This volume provides a comprehensive overview of goat keeping and farming. It includes twenty-two chapters that address such topics as breeding and selection, goat reproduction, production systems, the effects of goat farming on the environment, the use of goat byproducts, the economics of goat farming, and much more.

Goat Science and Production presents comprehensive, state-of-the-art information on the science of goats and goat production for meat, dairy, and fiber. Chapters provide a fundamental understanding of the goat anatomy and physiology as well as production issues such as welfare, disease management, and feeding. Goat Science and Production is an essential introduction and reference to this increasingly important production animal.

The goat is one of the earliest domesticated species and has great significance for the world economy. This book provides a comprehensive overview of goat husbandry. It includes thirteen chapters that address such topics as breeding, genetics, reproduction, health, nutrition, and more.

Innovative in content and perspective, this introduction to "contemporary" animal science puts "all" of animal science in perspective by examining not only the traditional biological topics (e.g., major species, nutrition, digestion, feeds, genetics, reproduction, disease, and animal behavior) but by exploring the "dynamic" nature of animal science and the many ways in which it is a piece of a much larger whole of agriculture (e.g., vertical integration of industry structure) and agriculture within society (e.g., how animals fit into all of society and how animals contribute to the well being of man from a worldwide perspective). The Value of Animals to Man. Factors Affecting World Agricultural Structure. Worldwide Systems of Agricultural Production. Introduction to Nutrition. The Gastrointestinal Tract. Feedstuffs. Genetics. Animal Breeding. Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering. Reproductive Physiology. Lactation. Animal Behavior and Handling. Animal Health and Diseases. Vertical Integration. The Beef Cattle Industry. The Dairy Cattle Industry. The Poultry Industry. The Swine Industry. The Sheep and Goat Industries. The Horse. Companion Animals. The Llamoids. Rabbits. Aquaculture. Careers and Career Preparation in Animal Science. Animals As Consumers of Grain: Asset or Liability. Food Safety. Animal Welfare and Animal Rights. The Role of Animals in Sustainable Agriculture. For anyone interested in an expanded view of contemporary animal science.

Ecology and distribution; Breeding; Reproduction; Maintenance and growth; Pregnancy; Lactation of suckling ewes and does; Nutritional diseases; Infectious diseases of sheep and goats; Internal parasites of sheep and goats; External parasites of sheep and goats; Growth and characteristics of wool and hair; Wiik grading and marketing; Livestock and meat marketing and grading; Carcase and meat qualities; Milk production in sheep and goats; Systems, biological and economic efficiencies; Very extensive systems; Extensive grazing systems; Intensive grassland systems; Intensive arable systems; Very intensive systems; Government controlled systems; Migratory (Transhumance) systems; Nomadic systems; Village and smallholder systems; List of contributors.

This book covers Goat production in the Tropics.