Meg, you hit the nail on the head there with your thoughts and experiences with the goat meat market. I liked the comparision to the Emu market because a friend of mine back in VA raised Emu's when they first were the craze and eventually the market went bust, she lost a $20,000 investment. She raises meat goats now and sells them at the New Holland, PA market and to a buyer, she does failry well. You have to have numbers though to make a profit. There are many buyers out there and they are seking numbers of about 600 a week, its impossible for producers to combine their numbers for that many a week when most a smaller producers. Thats why the big buyers and slaughterhouses in NYC look to Texas for their numbers.
To answer your question, "Yes, I have eaten goat meat beofre, from a dairy doe who wouldn't breed, she was about 2 and 1/2 yrs old and her meat was fatty. Why? Because she was never stressed from breeding, etc and ate well, the ground meat, goat burger was really good, only we didn't have much ground to burger. It does surpass the taste of fast food burgers like r.h. mentioned. In fact, I took some to work, samples and many of my co-workers liked it as well and ask when I will be doing another one.
The dairy/boer cross theory about doing better for meat sales doesn't really get you the money you would on just a strictly meat goat breed. Although they do grow faster and better because there is more milk. The reason is the muscling and meat, dairy are not meaty or stocky so you loose your money when you sell because the goat is graded as prime, good, etc and dairy very rarely makes prime grade. Then there are buyers who do not want any dairy in the goat, there was a slaughterhouse here in AR for a bit that wanted meat goats strictly, no dairy or dairy mix at all. I will contradict that in a minute here with our experience this year though.
Interestingly enough, this past year we made a PROFIT for the first time selling our dairy bucks, we managed to hit the market just right with 40 pound kids who were dam raised and grain fed, nice slick and sassy from that and good hay and minerals. Those buck kids sold for $1.10 a pound and I about fell over. But, you see, as Meg said, it depends on the market. There was a demand and the numbers were low so the prices were better. I've ben selling goats for meat every year now for almost 10 years and both dairy and a boer cross and this past yr we did really well. I hope the market holds, but it may not, seems to go in cycles. I haven't checked the USDA auction reports to see what goats are bringing now. When we sold in early June it was still holding well. As you near the holidays the price and demand gets better.
I don't forsee a lot of income potential in the goat meat market for the reasons Meg mentioned and my involvement in the meat goat market for the past 10 yrs almost. I've seen more busts than profits. A group of meat goat producers back east, which I was one of, formed a meat goat coop and tried to help increase our prices that way when it was time to sell. Still, with those contacts in place we were all at the mercy of the market and buyers. You have to work diligently to find the right sources to make the connections, its networking and being in the right place at the right time. I too tried the Boer goat for a possible way to make a profit off raising goats and like many, found it didn't work at the time, but that was yrs ago. I think its still the same today though.
I don't want to discourage you, just pointing out the realities there. If you want to embark down the path with raising boer goats you need to make your connections with the buyer industry and have an outlet. In NC their meat goat industry is holding well from the information a friend of mine back there said. I wish you luck, just carefully think and plan first. In any endeavor planning is the key. To make a profit you must think outside the box. Many folks will sell their pasture raised goat meat at farmer's markets, I've seen that before, and it sells for up to $8.00 a pound. But thats near a large city too. I'd suggest doing some online researcha nd talking to other folks and look at the resources and market potential in your area.
Bernice