7 Goat Pastures of the Ramsbeck Miners

In earlier times, goats were an important basis for feeding the miners‘ families in Ramsbeck. With the low income at that time, these „miners‘ cows“ were valuable suppliers of milk, butter and cheese. The goat breeding association founded in the village on 30 June 1900 had at times over 90 members, in whose stables a total of up to 150 goats were kept. The fathers of the association probably wanted to help each other in breeding and keeping the animals.

Suitable meadows on the mountain slopes on both sides of the village were bought for herding and grazing the goats. In the morning the goats were herded on the „Ebendelle“, in the afternoon on the opposite pasture on the Bastenberg. The annual grazing fee was 1 mark for a goat and 50 pfennigs for a lamb. Two of the association’s own billy goats, which had their quarters outside the village because of the penetrating odour, took care of the offspring. In the beginning, the goatherds came from the city and hired themselves out with their shepherd dog for a summer. They were invited in turn by the members of the association for lunch. The highlight of the Goat Breeders‘ Association was the annual „Hittenfest“ in June on the Ebendelle, which was almost as popular as the Schützenfest. The original speeches by master tailor Josef Kaiser were famous. As long-time chairman and founding member, he always knew how to draw a bow from the heavenly Milky Way to the milk-giving goat.

Today there are no more goats in Ramsbeck, but the last members of the goat breeding association still manage 54 acres of land and the existing cash balance as guardians of a long tradition.