Ninety percent of the world's goats are actually in these nations with developing economies

where people usually don't have enough food. So it's a very critical meat and milk source

in these nations. U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists with the Agricultural Research

Service say one of the problems is that in many rapidly developing and undeveloped countries

the best goat is eaten during celebrations or sold quickly to make money. Thus that opportunity

to improve the genetics is lost because the animal goes into food immediately. Sonstegard

and ARS colleagues are studying the genetics of goats in Africa to figure out which ones

to keep in the herd. And how they stack up against goats in countries, typically Europe,

where they have done a lot of advanced breeding for dairy production. ARS leadership says

research like that of Sonstegard and colleagues is important to solving global food challenges.

Productivity in agriculture is critical to feeding the world's population, which we know

is going to grow from about six point six billion today to almost nine billion by 2050.

For more information go to USDA dot gov. For the U.S. Department of Agriculture I'm Bob

Ellison.