2017 study of farmers and their spouses in the United States looked at correlation between a tendency to develop allergies and exposures to a farming environment (including early childhood farm animal contact and raw milk consumption). The results backed up earlier studies from Europe showing a decreased tendency to develop allergies when in a farming environment. This was especially true in cases where their mothers had performed farm activities while pregnant, as well as when they drank raw milk and were exposed to farm animals before the age of 6.
Goat meat is easily digestible, tasty, and low in fat. If you’re in charge of your own source of meat, you know how the animal was raised and what feed or medications went into the animal.
Meat goat farming provides a great opportunity to start a business or supplement your income. You can raise goats that are bred for meat, or you can use your excess dairy bucks (males) or wethers (bucks that have been castrated) as an alternative to buying meat or to provide income to support your herd. Before you jump into a meat-goat enterprise thinking that you’re going to get rich, you need to investigate a few things:
Check out the market for goat meat in the area of the country where you live. Contact your extension office for assistance, go to the local livestock auction to see how well and for what price meat goats are selling, and read the local agriculture newspaper or other publications to see what they have to say about raising and marketing meat goats.
Learn about stocking (the number of animals you can support without overcrowding or overgrazing), how many goats you can stock on your property, and how that might break down in terms of income.
Determine what kind of meat goats are available and for what price.
Consider slaughter options. Would you slaughter goats yourself, sell them at auction, have a mobile slaughter provider come out, or transport your goats to a slaughterhouse? Do you have a vehicle to transport goats? Is there a USDA-certified slaughter facility nearby that handles goats? Factors affecting this decision include laws governing slaughter as well as the local market, your capabilities, and financial considerations.
I talk in much more detail about raising goats for meat in Chapter 16.
Growing your own fiber
Some of the finest fiber comes from goats: Angora and Pygora goats produce mohair, cashmere goats produce cashmere, and crosses between the two breeds produce a fiber called cashgora. An adult angora goat can produce an average of 8 to 16 pounds of mohair each year, and a kid can produce 3 to 5 pounds. Cashmere and cashgora-producing goats produce less fiber, but it is also more highly valued.
If you raise fiber goats, you can spin your own yarn and make hats, blankets, sweaters, or other products. You can also sell the fiber to spinners or to companies that make these products, while having the benefit of these friendly creatures.
Check out Chapter 18 to find out about harvesting and using goat fiber.
Harnessing goats’ power as living weed whackers
Goats are well-known for their ability to wipe out weeds. In fact, some people have made businesses out of renting out their goat herds to cities and other municipalities to clean up areas that are overgrown with weeds or blackberry bushes. These leased goats decrease the need to use herbicides, improve the soil’s fertility, decrease the risk of fire, increase the diversity of plants in the area, and control weeds in hard-to-reach areas, such as steep hills.
Whether your goats are pets, milk producers, meat animals, or serve another purpose, they provide the side benefit of acting as living weed whackers. With some portable fencing or a guardian animal for protection, they range far and wide each day to keep your property free of noxious weeds.
Don’t expect to put them on a lawn and have them mow down the grass, though. “Lawnmower” is the job of sheep, not goats. Goats prefer to eat your rosebushes or lilacs.
CASHMERE GOATS
No specific breed of goat is named cashmere. However, feral goats from Australia and New Zealand and Spanish meat goats from the southwestern United States can be registered with the Cashmere Goat Association, if they meet the standard. Breeders have produced more productive cashmere goats by selectively breeding good producers from these populations. Cashmeres have the added benefit of being good meat goats.
The term cashmere refers to the undercoat or down that is harvested from a variety of goats. Cashmere is harvested and processed mainly in central Asia, especially China. The fiber produced by up to four of these Asian feral goats in a whole year is required to make just one cashmere sweater — which explains why they are so expensive.
Breeding and selling
Unless your goats are just pets or brush eaters, you probably want to breed them. If you have dairy goats, you need to breed them to keep a good supply of milk flowing. And you will need to replace any goats you sell or slaughter.
As a dairy goat owner, I supplement my income from selling milk by selling kids and providing buck service. Buck service means leasing a buck for breeding purposes to another goat owner. Buck service is valuable to goat owners who don’t have the space or don’t want the hassle of keeping a buck or who want to get certain genetics into their herd. I tell you more about buck service, and about breeding in general, in Chapter 12.
Using goats for companions or helpers
Goats make great companions, something that more people discover every day. Miniature goats such as the Nigerian Dwarf, Pygmy, and mini dairy breeds are growing in popularity as pets, in both the city and the country. (Check out Chapter 3 to find out more about these and other breeds.)
Goats are intelligent and funny, and they’re also a great way to meet people. I had a little goat named Malakai, who was a dwarf Nigerian Dwarf, because of health issues. His petite size made him all the more adorable. He was house- and car-broken, and so I took him with me wherever I went. He was the little Mystic Acres farm emissary and never failed to attract people. Besides helping me meet people, Malakai gave me the opportunity to educate people about goats and clarify their inevitable misunderstandings. (Get into goats, and you’ll find that misconceptions abound. I brace you to take on the most common of them in Chapter 20.)
Keeping goats as pets
