Watching the goats on the Watchlist

Rare Breeds Survival Trust Conservation Adviser Andrea Parry Jones looks at how we can help our native breed goat

For centuries, the UK's adaptable and hardy goats were a constant feature of the thousands of smallholdings and farms across the nation. Thanks to these animals' abilities to thrive in our environment, they provided households with milk and meat with impressive efficiency and little demand on their owners.

Today, the RBST Watchlist recognises four goat breeds as native to the UK and all of them are categorised as rare: the English Goat, the Old English Goat as 'priority breeds' and the Bagot Goat and the Golden Guernsey Goat as 'at risk'.

The English Goat breed completed the requirements for recognition on the RBST Watchlist as a rare native breed in 2020, joining the Bagot and Golden Guernsey breeds which were already on the Watchlist. The Old English Goat breed was recognised the following year, on the Watchlist published in 2021.

This high-profile recognition of these two breeds as native to the UK, and as Priority rare breeds, has helped generate renewed interest from a range of new keepers, enthusiasts and organisations.

English goats and Golden Guernsey goats have become popular as 'house goats' for smallholders, with some larger farms also starting to add these goats to their dairy herds or to help provide milk to help feed cade lambs. The Old English is also gaining popularity due to its tag line 'the original smallholder goat'.

The Old English, English and Bagot breeds are also being put to excellent use by an increasing number of landowners and managers in conservation grazing across holdings and habitats of all shapes and sizes. Find out more about keeping goats at www.rbst.org.uk/goats

OLD ENGLISH GOAT

The Old English Goat breed is known as the 'original smallholder goat'. In the 18th and 19th Centuries it was common for smallholders and small farms in England to have a few goats of this type to supply economic meat and dairy.