Cotton Patch
American breed of domestic geese
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The Cotton Patch is an American breed of domestic goose, originating in the Southern United States. It is so named because it traditionally was used to weed fields of cotton, corn, and other crops. Like most other domestic geese, it derives from the wild species Anser anser.[1] It is an auto-sexing breed – the gander and goose are immediately distinguishable because they are of different colours.[2]: 47
History
Until the 1950s, Cotton Patch geese were customarily kept on rural Southern homesteads and farms as multi-purpose poultry used for weeding, meat, eggs, down, and grease. Their grazing kept fields clear of crabgrass and other weeds, while leaving crops unharmed and reducing the amount of manual labor necessary. After the mid-twentieth century, herbicides almost entirely replaced weeding on American farms, and the Cotton Patch goose declined in concert. Considered critically endangered by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities, and the American Poultry Association, it has largely disappeared from the Southern farms where it was once common.[citation needed]
It is not among the breeds of goose recognised by th American Poultry Association.[3]: 20 The United States reports no breeds of goose to the DAD-IS database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.[4]: 128 [1]
In 2026 the conservation status of the Cotton Patch was listed by the Livestock Conservancy as 'threatened', the second of its three levels of concern.[5][6] It is included in the Ark of Taste of the international Slow Food Foundation.[7]
Characteristics
The Cotton Patch goose is particularly well-adapted to the climate of the southeastern U.S., being more heat tolerant. It is slimmer in the body than most domestic geese, and retains a relatively good flying ability into adulthood. It much more closely resemble the wild forebears of domestic geese, the greylag goose.[citation needed] It is similar in color to the Pilgrim Goose and Shetland Goose, which are also auto=sexing breeds.[2]: 46 In general, ganders are white with some dove gray feathers on the back and tail. Females are either entirely gray, or pied gray and white, also called saddleback. The bills and feet are pink rather than orange, as is seen in the Pilgrim, which it resembles. They range in weight from 8-10 pounds for geese and 9-12 pounds for ganders.[citation needed]
