the natural and cultural environment in which it lives. It differs from a formal breed which has been bred deliberately to conform to a particular standard...

 goats from their native lands to places like the Caribbean Islands and areas that would later become the United States and Mexico. Some landrace Spanish goats exist in its native territory of Spain but survive through the bloodlines brought to the New World.

The Spanish goats thrived in the new territory. They were a great resource to the Spanish giving sources of milk, meat, cashmere and hides. The use of goat meat

Goat meat

Goat meat is the meat of the domestic goat . It is often called chevon or mutton when the meat comes from adults, and cabrito or kid when from young animals...

 helped reserve cattle to be used for more important tasks, such as draft power. “Spanish goats were the only goats known across the southern United States and in most other parts of the Americas for over 300 years. There were many regional types and strains (both domestic and feral) shaped by natural selection and -geographic isolation. This changed with the importation of goat breeds from other countries beginning in the second half of the 1800s.”

Spanish goats are hardy and can thrive in difficult environments with rough forage. Pure Spanish goats have been used to crossbreed with imported goats breeds for cashmere and meat production. Most crossbred goats shows a “superb hybrid vigor.” However, due to this increase of crossbreeding Spanish goats are threatened and is on the American Livestock Breed Conservancy watch list.

Characteristics

The Spanish goat has the ability to breed out of season and is an excellent range animal because of its small udder and teats. In addition, Spanish goats are very hardy, able to survive and thrive under adverse agroclimatic conditions with only limited management inputs. Within the general group of what are called "Spanish goats," there are those that are purely of Spanish origins, but the term has been used to represent an amalgam of all genotypes introduced to the area. There have been obvious infusions of dairy and Angora blood in many "Spanish" herds, but no organized attempt has ever been made to use them for milk or mohair production.

In recent years, the escalating demand for goat meat has focused research into the qualities of the Spanish goat as a meat goat. Spanish goats have shown excellent hardiness and have shown themselves to be a low-input goat compared to other meat breeds.
Several Spanish goat producers in Texas have been intensively selecting for increased meat production for the past several years. From information obtained from these producers, these "selected" Spanish goats appear to greatly outperform the ordinary Spanish goat used primarily for pasture maintenance.

Conservation status

When Boer goats were introduced into the United States in the 1990s, many producers switched from raising Spanish goats to raising Boer or Boer crosses, which greatly reduced the population of Spanish goats. In 2009, there were approximately 8,500 purebred Spanish goats nationwide. They are now held to be a conservation priority by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, and in 2007 the Spanish Goat Association was organized to help conserve this breed.

Today fieldwork has been able to identify various strains of purebred Spanish goats. This fieldwork has been helpful in describing the different bloodlines and encourages development of a formal network of breeders. The ALBC is still locating populations of the Spanish goats and trying to work to preserve those strains. Recently there was an effort to preserve a strain found on an island off the coast of South Carolina. This strain is one of two strains known to exist in the Southeast.

External links

• the Spanish Goat Association
• The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy