Friday animals for profit blogging:

Raising Milk Goats Is Profitable New Hobby

AT SYRACUSE, N.Y., a few weeks ago, men and women from all over the United States gathered in solemn conclave to discuss the joys and problems of one of the fastest-growing and strangest business-hobbies in the country— the raising of blue-blooded milk goats. It was the third annual meeting of the American Goat Society, the youngest of three American organizations devoted to goat culture and the registration of goat pedigrees.

Started thirty-odd years ago by a group of goat fanciers who imported a few pure-bred animals from Europe, pedigreed-goat raising now enrolls thousands of fans—including movie stars, farmers, business executives, and housewives. Known officially by the fancy name of capriculture, the hobby already supports three magazines devoted to goat news, three registration societies, and at least a dozen breeders’ organizations. Strange as it may seem to most Americans, who know only the smelly, comical-looking, tin-can-gnawing type of American goat, well-bred European and African milk goats are beautiful, intelligent, and affectionate creatures that remind one strongly of deer. They are scrupulously clean in their eating habits, and make excellent pets. Pure-blooded mature females, or does, bring from seventy-five dollars to $150 each, while a prize winner has brought as much as $2,000. Pedigreed bucks bring even higher prices. Bucks do smell a bit rank, even the well-bred ones, and for that reason must be kept by themselves in their own private barns or stables, but does are entirely odorless.