The North Cheviot wild goat herd in Northumberland is periodically reduced in numbers due to conflict with other land management practices in the area. This historically and genetically important unit of goats is an excellent remaining example of our British Primitive Goat and has been placed on the Native Breeds at Risk (NBAR) register by DEFRA since 2010. As such they may be eligible for subsidy under agri-environment schemes. It has also been recognised as a Rare Breed by the Rare Breed Survival Trust in 2024.
Any reductions of the wild herd present an exciting opportunity to help in our attempts to conserve this ancient breed. The goats are excellent for scrub control in a variety of habitats. If you have space on any conservation grazing projects, or can help our conservation efforts by keeping a few to help boost overall population size and maintain genetic diversity, then please do get in touch.
I am delighted to report that all the goats needing to be removed in autumn 2024 have been rehomed as small breeding units elsewhere. However, we are always on the look out for additional homes to help increase numbers.
If you can help or would like further information please contact Shirley Goodyer .
email: britishprimitivegoats@gmail.com
Shirley Goodyer
British Primitive Goat Research Group
Hi my name is Julie Davies, and we keep goats, l would like to know more about the cheviot goats please, we have English Goats, and have been playing an active part, in their resurgent!
Hi Julie
Many thanks for your message. Apologies for the late reply but someone tried to hack in to the website so any admin functions were blocked for a while. I used to keep English goats also. We showed them and were active at various committee meetings for a while. Although we thought our English goats were fab we soon realised that they were a modern made up breed and we were really interested in rescuing t original old British/English landrace goat that had existed in Britain for 1000s of years before the main wave of foreign importations and the creation of our modern goat breeds. Hence we transferred our allegiance to Cheviot goats. I am about to post a bit more info on them on the website under the Herds section. In due course they will have their own website as the numbers of people breeding them increase.
I would be very happy to talk to you in more depth about the Cheviot goats, their importance and our aims to conserve them. Perhaps you could use the britishprimitivegoats@gmail.com email address and I am likely to pick up any messages much more quickly than from the website. If you want to chat over the phone I would be very happy to call you if you can send your number and suggested times that would be convenient for you.
Thanks again for your interest in these lovely goats and I hope to hear back from you soon.
Kind regards
Shirley