GOats and cash

I think that you need to do goats on a large scale say 75-100 goats for meat and maybe 50 for a small dairy in order to be near profitable.

I think most people here have goats as a good homestead animal for milk,meat, and just the pleasure of their company.

Most markets are centered around Arab holidays. There are markets but it takes many small holders together to satisfy 10-15000 goats per month. I was given a price of $25-30 for a 4 month old goat minus $7 per head for trucking. I can sell a grade Nubian buck for $100 at 6 months. And at $25 I'd rather eat my own goat!

They are great animals for children if you get well socialized (bottle fed preferably) goats.

 

Firstly it helps to have 75 -100 goats to sell for meat purposes. Secondly there is a moslem market, a hispanic market & a jewish market. Halal & Kosher are practically identical. Samoalians & arabians are moslem. At least the samolians over by Barron are. Up here we have pockets of mexicans & samoalians. 3 hrs from here in the twin cities there is a halal processing plant. There is a plant up by Eau Claire that closes down for one week at a time to process goats & sheep. Now I know a well known meat goat breeder in S.Illinois who sells meat type 20+ kids to a hispanic professor in Chicago who then finishes feeding them out to what his hispanic market likes. Now as for dairy goats you don't need a gob of them but, if you want to break even or expand.....buy good bloodlines/showstock to begin with.

 

You didn't say where you live. I am in north central Montana where there are millions of cows and very few goats (or Hispanics, or Jews, or Moslems) and there is no market for goat meat. I sell the kids at a few days old for people to raise for weed eaters, rodeo goats, pets etc. I would lose money big time if I kept them til they were what is market size in areas where people eat them. You need to check out the demand for goat meat in your area. If you are in an isolated area with no ethnic population that eats goats you will not make money by raising them. If you can get baby calves or lambs you can do pretty well raising them on the goats milk.

 

We have a buyer that comes around in late November and again in mid December buying for the large ethnic market in Minn. He takes any "healthy" wither/buck, 35 pounds or better, at $1 a pound up to $65 per head.

Another source is 4-H kids. All they require is withering and dis-budding and will take them as soon as weined for $30 to 50 each for market or dairy does starting at $100 each up to infinity.

The biggest issue with 4-H is they don't want crappy colors and sloppy lines. While they aren't looking for high end purebreds they do want somethign good enough to win in the ring so your buck/does need to be pretty showey.

 

There is a growing Africian and Arab population in Cincinnati, try calling some of their resturants. Also there are several Mosques in town, post an ad for sale. Hope this helps.
Rog

 

You may not realize but KY is the third largest producer of meat goats. There is a large market for meat goats. 80% of the world's population eats goat. There are no processing plants in KY but you can certainly sell your goats to farmers in KY which in turn take them to PA or N.J. (or other places) Goat prices are at an all time high ($1.42 on the hoof). But of course that is at the processing plant. You can generally expect to sell to someone else for $1.00 a pound. Most people like the goat to be around 50-65# but there are times of the year (certain religious holidays) that they like the goat even bigger.

Certainly you can sell at the sale barn (try the one near Brookville, IN) I heard that goats were going for 250.00. last couple of weeks.

If you go about the goat industry with the idea that the goats will pay for themselves and put some cash in your pocket you won't be dissappointed.

Good Luck

 

I keep just a few dairy goats for milk and just because I enjoy them.
For me, it works out best to sell them cheap as bottle babies, and let someone else buy the milk.
I advertise in the local Thrifty Nickel, and I can't recall ever having to buy more than one ad.

 

There are as many things to do with goats as there are folks who raise them. Reading the boards gives you many ideas. Selling them for profit, comes from you. Your reputation for having clean animals, tame animals, animals that are doing whatever it is folks want to do with them afterwards.

I raise purebred Nubians. But I also sell clean stock. I raise my kids on prevention, I show, and I give excellent afterecare (even to those who don't buy goats from me . Profittable is simply not why you want to get into goats originally. Yes you can make money at your farm in the long run, but it takes a good deal of time to get there. The idea that someone who knows nothing about goats is going to get into meat or milk goats without major help from a breeder helping them, is not going to happen. You will end up with culls and disease. There are people out there that prey on the newbie.

I sell bucklings at birth, I sell weaned doelings, I sell milkers in milk that know the milking routine, I outside breed, I sell milk and colostrum. I make and sell, cheese, soap, and lotion from the milk. I sell show stock and breeding stock. Folks that come to the farm to purchase milk, then buy my eggs, my extra produce and herbs from the garden, and my other toliteries and soy candles I make. My shihtzu pups. So yes my little farm is profitable.

It's also been alot of hard work, I live and breath goats, I pay myself a good salary first, I keep my herd small for me to be able to manage myself, I don't put undo burdens on my family for this crazy obcession of mine! Vicki

 

Vicki, I can understand how you "live and breathe goats" because no longer than I have had my two (just since this summer) I have just gone nuts over goats! They have such unique personalities and are such fun to care for...even wrestling them for their first hoof trimmings!

 

I agree with Vicki. A clean, healthy herd of quality animals is the key to profit. We have been raising registered French and American Alpines in north-western PA for about 11 years, and don't have trouble selling animals. We originally got 2 registered does for milk, but the herd quickly evolved into a show herd for our daughter who was in 4-H. I think we paid $150 a piece for the does back then, but they have paid for themselves many times over. I always "breed up", using top quality bucks naturally or through artificial insemination. 4-H families were our main buyers back then, and attending local fairs was how we advertised. We were also on DHIA milk test back then, and our herd was #3 in the state for milk and butterfat production.... which gave us a good market with dairies and Amish families. Our daughter is now married and living in the city, and no longer is interested in the goats..... but we still sell animals without any trouble. We bottle raise our kids on heat-treated colostrum and pasteurized milk, and our goats get a balanced diet of hay, grain, and free-choice minerals. The goats are healthy and productive, with great genetics to boot..... they pracically sell themselves. This past spring we had 30 kids born. We kept a doe kid for our herd, and sold the other 29 kids, plus several milkers.... all to show herds, homesteaders, or dairies. We certainly don't get rich on goat sales, but they do pay for themselves and then some. My suggestion to you is to start out with a few quality animals. It costs just as much to feed a great goat as it does an inferior one............. Linda

 

I bet you there is a Hispanic population there! Heck, I have sold bucklings for $1 a pound just by taking a pickup load down and parking in front of the Hipanic store for a few hours!

Also, put up signs in Spanish that you have meat goats for sale. I am lucky because my DH is bilingual, but they usually have someone with them who can translate okay.

The other option is to just load them up and drop them off at the local sale yard.
Or put ads in the paper. Just kind of depends on who you want to sell them to, and how much effort you want to put into it.

FWIW, my goats pay for themselves by raising bottle calves.

Tracy

 

:haha: That cracked me up! I totally understand what you mean about living , breathing and being obsessed with goats. I joined this forum just so I could talk to people who wouldn't laugh at me for my love of goats. My family thinks I've gone crazy. They say that's all I think about. They all got tired of me trying to talk to them about my goat ideas and plans so I come here to be with my own kind.

 

• I agree with you,goats are great and i am in it also for the BUCKS

 

A lot of good thoughts have already been said but I guess you have to figure out why you want goats ?? For family..milk, cheese, butter..meat in the freezer ?? These things we do and have done over our many years of homesteading. No...we haven't made our fortune yet in the goat world but that wasn't our intentions either when we began those many years ago. After you figure the cost of fencing, feed, medications the occasional vet bill etc..having a few goats isn't going to make you much money. What we do and have done is sell as mentioned in the local paper, let the 4-H kids know that you have goats. They usually like them as kids to raise for the local fairs during the summer. Sometimes I actually give my little bucks to the children and at least I hope they have a good home. Have taken a few over the sale barn. This is totally my last and final place. Had 4 bucks this fall and did sell two through the barn. They were very nice bucks but after advertising them and didn't find homes for them. I won't sell to someone who wants to let them loose to fend for themselves during all seasons as scrub goats. They more than likely went for meat and I made a grand total of $180 for 2 bucks..but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do !! If you are looking for be more self sufficent in foods and milk goats are wonderful animals to have. A cow is a large animal and too much milk I have always thought for the average family. Good Luck in your decesion !!

 

Besides having a large herd to make money selling meat goats, you need sufficient acreage to run them on so you don't have to spend much on feeding them. If you just want to find a market to keep your herd size manageable, put your feelers out and get to know other goat people in your area. You can meet them at county and state fairs, local goat clubs, 4-H, ADGA and USBGA goat shows and so on. I'm one of those who raises goats for milk to cook with and make cheese, and I love goats. I'm also aiming to breed show quality Nubians and Recorded Grades. I keep a base herd of 25 head after I sell down my herd in the fall. Through networking with other goat people in the state (I live in Montana) I have shipped dairy does and doelings to commmercial dairies, percentage Boer breeding stock to breeders out of state, goats to local families and wethers to market. The sale of these goats pays for their feed.

 

What would be the best kind to buy if you wanted to raise them and sell them for meat. I live in the middle or tobacco country we have a large hispanic population here.