Murcia Granada Goat Breed – Everything You Need to Know

Table of Contents

1 MURCIA-GRANADA GOAT Quick Profile Overview
2 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
3 DOE BREEDING & MILKING INFORMATION
4 GOAT MEAT PRODUCTION INFORMATION
5 GOOD TO KNOW
6 GENERAL INFORMATION:
7 HISTORY
8 USEFUL LINKS

The Murcia-Granada goat breed is sleek, beautiful and calm goats. They have a very accepting nature and can withstand dry semi-arid regions. They are very strong, hardy and can keep producing milk in harsh semi-arid environments. They are also very quick to mature both physically and sexually some breed as young as 8 months old.

MURCIA-GRANADA GOAT Quick Profile Overview

Spanish beauties that originate from the semi-arid regions of southeastern Spain
Country of Origin:	Spain
Other Names:	None
Breed Size:	Medium
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Main Purpose:	Milk
Can be used for	Breeding, Meat, Milk, Pets
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Temperament:	Calm, friendly and well behaved
Good with Kids?	They are good around supervised children. Special care should be paid when they are mingling with children. Especially with the Billy goats. Wether goats are a lot better around children as they are calmer and do not want to butt heads.
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Ideal Environment:	They are adaptive to most areas as long as there is a bit of shade and some leafy greens
Ideal Climate:	All climates but prefer the hotter drier climates
Conservation Status:	Not Listed by the *ALC Common
Health Issues?	No known health issues
Good Starter Goat?	Yes, they do make a good starter good as they are low maintenance and well behaved
Goat Associations:	Spanish Associations of breeders of the Murciano-Granada Goat
Goat Clubs:	Spanish Associations of breeders of the Murciano-Granada Goat
Note: *ALC stands for American Livestock Conservancy

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The Murcia-Granada goat breed is sleek, well proportioned and alert. They have long pretty faces and long elegant necks. The legs are long and their feet are very sturdy.
Color(s):	Solid colors of black or rich mahogany The does and the bucks have the same color coats with no differences in the hues or tones
Goat⇒	Doe	buck
Breed Weight:	50 kg’s	60 kg’s
Breed Height:	70 cm at withers	76 cm at withers
Hair:	Short and thin	Medium and thicker, stronger hair
Ears:	Tubular and erect held upright from the head with the color the same as their coats	Tubular and erect held upright from the head with the color the same as their coats
Horns:	They are disbudded at 3 weeks old	They are disbudded at 3 weeks old
Matures at age:	5 to 15 months	3 to 15 months
Puberty Age:	4 to 10 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

There is no set breeding season for the Murcia-Granada goat breed, but they do have an offseason when they do not produce, and this is in the fall when the weather starts to get colder. Most of their kids are born in January!
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 2 kids per kidding but usually they will produce twins
Good Mothers?	They are excellent, calm and patient mothers
Lactation Period:	210 days
Milk Quality:	They can produce between 500 to 1000 liters of milk per year
Milking Level:	They have largely extended udders that are easy to milk
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GOAT MEAT PRODUCTION INFORMATION

They can be used for meat if required or necessary although this is not what they bred for. They are, however, good to breed with meat producing goats such as the Boer goat. This increases their dressing percentage and the meat goat’s environmental tolerance. The kids of the Murcia Granada goat tend to grow rapidly which is ideal for goat meat production.
Quality?	Good
Req. Maturity Weight:	25 to 50 kg’s
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GOOD TO KNOW

Some facts and useful things to know about the Murcia-Granada Goat Breed
Where to buy them:	They are only found in Spain and Latin America it is best to check with the Spanish Associations of breeders of the Murciano-Granada Goat for more information.
Agility:	They are incredibly agile and nimble
Interact with other animals:	They do not mind sharing their space with most livestock or animals that do not pose a threat to them or their families.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The Murcia-Granada goat is a breed well known for its hardy adaptation to any hot and or dry conditions (semi-arid). They are very strong, hardy and creative in their grazing abilities.

They are known for being able to continue to maintain and produce a high level of good quality milk in semi-arid conditions.

They have a very good feed conversion rate even though they graze on agricultural by-products of adverse, dry terrains.

Their calm, docile, obedient, easy to handle and friendly nature make them excellent pets as they do not mind human interaction and will go to their owners for attention.

They are adaptive to both intensive and extensive farming management systems.
Their milk is higher in fat and protein than most other goats milk making excellent in the production of cheeses. The Murcia cheeses and some other renowned red wine cheeses are made from the Murcia-Granada Goats milk.

Although they are hardy and well adaptive to any climate the do prefer the hotter climates. It is best to house the Murcia-Granada goat through part of the fall and most of the winter months.

They are not readily used for leather production, but they do have really good skin yields and it of good quality. It could be used for leather as with most goat breeds skin can be.

They are not readily used for fiber. The male goat’s hair could be used for fiber as it does grow to a medium length in the colder months and it is thicker and a lot stronger than the thinner, weaker hair of the does.

HISTORY

The Murcia-Granada goat has probably been in Spain since around the 16th Century when goats were first being established in Spain.
They can mainly be found in Latin America and in Murcia, Almeria, Granada and Alicante in Spain.

It is said that some of this breed may have been shipped with other Spanish breeds to America in the early 1920’s along with some other Spanish breeds of goats such as the Murciana goat.

They were known as one of the most handsome goats around due to their perfect body shape and coat colors.

The Spanish Associations of breeders for the Murcia-Granada goat set a standard that there should be not white goats allowed. Hence the breeding of goats with only solid colors of either black or the preferred deep rich mahogany that they are most commonly found in.