Spanish Goat Breed – Everything You Need to Know

The Spanish goat is a beautiful goat breed that has a lot of purposes. They used to be readily used for the fine lean full-flavoured meat, their milk production as a goat lawn mower.

Today and with their dwindling breed numbers they are more used for their foliage control abilities and their milk production. Although some goat farmers in the USA are cross-breeding Spanish goats with other breeds to increase the meat and milk production

Spanish Goat Quick Profile Overview

These Spanish beauties are great at keeping bramble bush under control
Country of Origin:	Spain
Other Names:	Scrub or brush goat
Breed Size:	Medium to large
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Main Purpose:	Meat and milk
Can be used for	Breeding ,Meat, Milk
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Temperament:	Active, agile and well mannered
Good with Kids?	They are quite a large breed of goat and as such are not suited around children
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Ideal Environment:	Many different environments as they are very adaptive although they prefer wooded or bush-covered areas.
Ideal Climate:	All climates
Conservation Status:	Listed by the *ALC Status/ Rarity: Watchlist of the ALC
Health Issues?	No known health issues
Good Starter Goat?	They are more for the established goat farmers
Goat Associations:	Spanish Goat Association
Goat Clubs:	No known breeders’ clubs please check with the various breeds Associations.
Note: *ALC stands for American Livestock Conservancy

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

These beautiful goats are very agile and can nimbly weave their compact muscular bodies through the most intricate bramble bush thorns. They have quite long legs and a long body.
Color(s):	They have many color variations basically any color that most goats appear in There are no coat color variances between the male and female Spanish goat
Goat⇒	Doe	buck
Breed Weight:	90 kg	90 kg
Breed Height:	80 cm at withers	90 cm at withers
Hair:	Short with the hair a bit longer on their underbellies	Short with the hair a bit longer on their underbellies
Ears:	Long but stiff and held down beside their head. They tend to be a lighter shade than the coat color	Long but stiff and held down beside their head. They tend to be a lighter shade than the coat color
Horns:	Thick and medium in length	Thick and medium in length
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

They are bred once a year and usually have a breeding regiment that is followed each breeding season.
Breeding Period/cycle:	Usually lasts 12 to 36 hours Ave. 21 days/18 to 24 days
Gestation Period:	Usually around 5 months
Kids:	1 to 4 kids per litter
Good Mothers?	They do make good mothers and will look after their kids until they are weaned.
Lactation Period:	Usually around 250 to 284 days. Most common is 284 days
Milk Quality:	They produce more than enough milk for production and to feed their kids
Milking Level:	Their udders are quite small, so it does take a bit of work
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GOOD TO KNOW

More information that could come in handy to know about the Spanish goat
Where to buy them:	Please check with the Spanish Goat Association or you can try Neely Sawyers Spanish Goats Ranch
Agility:	They are very nimble and agile able to swiftly navigate their way in and out of bramble bushes
Interact with other animals:	They are quite shy around other animals and tend to keep more to their own species preferable other Spanish Goats

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The Spanish goat makes an excellent range goat due to its small udders and teats. They can also be bred out of season, are extremely hardy and can survive under the most adverse agroclimatic conditions with hardly any management input.

There has been a great interest in the Spanish goat for its meat production. There are quite a few Spanish goat producers in Texas that are selectively breeding the Spanish goat for improved meat quality producing abilities.

They are not used for leather production although as a meat goat selected pelts are more than likely to be used in some leather manufacturing.

They are not fiber producing goats and their coats are not really that good for the production of fiber quality needed for fiber producing goats.

They are not normally used for meat production anymore. The Boer goat overtook their popularity as a meat goat in the 1980’s. The slowed down the production and need for the Sarda goat whose numbers then quickly began to decline.

HISTORY

Spanish explores brought Landrace breed of goats from their homelands to Caribian and islands and a place that would later become Mexico and another the United States of America. This was in the 16th century and these goats mixed with the bloodline of other goats in the New World.

These goats are really hardy goats and can survive as well as thrive in the most difficult of environments.

Through the years Spanish goats have been bred with goats that were imported mainly for either their milk, cashmere and meat production. These goats have a hybrid-vigor that the purebred Spanish goat could not compete with. As a result, the Spanish goat’s numbers have sadly declined to have them listed on the American Livestock Conservancy’s endangered species list