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?

 

[dmccarty]

gspig,

Check out your state Agriculture Universities. They can have
a huge amount of info.

Here is an Ag website at NCSU.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/an_sci/extension/animal/meatgoat/ahgoats_index.html>http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/an_sci/extension/animal/meatgoat/ahgoats_index.html</A>

You want to know about goats? Have fun reading! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Hope this helps...
Dan

 

[tdenny]

tugokc,

I have a goat for the sole purpose of "brush-hogging". Now that I have a tractor and real brush hog the goat just can't keep pace. You asked if pygmy goats work on poison ivy. I've been told that pygmy goats are not brush eaters. Someone out here can and probably will disagree with this statement. Just what I heard.

 

[akman]

Wife just adopted our fourth "farm" animal. His name is Billy T. Kid. One year old Boer goat!

We don't plan on eating him, but our local "farm labor" seems very interested !

Tony

 

[DavidInNH]

This is my brother's idea of fun for "Durango", one of their goats. Stay tuned for the next picture.

 

[DavidInNH]

My nephew is taking a little tour with Durango.

 

[DavidH]

In order to keep my ag exempt I had to have animals on the property. I checked around and found out goats were the easiest to raise. My goats are mostly Boer. I've got one Billy and 25 nannies right now. The goats have kids once a year and about half have twins. I sell the males at a local auction at about six months and get about $50 a piece. I lost 15 goats in December to dogs and now have a guard llama to hopefully protect them. Goats are dumb, but are really easy to maintain.

 

[Bird]

Wroughton_harv, lots of folks around here have donkeys, too, but beware. I got a young donkey gelding and put in with my goats. He could see a neighbor's donkeys off in the distance and paced back and forth like a caged lion for a couple of days wanting to get to those other donkeys. I guess he just got frustrated, but he attacked one of the nannies and broke her neck and while I was trying to catch him (and my wife trying to get the goats into the barn), he picked up a kid by one hind leg and was running from me carrying the kid (finally dropped it with no injuries). If I'd had a gun with me, I'd have shot that sucker, but needless to say, he promptly went to the auction.

And the neighbor had a jack and 4 jennys for several years in with his cattle. He decided it was a waste of feed so he sold them. Then when he lost several calves to coyotes, he bought another jack and jenny. He could not break that jack from chasing and attacking cows; finally gave him away.

I've also noticed quite a number of the goat ranchers around here have Great Pyrennies (is that the way you spell it?) dogs in with their goats.

 

[DAP]

Bird, if I let the CEO read your post, I will have to sell every toy I have! These pygmies finally just moved out of the dining room to their spot in the barn. Compared to them, I'm WAY down on the pecking post!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Here's my four ZTR's (zero turn radius mowers). And they don't use gas, they make it.

Bill, Nan, Billy, and the toot is three weeks old and we call her Tennessee.