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When you're a herdsman in Kenya experiencing a particularly nasty drought desperate times call for, well, a fairly practical and simple measure: birth control, or as some are naming it, the goat condom.

The "condom" is actually a square piece of rawhide or plastic called an "olor" that is tied around the male goats belly and "blocks" them from mating with the female goats.

Herdsmen in the Maasai community -- where livestock is often the only means of income -- live in a region outside Nairobi that usually has erratic and unreliable rainfall that increasingly threatens their livelihood. The fear is that if the goats breed before the rainy season comes, the females will not be healthy enough to nurture their kids and there will be more goats than there are resources necessary to sustain the herd.

The olor may not be a modern measure, but it's certainly effective. Separating the males from the females is not an easy alternative and is, in fact, far more expensive since another herdsman is needed. Once the rains come and the land is rich and green, the olors will be removed and the goats will be free to live free and procreate.

All in all, it sounds quite sensible. Thank goodness the global gag rule doesn't apply to livestock.