Goat-fil-A - Part 1

The case for goats on a small farm

Jun 07, 2022

Welcome Back

Today we’re going to dive into the world of goats. I’ve owned goats for several years, and recently became completely convinced they are a much more viable option for meat production over beef especially for a small farm.

I’ll spend a few pages providing information on goat basics. I’ll then do another article covering the same information for cattle. At last, I’ll bring it all together to make the case for goats on a small farm and how they can be a good money maker as well as provide lower cost protein to many people.

Goat Basics

Kiko Billy - Kiko goats are a popular meat goat breed

Goats, Capra hircus, is one of the oldest domesticated animals. They were first domesticated from wild goats in Iran 10,000 years ago. Goats are closely related to sheep with over 300 distinct breeds. Domesticated goats have been used for milk, meat, fur, and skins all over the world.

Meat goats are produced in all parts of the US with Texas being the largest producer. Goat meat is a delicacy and a staple in cuisines for many parts of the world. It has not been popularized in the US, but that could change.

Female goats are referred to as does or nannies, and in-tact males are referred to as bucks or billies. Young goats are referred to as kids. Male goats that have been castrated are referred to as wethers.

Each distinct breed of goat has different size ranges, but full grown males of large goat breeds can reach up to 300 pounds. The smallest goat breed is the african pygmy with adult males only 20 inches tall.

Goats are born with two horns which they rely on for establishing dominance. Kids can be “polled” or disbudded shortly after birth. This is a common practice for dairy goats to reduce injury on a valuable dairy goat as well as making handling easier.

Goats have four chambered stomachs and usually two teets for milk production. They have slit shaped pupils like cattle, deer, and most horses. However, goats iris’s are usually pale colored making the strange looking pupils more noticeable. Male and female goats usually have beards, and some breeds have wattles, which are fleshy fur covered protuberances hanging on each side of their throat.

Toggenburg goat breeds usually have wattles

Goats reach puberty at around 15 months, but this depends on breed and nutrition. Goat management practices recommend waiting until the female goats are at least 70% of their full size weight to breed.

Does of all breeds go into heat every 21 days for up to 2 days. “Northern” breed males go into rut in the fall. “Equatorial” breed males are capable of breeding at all times. However, breeding tendencies for all breeds can be affected by climate and nutrition.

When bucks enter the rut they will urinate on their front legs and face and have scent glands around their horns giving them a strong odor that is pleasing to does. Does will wag their tails and become more vocal spending more time close to the buck.

Gestation period for goats is typically 150 days resulting in twins. Triplets are also common. Does begin to produce milk at the time of kidding and can produce milk for up to 305 days until they need to dry up for the next kidding. A good milk goat can produce 1/2 gallon of milk per day depending on environment and diet.

Goat meat has a reputation for gamey taste, however, that is not always the case. This usually depends on the age and lifestyle of the goat, as well as how it is prepared. Some cultures prefer the meat of older, more gamey tasting goat meat. Some prefer young tender meat.

Despite being classified as red meat, goat meat is much leaner and contains less fat and cholesterol than both beef and lamb. The lower fat content requires cooking with lower heat for longer times to preserve tenderness and moisture.

Pasture/Diet requirements

As with any farm animal, the quality of production for meat and dairy goats will depend on pasture quality and diet.

Most people assume goats will eat anything, however, goats are actually referred to as browsers, where cattle are considered grazers. Goat’s extreme curiosity will cause them to nibble on just about anything, but they will not eat just anything.

Goats prefer leaves from woody plants and shrubs, vines and weeds, and will graze on grass as a last option. Goats are extremely efficient at converting low quality grazing matter that is less desirable to other livestock like cattle.

Pasture Management

Although, not advisable, goats can subsist on very poor land conditions. This means, you will have an easier time managing a small herd of goats than you would with cattle. Most small farms are situated in unconventional areas, without quality pasture. Most areas typically have more access to woods, weeds, and brush that is well suited for goats.

Goats reduce the need for well managed, weed free pastures like cows. In fact, adding goats to your cattle pasture land is a great idea to naturally control weeds in your pastures.

So how much space do you need to raise a small herd of goats? Good question, first we need to talk about something called AUM - Animal Unit Month.

Animal Unit Month is the carrying capacity of the pasture area.

Animal Unit for (1) 1000 pound cow with calf = 1

Animal Unit for (1) 90 pound goat =.15

This means 1 cow and calf can graze 1 acre per month, while 6 goats can graze on the same one acre per month. Basically, 12 acres would keep 6 goats fed for a year. Supplemental hay and forage may be needed over the winter months to properly sustain them.

It’s a good practice to provide “free choice” hay for your goats at all times, since it’s good for their digestion system. Without any other forage, goats require 2-4 pounds of hay per adult goat. Compare this to 36 pounds of hay per adult cow.

Hay must be kept dry, wet moldy hay can cause sickness or even death for your goaty goats. Cattle are the only animals able to eat wet or moldy hay.

Goats can also be fed easily by cutting branches and small leafy brush from other parts of your land. This is a nice way to clean your property and feed your animals at the same time.

It’s also very easy to put a got on a long leash with a collar to let them browse a woody/grown up area of your property. Even better, low cost temporary/portable electric fencing allows you to easily set up new browsing areas.

Goats are susceptible to sickness just like all farm animals. Sickness usually comes from intestinal parasites. Parasite problems usually occur when they are left with a poor pasture situation. Too many goats in a small area will cause them to browse the area down to short grass. This causes cross contamination problems with goat feces.

Wet, rainy conditions will exacerbate the problem. The good thing is most goat parasite issues can be cleared up rather easily by adjusting their diet/pasture arrangement. Most goat parasite medicine can be found at local farm supply stores for reasonable prices.

Medicine administration is easy due to the calm characteristics of most goats and their size. Simply walk up to the goat and squirt the medicine right into their mouth. (It also helps if you’re married to an animal whisperer gypsy😉)

Goats are easy to handle with a collar and led to the new browsing location. Try to do this with a cow! Lol

Goat Breeds

Top Meat Goat Breeds (US)

Boer
The Kalahari Red
Spanish Goats
Kiko

I recommend researching each one of these breeds and determining which one suits your climate. I would also recommend joining a few goat facebook groups in your area to see what type of goats other local small farmers are raising.

Top Dairy Goat Breeds (US)

Saanen
Nigerian Dwarf
Alpine
Nubian
LaMancha

Same thing here, I would look around to see what is available in your area. In my area, Lamancha’s are very popular and somewhat easy to buy at a reasonable price.

You’ll want a doe and buck from different blood lines to start a herd. I highly recommend spending the extra money and buying two registered, established adult goats instead of opting for kids. It’s very hard to tell if a young goat is healthy and if they will make it to be a productive adult.

Meat Markets

Most goat meat markets in the US are catering to the various ethnic groups in that area. Therefore, depending on the market, they may have restrictions on goat breeds, size, and age. DYOR

Our local goat market requires them to be 75 pounds or less. They pay $5 per pound hanging weight, which is approximately 75% of the live weight of the goat.

One thing I really like about the lamancha goat breed is that they are large goats that grow fairly quickly. Not only are they fine dairy goats, they are also fine meat producers due to their larger size. This gives you the best of both worlds and is something that is not commonly achieved with cattle.

Important to note there are other dairy goats that could be used for dairy and meat production. Find out what’s available in your area and what other goat farmers in your area are doing!

Transporting goats is easy. They can be hauled with a pickup truck and a large dog cage. Easy to load by simply picking them up and placing in the cage. We’ve even hauled them with a minivan, nothing will stop an animal whisperer from buying more goats! 😂

Another benefit I see with goats is in a SHTF scenario, goats can be easily skinned and butchered on the farm much like a deer. Larger animals like cow and possibly pigs can be a larger job than most would like to try to tackle.

The Maths

Let’s say for easy rounding purposes, you had 20 acres fenced in. You could easily keep 6-10 adult goats. Lets say you had 10 female lamancha goats. You breed all of them resulting in 20 kids. It takes 150 days to birth, and another 3 months to reach required weight size for the market. So in 8 months all of your kids are born and have reached suitable size to take to market.

This herd of kids would bring you around $4500.

This goat idea is something you would be thinking about if you were already set up with a farming operation. In that case you most likely have most of the basic needs for a goat herd met.

Overall startup cost year 1

10 adult does/ 1 Billy - $2200
Misc medicine/supplemental food/hay - $1000

Next year your cost would be minimal due to already having an established herd.

If you were starting from scratch, other costs obviously include:

Land
Fence
Shelter
Water system

Goat Milk

Let’s talk about goat milk for a second. Goat milk, gets a really bad wrap, just like goat meat and goats in general. There has been a major psyop or “marketing campaign” by the beef and diary cow business in America.

We have completely switched our whole family over to goat milk and I’m telling you, it’s delicious.

Many other foods can be made from the milk obviously, with cheese being a big one. The possibilities are endless when it comes to having an endless supply of milk.

With your 10 doe herd, when the kids grow to a few weeks old, the does are ready to be milked. In this situation, you would be getting up to 1/2 gallon of milk from each doe resulting in around 5 gallons of milk per day.

Now, let’s not kid ourselves, it would be alot of work to milk 10 goats every day. But, if you could market the milk properly, that could generate a significant amount of revenue. Keep in mind there are raw milk laws and regulations, dyor on all of this blah blah blah.

So you milk the does another 3-4 months until it’s time to let them all dry out, just in time for the rut. Hopefully all of your does will breed again and have twins!

Conclusion

I’ll be honest, the reason I haven’t covered goats on my substack yet is because goats are basically a never ending rabbit hole. I’ve talked for a few pages and we still have barely even scratched the surface, trust me!

The Natural Life

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