Some people take animals very seriously. Whether it is pedigree shows for dogs and cats in the West, or competitions among camel and horse breeders in the Middle East, animals are something that people appreciate.
Arab News reports on the latest trends in goats and goat breeding in Saudi Arabia…
Men who stare at goats — Saudi style
Omaima Al-Fardan | Arab NewsJEDDAH: Aaid ibn Al-Zarif ibn Al-Ziraif ibn Akif is not just a man’s name. Aaid is a male goat with a blood relationship to Al-Wardi, a prized male Damascene goat, a particular breed with a distinctive face.
It is not a joke as this blood relation is what concerns goat buyers and owners in the Kingdom. Those interested in goats will always emphasize the family trees of their goats in order to guarantee their pure breeding and their belonging to a well-known goat family.
“It is not only Aaid who is well-respected,” said Abdullah Al-Hajri, an organizer of goat auctions in the Eastern Province, adding that another sought-after male goat is Jarad Abu Jarad Abu Sami.
Al-Hajri and other goat dealers, especially those of the Damascene goats, want to protect the pedigree of this goat today. The Damascene goats were brought to the Kingdom from Syria by collectors some 40 years ago and since then have become a prized breed.
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November:17:2009 - 09:07
I see your goats and raise you the Canadian Super Dairy Cow! Missy the Holstein:
Canada’s cash cow: Meet the $1.2-million Holstein that will boost a struggling industry
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadas-cash-cow-meet-the-12-million-holstein-that-will-boost-a-struggling-industry/article1365996/
$1.2 million
Moo money
50 kg
The amount of milk Missy produces per day, 50 per cent more than the average cow
6
Number of cows, since 1980, sold for more than $1-million in North America. The most expensive? A $1.45-million cow purchased in 1985 from a Port Perry, Ont., farm
$2.5-million
Amount written up in contracts for Missy’s embryos at the time of her sale
$15,065
Average cost of a cow at last week’s sale
November:17:2009 - 09:07
I don’t see what’s so funny about this? (Sparky!)
I can recite the pedigrees of Rabhar ibn Amal ibn Abdullah ibn Patron, and Al Tarq ibn Karnaval ibn Naftalin ibn Topol by heart?
What’s so funny about that? (Sparky!)
And I spend a lot of time looking at my horse in admiration! What’s so funny about that? (Sparky!!!)
November:17:2009 - 09:07
I see your goats and raise you the Canadian Super Dairy Cow!
That’s the spirit! What’s so funny? I like goat cheese, and I don’t see why we can’t easily get goat meat in the U.S. Why shouldn’t goat breeding be treated as seriously as we treat cow breeding? Why does Arab News suggest it’s a joke?
Or are these goat breeders more comparable to the English and their obsession with breeding dogs and pigeons? (Incredibly, the obsession of the English for dog breeding goes back to at least Roman times, when English dogs were exported to the Continent!)
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Well I will let you know. When a person feels more admoration for their goat than for other members of society. I am jealous of the goats.
HECK! Saudi females aren’t even on the family trees. Yep that is right.
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Solomon, you’re in the DC area, I believe. You can get goat meat, but you might have to look for it. Find an area that has a population of either Caribbean or Ethiopian immigrants and find their markets. I know, for sure, of a huge multi-ethnic market in eastern Silver Spring, on New Hampshire Ave., as I recall, that has foods even I wouldn’t imagine. Goat is a trifle there.
I’m pretty sure Romans were breeding pigeons, too! And pigeons were one of the things that got Darwin going on that ‘variation of the species’ thing…
November:17:2009 - 09:07
I have seen goat meat at some of the Mediterranean or Middle Eastern Markets. In addition where I was raised in Northwest Pennsylvania goat milk, goat milk fudge and goat meat were popular.
I don’t see a big difference at all with Saudi Arabia and goats and camels as compared to the US (and other places) with cows and yes, even pig contests too.
November:17:2009 - 09:07
John, you are correct about being able to get regular goat meat here (though one of the Caribbean stores burnt down in Silver Spring five years ago) but I still can’t get kosher goat meat. (I want to try making goat curry, my Jamaican friend tells me I can’t really use beef…)
Saudi females aren’t even on the family trees.
I do remember reading in a biography of ibn Saud that nobody seems to have bothered counting his daughters.
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Ah, yes… I forgot about the Kosher detail!
The answer, clearly, is to set up your own Kosher slaughterhouse, focusing on caprids!
November:17:2009 - 09:07
I agree. I think it’s just the oddity of it all for some of the writers/sub-editors.
There are a lot of 4H-ers who wouldn’t be in the least fazed by a contest like this.
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Sparky, of course women don’t count. Or get counted. But that can go both ways.
I’ve had a slight problem with my dreamrabbit who made the huge mistake of asking me what was more important, spending time with him or with my horse…
Hmmm who is more important… man, or horse…
Some questions should never be asked…
John, what’s a 4H-er?
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Aafke: It’s a social organization, largely rural, that tries to instill traditional values in young people. The name stands for Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. It started out as a way to introduce contemporary agricultural practices to farmers and ranchers, but over the past 50 years has developed both an urban and international fellowship. Its mandates are Science, Engineering, and Technology; Healthy Living; and Citizenship. It started out a a cooperative effort of the US Dept. of Agriculture and the Land Grant Universities across the US.
Among other things, they’re noted for getting young people involved in farming and animal husbandry. You’ll almost always find them exhibiting crops and livestock at the myriad county fairs across the country.
November:17:2009 - 09:07
So are they really cool? Or really creepy? Could go both ways…
We’ve got cow-beauty-pageants here, and special ”cow make-up artists” You have no idea what they do to those cows!!!
November:17:2009 - 09:07
‘Cow make-up’? Now that sounds very creepy!
November:17:2009 - 09:07
They get washed, and the white parts of the coat is brightened by brushing it with baby powder, the tails are shaven up a bit and the tuft is brightened with the kind of shampoo old ladies with white hair use, then they get cut neatly, and plaited so they are prettily curled, and then fluffed up. The hair on the spine is brushed up, and then very carefully cut in a straight line to show a beautiful straight back. The hairs on the legs are shaven short and the udders are made up pink and powdered and the blue of the veins is emphasised.
Takes hours.
Photo of a Dutch champion cow in full glory:
http://www.genesdiffusion.net/data/includes/thumb.asp?kenmerk=algemeeninfo&map=upload&visual=editor20-luckyjonkvrouw.jpg
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Oh, that kind! Yes, I’m aware of that. The same goes on–with varying regulations–in livestock, cat, and dog shows in the US. I was thinking, though, that you might have meant foundation, rouge, lipstick… THAT would have been beyond creepy.
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Well, they do use foundation and rouge on the udders.
In America they overdo it with Arab horses, they always look ”Plastified” on photos.
November:17:2009 - 09:07
Solomon2–no kosher goat products in DC? I am amazed! Not enough Sephardic Jews from goat eating countries? Not enough Frenchified Askenazis? Maybe opening you own specialty import store would be easier that starting a kosher butchery for caprids–unless you hired a kosher butcher. Hmmm not bad ideas all round.