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Pygmy Goats Angling to Take Dog’s Place as ‘Man’s Best Friend’ | HowStuffWorks

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Pygmy Goats Angling to Take Dog’s Place as ‘Man’s Best Friend’ | HowStuffWorks

Pygmy goats left Africa for the West around the mid-20th century, making a new home at Swedish zoos. From Sweden, they spread to England and Canada, according to the Oklahoma State University Department of Animal Sciences. By 1959, the first pygmy goats arrived in the United States at the behest of the Rhue family in California and the Catskill Game Farm in New York. They have since been typically used at zoos, for medical research and as pets. Of course, now they can also be found helping adventurous yogis with their asanas.

I had no idea that the Catskill Game Farm was the original source of Pygmy goats in America. 

Breeds of Livestock – Charolais Cattle — Breeds of Livestock, Department of Animal Science

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Breeds of Livestock – Charolais Cattle — Breeds of Livestock, Department of Animal Science

The Charolais originated in west-central to southeastern France, in the old French provinces of Charolles and neighboring Nievre. The exact origins of the Charolais are lost to us but it must have been developed from cattle found in the area. Legend has it that white cattle were first noticed in the region as early as 878 A.D., and by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were well and favorably known in French markets, especially at Lyon and Villefranche. Selection developed a white breed of cattle which, like other cattle of continental Europe, were used for draft, milk and meat.

The cattle were generally confined to the area in which they originated until the French Revolution. But, in 1773, Claude Mathieu, a farmer and cattle producers from the Charolles region, moved to the Nievre province, taking his herd of white cattle with him. The breed flourished there, so much so that the improved cattle were known more widely as Nivemais cattle for a time than by their original name of Charolais.

Characteristics, Origin, Uses & Full Breed Information

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Oberhasli Goat: Characteristics, Origin, Uses & Full Breed Information

The Oberhasli goat is domestic breed of goat developed in the mountains of Switzerland. It is also known as Oberhasli Brienzer or Swiss Alpine and mainly used for milk production.

Oberhasli goat derives from the sub-type of Chamois Colored goat from the Oberhasli district of the Bernese Oberland in central Switzerland. Oberhasli goats were first imported to the United States in the early 1900s. But those goats were not bred pure and the bloodlines were lost.

NPR

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$15 Minimum Wage Would Reduce Poverty But Cost Jobs, CBO Says : NPR

Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would increase wages for at least 17 million people, but also put 1.4 million Americans out of work, according to a study by the Congressional Budget Office released on Monday.

A phase-in of a $15 minimum wage would also lift some 900,000 out of poverty, according to the nonpartisan CBO. This higher federal minimum could raise wages for an additional 10 million workers who would otherwise make sightly above that wage rate, the study found.

Potential job losses were estimated to affect 0.9 percent of workers, the CBO wrote, adding: "Young, less educated people would account for a disproportionate share of those reductions in employment."