Boar goat $$

[whiteriverrun]

My husband and I currently own two Boer Goats. We are very interested in starting a Boer Goat farm, but we do not know if there is a large enough market for the meat in order to make a profit. We live in Corvallis OR. If anyone has any ideas/suggestion please let me know. Does anyone know of a buyer?

Thanks!

[Terre d'Esprit]

The short answer is yes, there is a market for meat in this country that producers can't meet. However, customers may not be beating down your door if they don't know about you. Plus, there are so many other factors that are involved-- what do your animals look like? What do your facilities look like? What are your selling policies? Those can determine the pace of your market.

What has helped me most is our state meat goat association. Oregon has one, and I cannot recommend enough the networking opportunities of your state organization: http://omgp.org/

They have field days, educational seminars, etc. that have helped us tremendously.

Good luck!

T

[CountryHaven]

If you're talking the 'show' purebred market it is there but you will need to do a lot of showing and advertising to get your name out there, and win big to command the larger dollar amounts you sometimes see. I'd also be careful and go at it slowly with the current economy and possible collapse of the purebred markets due to feed availability and pasture availability. While prices in the purebred market are still reasonably high they are nowhere near what they were a decade ago and the prices have been gradually going down since then. There is probably a 'stall' point where purebred prices will resemble the purebred prices in most other goat breeds, and vary with 'show win' ability and breeder rep just like in the dairy breeds. In fact prices are pretty much right about there now baring the 'grand' prices of some really big, well-known established breeders. So if you are going into it thinking you're going to get tens of thousands, or even thousands for your kids, be cautious and do some homework on the realities first. If you're thinking you'd like to build a great herd, show and build a rep, and get prices that are mirrors of the dairy show purebred world, then you might have a good chance baring the earlier mentioned environmental problems.