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Growing Goat Markets
by: Robin Roenker
Goat
farmers in Kentucky find demand for goat meat is
outpacing production, aided by a unique grading system
attracting buyers nationwide
Not so long ago, admitting you were a goat
farmer in livestock producer circles, if you did
admit it at all, meant enduring a lot of stifled
laughter—if not outright teasing.
“Used to be, everyone thought goats weren’t
worth anything. Maybe $20, $30 a head was what
you could get for them,” says Bobby Watts, who
with his wife, Michelle McAfee, manages Watts
Farm in Harrodsburg.
That was then. Folks aren’t laughing so much
anymore.
In less than 10 years, goats have gone from the
sidelines to the mainstream in Kentucky—in a
very big way. According to the Kentucky
Department of Agriculture, as of January 1,
2005, Kentucky’s goat population ranked sixth in
the nation at 70,000 head, a fourfold leap from
the state’s estimated 1997 goat herd of just
over 16,000. It’s estimated that between 4,000
and 5,000 Kentucky farms now include goats.
Many of them raise full-blood or crosses of the
Boer meat goat breed. First introduced to the
United States from South Africa in the early
1990s, the Boer is broader and more muscular
than your grandfather’s billy goat. It’s bred to
be a high-quality meat producer, and the prices
show.
These days, Kentucky goat farmers are fetching
anywhere from $1.15 to $1.70 per pound for their
60-80 pound animals. That’s no small return,
considering it takes only 3-1/2 to 5 months for
a goat kid to reach marketable size.
But perhaps best news of all: meat goat
producers in the state don’t have to bother with
marketing slogans or advertising to sell their
animals. “Every goat that’s born in Kentucky has
a market waiting for it,” says Ray Bowman of
Frankfort, past president of the Kentucky Goat
Producers Association.
“We’re in such a unique and enviable position.
The industry grew out of a demand for the meat,”
Bowman says. “Our biggest issue right now as far
as marketing is finding enough goats to meet the
demand. When you’re in a position like that,
you’re in the driver’s seat.”
Leader in Goat Production
According to The Economist, consumption
of goat meat in America rose by 64 percent
between 1999 and 2003, with predictions of a 10
percent growth each year thereafter. The growth
in demand stems from an influx of immigrants
into the United States within the last
decade—primarily Hispanics, but also Muslims,
Middle Easterners, and others—for whom goat meat
is a dietary staple.
While many Americans may never have had a chance
to try goat meat, 80 percent of the world eats
it regularly, Bowman says. Those who’ve tasted
it, like Pattie Barrett, a goat producer in
Scottsville, say “it’s excellent”—in every
shape, from jerky to barbecue. And with low
cholesterol and little saturated fat, “Goat is
one of the healthiest meats,” says Marion County
Extension agent Ed Lanham, who advises the
Central Kentucky Meat Goat Association.
The new market for goat meat is so large that
the United States could double its current
production and still not meet demand, Bowman
says. Much of the goat meat consumed in America
currently must be imported in frozen form from
New Zealand and Australia.
The goal, of course, is to raise U.S. goat meat
production numbers to a point that importing is
no longer necessary. Helping lead the way are
Kentucky’s goat producers.
While the official KDA estimate places
Kentucky’s goat herd in the sixth spot
nationally, Bowman believes the state’s herd may
have been undercounted, and that Kentucky may
actually have between 100,000 and 125,000
goats—perhaps the second or third largest herd
in the U.S., following Texas.
“Generally, when people are talking goats,
they’re talking Texas, or they’re talking
Kentucky,” Bowman says.
What no one denies, though, is Kentucky’s
pre-eminence in the success of marketing its
goats to a national arena.
As early as 2001, just when the goat industry
was really catching on, the Kentucky Department
of Agriculture organized a system unique to
Kentucky to help make goat sales more efficient.
At each of the KDA’s monthly goat sales, held at
several locations across the state, goats are
grouped into lots by grade—either 1, 2, or 3,
with 1 being the highest quality—and by weight.
The graded system allows buyers a quick means of
purchasing large groups of goats that are
similar in size and quality, says Tess Caudill,
the KDA marketing specialist who helped devise
it. It’s a sort of “one-stop shopping” that has
helped attract buyers from Chicago, Detroit, New
York, and other urban centers with large ethnic
populations demanding goat meat.
Also unique to Kentucky are the monthly KDA-sponsored
“tel-o-auctions,” which allow far-flung buyers
to bid on the state’s available goats via
phoned-in conference calls. Other states contact
Caudill routinely, asking for insight into
modeling their goat sales on the success that
Kentucky has seen.
“A lot of states would love to have the markets
and the market infrastructure that we have,”
Caudill says. “I think our quality is as good as
anybody’s in the country, if not better. I think
we are a leader. And we are going to work to
continue to be a leader in goat production.”
A Piece of the Puzzle
David Travis was a tobacco and cattle farmer
until four years ago, when he thought he’d try
his hand at goats.
“I decided tobacco is going out in Kentucky, and
I thought I’d diversify with goats,” says
Travis, whose Taylorsville farm is now home to
about 80 goats, alongside his herd of 50 beef
cattle.
Travis is just one of thousands of producers
across the state who have found goats to be an
ideal choice as they transition away from
tobacco production and look for other means of
income.
For one thing, because goats don’t need a lot of
room—you can easily put four to six to an
acre—they can do well on even the smallest
farms. For another, as Travis attests, goats
coexist well with cattle since their grazing
habits do not largely overlap.
“Goats are good to run with cattle. The cows
will eat the good clover, while the goats are
more of a browser. They like to eat wild rose
bushes and scrub bushes,” Travis says.
Others are drawn to goats for their ease of
handling and their affectionate, docile
personalities—a trait that makes them a good fit
for farmers in their later years, as well as for
younger children who may be looking for an
animal to show.
“Goats don’t run over you and trample you like
cattle do,” Travis explains. Travis’ own
grandchildren have begun showing goats at local
fairs, and his wife, Sue Carolyn, has made pets
of six or seven of the herd. “They’re just about
like a dog. If you fool with them, they’ll come
up to you and chew on your shirttail,” he says.
Charles Smith, a former dairyman from Glasgow,
was looking for something manageable to do with
his farm. Goats seemed to be the answer. With a
“minimum amount of labor,” he was able to
remodel and scale down his dairy barns himself,
putting in partitions and lowering the feeding
troughs, to make an ideal home for his herd of
about 380 goats.
Another incentive helping give the goat industry
a boost across the state is the availability of
start-up funds through the Goat Diversification
Model Program sponsored by the Governor’s Office
of Agricultural Policy. The program helped
provide some matching funds to offset Travis’
investment in breeding stock, for example, to
get his herd started.
Still, while some have seen goats as a
get-rich-quick scheme, they’re not, cautions
Lanham. “They can be profitable, but they’re a
lot of work,” he says. Bowman agrees, noting
that while goats are not the total solution in
the quest to replace tobacco, “They are a very
critical piece of the puzzle. Diversification is
going to be the key to replacing tobacco,”
Bowman says, “and goats can be a very
significant part of that diversification.”
A LOT OF WORK BUT WORTH IT
With more than 1,000 goats, Michelle McAfee and
her husband, Bobby Watts, run one of Kentucky’s
largest goat herds on the farm they manage in
Harrodsburg. Their farm has been used by
Kentucky State University and the University of
Kentucky as a satellite educational facility.
Since the couple began raising goats 10 years
ago, they’ve learned that the animals take
“quite a lot of work.”
“They’re not cattle. They’re not sheep. They’re
not horses. They’re not pigs. They are goats,
and they are different in their own way,” says
McAfee. “They don’t like to be wet. They don’t
like to get muddy. They don’t like dirty feed.
They are very susceptible to parasites.”
Groups like the Kentucky Goat Producers
Association and county and regional goat
producers associations throughout the state (go
to
www.kentuckygpa.com’s Goat Associations for
a listing) routinely offer workshops,
newsletters, and educational field days to
promote tips on positive goat management for
those who may be considering getting into the
industry.
For starters, here are a few bits of advice:
• Be sure to have secure perimeter fencing,
whether electric or woven wire. “If the goats
can get their heads through, they’ll figure out
a way to get the rest of their bodies through,”
says McAfee. Also, beware of threats from
coyotes and neighborhood dogs. —Bobby Watts and
Michelle McAfee
• Watch out for two major problems affecting
goats: foot problems and parasites. To keep foot
problems at bay, trim the goats’ feet regularly,
use medicated foot baths, and provide a rocky
area for them to climb and play on. To keep
parasites in check, don’t allow goats to graze
below eye level. Doing so encourages the intake
of parasites found on grasses close to the
ground. Practice rotational grazing so their
browse is never shorter than 6 inches. Also, be
vigilant about performing “strategic deworming.”
Deworm only when necessary, or parasites may
become resistant to medication. —Ray Bowman
• When buying breeding stock, try to purchase
Kentucky goats. This way, you’ll know you’re
getting goats that are predisposed to do well in
Kentucky’s climate. —Ray Bowman
• Goats absolutely hate being out in the rain.
Provide a shelter, so they can avoid both the
rain and the cold weather in the winter, and for
birthing. Also, they’re very picky about their
water, so be sure to provide clean water. And
they like feed troughs that are high off the
ground and free of manure. —Ed Lanham
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