What about goats?

[Anonymous Poster]

The new craze being promoted here is Boer goats. Dept. of Ag. saying more than a million pounds of goat meat is imported to the US each year. Local paper ran a story saying goat meat at auction was getting $1.45 a pound. Sound too good to be true?

 

[DavidInNH]

I just read an article (somewhere?) that said a lot of the recent immigrants favor goat meat. The article used a case study of a small farm that worked a deal with a local mosque. By respecting the religous strictures relating to the slaughter of the goats, they developed a nice niche market (and both parties learned a lot about each other's culture).

Another use for goats and llamas: They are both being used for pack animals for hikers. They are both regarded as being less destructive/intrusive to the trails than horses. One of my brothers has recently started raising goats for this purpose. Its too early to tell how successful this is going to be. It looks like it takes a lot of effort to train them. He and his wife live to spend time in the mountains, so I think this may just be another reason to spend even more time there.

-david

 

[stmiller2]

The url below provides an estimated budget for a meat goat enterprise. My understanding is that the "preferred" type of goat meat differs across ethnic groups.


http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AgEcon/publications/ext2000-11.pdf

 

[manganos]

I raise boers..... You get the most money for them when they are around 6 months old. Yes there is a lot of money to be made. Seems like the hispanic population loves them

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Seems like the hispanic population loves them</font color=blue>

Some of us gringos kinda like'em barbecued, too./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif I had a few mixed breed goats here for awhile, but I had them in too small a pen and fed them too well, so I lost a little money./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif The Boer goats are everywhere in this part of the country now, though, but I don't know how well the owners do financially. I've heard that there's a lot more money made with goats than with cattle.

I've also read (don't know about the reliability of the source) that there's more goat meat eaten world wide than any other meat. One theory for the reason is that many parts of the world don't have adequate refrigeration to keep the meat from an animal as large as a cow, but they can butcher a goat and use all of it before it spoils.

For whatever reasons, though, having eaten goat meat a few times, I'd just as soon have that as beef myself.

 

[ChuckinVA]

Chris,
Are you selling to individuals or through a livestock market ? How do you keep your kids from getting too atttached ?

 

[manganos]

I sell some to individuals by word of mouth but those are mostly just mixed boer/nubian goats. Most of the goats go to the Blackstone Market up RT 460 for auction. Blackstone Market auctions livestock on every Wendsday. Believe it or not I'm down to one pet goat, one female for breeding and one buck. The kids don't get attatched to the goats because they are only 3 years old and 8 months old

 

[tugokc]

I have been looking at goats too, and I am leaning toward the myotonic goats. Those are the ones that freeze up when frightened. Said to have more meat per pound due to the constant muscle stiffening. Besides that, what fun to sneak up behind a goat, scare it and watch it fall over. PETA can't get on you for that cause thats what they do naturally.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I've got a Tennessee Fainter and it is funny in a sick kind of way his reaction to surprises.

I have the goats cause they like the poison ivy.

They're also neat company, not as much fun or entertaining as chickens, but they do eat the poison ivy. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[tugokc]

amen on the poison ivy. Does anyone know if the pygmy goats work on the poison ivy as well as the boers or fainters?