Raising Meat goats for profit?

[SkyWarrior]

Hey folks, this is probably a question that has been asked before, but I figured you guys are so knowledgeable , you probably could point me to the right sites, or at least give me clues where to look.

I really love our goats. I enjoy working with them and even milking them. I've been training and raising animals most of my adult life. Last night, I read something that got me thinking.

The demand for goat meat is going up. I live in a rural area with just under 10 acres, but the land is forested, rocky, and full of ground cover. I was thinking of maybe running meat goats on our land and sending them to slaughter, but I want to do this legally and correctly. What kind of regulations do I have to deal with if I run a small scale operation?

I'd appreciate any thoughts you have.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

I wanted to do the same exact thing for the same exact reason. But after months of research and talking to dozens of people in the meat goat area I determined that raising goats solely for meat will never make you any money. Where the money is is to raise high quality meat goats for sale to others and if you have percentages you sell the bucks to slaughter and and cull animals. That is what I am doing right now. I have PB and percentage does that are of higher quality and any cull goats and all percentage bucks will go to slaughter. I use about 30 acres of a friends land and in turn he gets a few meat goats a year and we here gets some. Best thing is that I don't have to take them to the sale house because I know several people that will pay more than a sale house would for goats on the hoof for meat. Sale houses do not fetch high prices and remember: If you raise a goat or slaughter then you must raise at least 8 months. That means at least 8 months of pumping that goat full of food. 8 months of care and tending to the goat. If you raise higher quality goat then you sell them right after weaning and you can sell for much higher prices. Less into them and more out of them. And you still get some meat goats. Just some food for thought from someone who spent months planning.

 

[bonbean01]

Here in Northern Mississippi there are not enough goats and lambs available for all those meat markets. There is a special goat and sheep only auction once a month about forty miles from us and bidders from Memphis, TN and Atlanta, Georgia, etc... show up to bid on the animals for their ethnic market...mainly Jewish and Muslim. They fetch a pretty decent price per live animal, although we've not sold any at auction ourselves so don't know exact prices. Highest prices here for young goats and sheep is before Easter. They breed for December/January births so that the weight and age is correct for Easter.

One thing we did learn from someone who raises and sells for this auction is to not band the bucks and rams...in some traditions they must be intact for certain holidays. That's all the information I have and may not be accurate for your location.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Hello:
Inorder for our small farm to turn a profit we need to offer the better of our kids as replacement breeding stock to other farms at a higher price than they would get for meat, then we sell a few show wethers(boer and boer cross) to 4h members for the fair and finally we sell the remainder to the stock yards for meat. We work with Beor goats, because that is what works the best for 4H and meat goat shows and sells the best in our area, If you are interested in more rugid grazers and goats that are a little easier keepers then you may wish to look into Kiko or kiko/Boer crosses. They are hardier, but are a little more on the wild side. Regardless, inorder to make money off of them you need to do your research, see what the market is in your area, and get good quality stock. But honestly there is a fine lne between investing in quality stock and just spending a bunch of money that you will never earn back.
Daily gain iof the stock you purchase is also very important, wether you choose to feed some grain to your growing kids or produce pasture only stock, daily gain is still essential. Of course you aren't going to acheive as high a daily gain from pasture animals as grain supplemented. That is okay, since you don't have as much invested in pastured animals. For us we have to grain, since many of our goats are being sold to 4H kids who will need to grain their kids to do well at the shows. We also grain to sell our kids in as quick a time frame as possible, our spring and summer pasture are wet and warm in our area and coccidiosis and other parasites are hard on the kids. So by kidding out in January and February and supplementing the kids with grain we are able to acheive the weights we need to sell the kids sooner, Most our kids will be sold by May.


Based on some research I have done, you should be acheiving .2 to .4 daily gain from kids that are not supplemented with grain and are pasture/browse only and .4 to .6 daily gain with grain supplemented kids. Ofcourse, there will be some factors that influence daily gain, such as age of the dam and number of kids nursing on the dam. A yearling dam rarely has kids that grow as quickly as a dam that is 3 or more years old.



Good luck on your decision and research.

I don't beleive there would be any regulations, unless you are referring to slaughtering the animals yourself and selling the processed meat. In that case, for our area the meat must be processed at a USDA packaging plant and then stored in appeared and inspected freezers/fridgerators. Then the meat can be sold at farmers markets or directly from your farm.

 

[GLENMAR]

I bought my LGD from Gold Strike Boers in Ohio. Check out their website. These folks are doing this for a living.

 

[skyesrocket]

I'm not sure what your state regulations are.
Your property sounds ideal for raising goats.
A friend of mine raises a lot of goats for meat and she never has a shortage of customers. What she does is buy bucklings from a goat dairy. She pays between $7-12 per kid and usually buys 8-12 at a time. She has her own nanny goats and either milks them out to bottle feed the kids or she will put 2 kids on a nanny willing to adopt them. She has experienced nannies that will come into the nursery area of the barn and pick out their own. lol
She gets them off of bottles and onto a goat bar as soon as possible. She uses buckets with multiple nipples on them. Once they are weaned she puts them out to graze and grow. She does give the kids feed in addition to the grazing until they are gaining good.
If the dairy owner doesn't need replacement doelings he will breed a Boer or Kiko buck to his nannies. That way they reach butchering weight faster. It is a lot of work until the kids are weaned. But after that it is just a matter of letting them graze and browse until butchering.
Check around for any goat dairys in your area that are willing to sell you culls. My friend gets a lot of Saanans from the dairy.
The dairy kids do need more time to grow and never get as heavy as a meat goat would. But your start up cost would be less.