British Primitive
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
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The British primitive goat is a landrace of domestic goat native to Great Britain and Ireland, and is the original goat of the region. It is considered a rare breed, existing as several, isolated feral herds, as some captive populations in zoological parks and nature reserves, and breeding stock on some private farms operated by groups of rare-breed enthusiasts. As few as 1,200 individual British primitives may remain. The variety is also referred to as the British native goat, the old British goat, or the British landrace goat, among more specific names (English, Irish, Scottish or Scotch, and Welsh primitive or landrace goat, and old English, etc., goat). It descends from the earliest goats brought to the region in the Neolithic era, around 3,000 BCE. It is classified in the Northern breed group of goats. A population in Northumbria is sometimes referred to as the Cheviot goat. The British primitive is among the of some modern standardised breeds, including the Anglo-Nubian goat. The breed is comparatively small, with commensurately low milk production. It is hardy and wiry haired, adapted to rough terrain and weather, and able to subsist and breed on its own without human intervention.
The British primitive goat encompasses what were previously considered four interbreeding landrace varieties:
Their characteristics were similar enough to classify them together, though some sources have treated them separately, such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which considers some of these strains extinct.
The British primitive goat descends from goats introduced around 5,000 years ago, along with some sheep and cattle, to the British Isles by the first farmers in the Neolithic period, the era of Stonehenge. A small, all-weather animal, it provided these subsistence pastoralists some milk, and was invaluable for its meat, skin, hair and tallow. The ancestral goats were common to the Celtic and Germanic peoples of Northern Europe. It survived through the Bronze and Iron Ages, as it was hardy and self-sufficient in foraging in a rough, nutritionally poor environment, required little intervention from humans, and was good at evading predators. The British population of this crossed cultural lines again later, during successive settlement by the Anglo-Saxons and by the Vikings. During the Medieval period it was the herding goat of the manor, and the basis of the Cheddar cheese industry.
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