GOAT MILK
The importance of goat rearing in providing nutritional and financial sustenance to the economically weaker sections of the society is well recognized in developing countries. Goats have the ability to thrive under diverse climatic conditions and withstand extreme vagaries of nature. They are known for their versatility in adapting to arid, humid, tropical, cold, desert and mountain conditions and in the process providing people with many important livelihood products such as meat, milk, skin, draft and pack power, cashmere, mohair and enriching manure for crops and gardens.
There are 160 popular goat breeds available worldwide which are based on the size of populations, productivity and unique characteristics. Among these, the level of milk production data collected from 46 countries are available for 89 breeds and four high yielding breeds in this list are considered as improver breeds for the developing countries. They are Alpine, Saanen, Toggenburg and Nubian. The Saanen is more popular for its extensive use in cross breeding programmes worldwide resulting in evolution of new breeds, often with new names.
Some of the available data show that the average milk yield of the breed Saanen generally exceeds 2000 kg while that for Alpine in UK and Nordic goats in Norway yield more than 1,900 kg in a single lactation. Individual best performance records show that the American Toggenburg yielded 3,023 kg, Alpine 2,916 kg, Saanen 2,695 kg, LaMancha 2,454 kg and Nubian 2,423 kg of milk.
As per the FAO statistics 1998, India possesses the largest number of goats (120.56 million), which contribute three million metric ton of milk. Adequate processing of raw milk of goat followed by value addition will result in doubling of return from goat milk apart from increased shelf life and reduced volume of the product resulting in lower transportation cost than that is obtained as of now.
However, certain peculiar characteristics of goat milk like relatively smaller size of the fat globules, lower heat stability, soft curd and the typical “goaty odour” have to be taken care of while dealing with goat milk especially in processing and marketing.
1)Composition and physico-chemical properties of goat milk
2)Constituents of goat milk
4)Medicinal properties of goat milk