Danish Landrace Goat Breed – Everything You Need to Know

The Danish Landrace goats make excellent pets with their friendly, gentle and loving natures. They are easy to handle and really well behaved. Their coats come in many hues between white, black and grey. During the summer months, they tend to shed a lot as they develop a much longer and thicker coat for protection during the winter.

They are ideal for milk goats and have been known to produce a fair amount and high-quality meat and fiber.

Danish Landrace Goat Quick Profile Overview

The Danish Landrace goat is one of the older breeds of goats that originated in Denmark
Country of Origin:	Denmark
Other Names:	Dansk Landraceged (Danish) or Dansk Landrace
Breed Size:	Medium to large
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Main Purpose:	Milk
Can be used for	Breeding, Meat, Milk, Pets
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Temperament:	Gentle, loving, inquisitive and very friendly
Good with Kids?	They can be good around supervised children as many of these goats have horns. It is always wise to get the horns removed or disbudded when they are young if they are going to be around children
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Ideal Environment:	Small herds in a medium to large pasture with a lot of green grass and leaves
Ideal Climate:	All Climates
Conservation Status:	Not Listed by the *ALC Status Population is stable
Health Issues?	No known health issues
Good Starter Goat?	Yes their nature and easy maintainability make for an excellent starter goat
Goat Associations:	Foreningen for Danske Landracegeder
Goat Clubs:	No known breeders clubs
Note: *ALC stands for American Livestock Conservancy

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

They are a medium to large sized breed with various coat colors. They are very weather hardy goats that easily adapt to their environment. Their calm even temperaments make them a desirable farm goat.
Color(s):	White, grey, blue-grey, black, brown and a deep reddish-brown Both sexes have the same coat colors
Goat⇒	Doe	buck
Breed Weight:	127 lbs.	176 lbs.
Breed Height:	About 80 cm at withers	About 90 cm at withers
Hair:	Medium to Long silky coat	Medium to Long silky coat
Ears:	Tubular and stand erect from their head. They are usually the same color as the coat	Tubular and stand erect from their head. They are usually the same color as the coat
Horns:	They have thick medium length horns	They have thick medium length horns
Matures at age:	5 to 15 months	3 to 15 months
Puberty Age:	5 to 6 months	4 to 9 months
Breeding Age:	18 months	1 year
Breeding Traits:	1 Breeding cycle	Cover 20 to 30 does in 1 season

DOE BREEDING & MILKING INFORMATION

The Danish Landrace breed of goat only has one breeding cycle per year
Breeding Period/cycle:	Usually lasts 12 to 36 hours Ave. 21 days/18 to 24 days
Gestation Period:	Usually around 148 to 155 day but most are 150 days
Kids:	1 to 3 per kidding
Good Mothers?	Yes, they will wean their young
Lactation Period:	Usually around 250 to 284 days. Most common is 284 days
Milking From:	4 to 6 weeks after kidding
Milk Quality:	Good, They will produce around 800 liters of milk per year
Milking Level:	Normal, They are easy to milk and will stand still to be milked
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GOOD TO KNOW

A few more tidbits about the Danish Landrace Goat Breed
Where to buy them:	They are not really available to buy in America as they are mainly situated in Denmark..
Agility:	They are considered extremely agile and excellent escape artists
Interact with other animals:	They do not mind interacting or socializing with other livestock or poultry. They are very friendly and adaptive.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The studbook for this breed was opened in 1982 and named the Foreningen for Danske Landracegeder.

They do better in smaller herds than very large ones and prefer to be close to their homes. They are a very hardy breed that is mostly immune to a lot of livestock diseases which makes a really good breed of goat to have with minimal health issues.

They have a good quality of meat that is used for meat production with a good meat to bone ratio

They are not particularly used in the production of leather but as they have been used for their meat their pelts may have at some time or the other been used for various leather products

HISTORY

The Danish Landrace goat breed has been in Denmark for centuries. Goats have actually been in Denmark since around 3400 BC and this breed of Danish Landrace goat was developed from these ancient breeds.

More recently their bloodlines have been crossed with breeds such as the Harz and Saanen goat breeds.

The Danish Landrace goat breed’s number were horribly diminished during the Second World War. It was due to a group of goat’s breeders’ efforts that they were able to regenerate some of the breeds numbers when they gathered some of the few remaining goats to start a breeding program.

After this breeding program was started the following few years saw the breed being transplanted with embryos from the Boer and Angora goats for cross-breeding in an attempt to improve meat and fiber production.

There are only around 400 of the Danish Landrace goats left. In 34 herds there are only a total of 29 breeding males but there is still hope that this will increase even more over the next few years.
They are a truly remarkable breed beautiful, graceful, useful and have a great temperament that could only compliment any farmers livestock.