The goat is an animal truly remarkable, is one of the earliest ruminant domestication people, and offers a wonderful array of products for their use. The rare fiber, cashmere and mohair, cotton royal favorite and has the reputation for goat milk is healthy milk substitute for infants. Goat meat is a dish in all parts of world, and are prized for low-fat and juicy tenderness from children using animals. Goats are also the savior of the poor in many developing economies, is easy to and food management, production of many children and survive under the most difficult environmental conditions | New Technologies for Improving Goat Production in Vietnam Barry W. Norton Nguyen Thi Mui and Dinh Van Binh A Final Report of the activities of the Vietnam-Australia Goat Improvement Project 2006-2009 CARD Project 009 05VIE between Goat and Rabbit Research Centre Vietnam and The University of Queensland Australia March 2009 Foreword The goat is a truly remarkable animal being one of the earliest ruminants domesticated by humans and providing an amazing array of products for their use. The rare fibres cashmere and mohair are the preferred cloth of royalty and goats milk has the reputation for being the healthy alternative to cows milk for infants. Goat meat is also a delicacy in all parts of the world and is prized for its low fat content and juicy tenderness when taken from young animals. Goats are also the saviour of the poor in many developing economies being easy to manage and feed producing many offspring and surviving under the most difficult environmental conditions. Despite these stirling qualities goats are not ranked highly by all and many farmers measure wealth by the number of cattle they have and will trade their goats to gain this status. The Vietnamese government like many other bureaucracies has only lately come to realize the value of goats in their economy and since 1993 have been activitely promoting goats as a way to alleviate poverty in their rural populations. It has been my great pleasure to be associated with one of these schemes and to have met so many Vietnamese scientists extension workers and farmers who are as enthusiastic as I am about the potential of these animals to make a real difference in people s lives. We have shared the joy of learning new knowledge about the goats in Vietnam and I am hoping that this small start is the beginning of a longer term relationship that will develop between farmers and research workers interested in promoting goats in Vietnam. The following study provides many insights into the biology and adaptive .
