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This Old Goat Likes Idea
of Raising Them for Meat
As 2005 looms as my final year as an Agricultural Agent, Extension Agent, Extension Educator or what ever else people want to call me that’s nice, being around thirty-four years some people might want to call me an “old goat”.
I have really not spent much time around goats. My Kentucky Grandmother and my Aunt Clara had a goat that they milked. Every summer we would go to Grandpa’s Lincoln County farm for our annual vacation. I guess you would call Grandpa’s farm a sustainable farm since they rarely bought inputs including store bought milk. Grandma had a Jersey Cow so my choice was raw cow milk or raw goat milk. If you ever had both you would choose goat milk because for me, it closely resembled store bought pasteurized milk. After all, I had no choice but to drink it. My mother was their kid and she new what would be available before we left Ohio. And my Dad was a city slicker and he never ate cereal and had coffee for all meals. My grandfather passed away my senior year so most of the livestock “hit-the-road”. My next experience with a goat was at the Clark County Fair. One year two goats showed up at the fair to be judged for the first time. As the 4-H Agent I couldn’t get the Sheep Judge or the Dairy Judge to evaluate the goats. So I talked the Sheep judge into giving both 4-Hers a blue rosette. They were happy-I was happy-the Sheep Judge said he was embarrassed. It was that very year I met a science teacher by the name of Tom Wiegel who told me to get ready because goats was the “coming-thing.” Yeah, right. The next thing I know is barn one at the fair is full of goats and the public is flocking to see them. In 1978, I became the Agricultural Agent and I thought I was through with goats. One day I was reviewing the monthly dairy testing sheets and I almost fell out of my chair! Every herd had at least a 14,000 pound herd average except one. It was only 2,200 pounds. I thought the guy is either starving his cows to death or he never has weaned the calves. Yeah, you guessed it. Jerry Smith had put his goat herd on the test and didn’t tell me. After all, they only have two spikets. I thought I’ll get even with Jerry one day and I did. He got my son, Barry, in his elementary class! A few years later I was visiting Young’s Jersey Dairy and they were remodeling the big red barn. I asked if they were making room for more calves. They said no it was going to be a goat pen. Having people feed goats is where to make money. I thought, Tom Wiegel must have been there the week before. Just when I thought goats were fun but they would never save the farm, I ran into a Clinton County Producer named, Mark Brooker. I was stunned beyond belief that this man had convinced his Agricultural Agent, Tony Nye, who was also a hog producer, that meat goats were the next revolution on farms in Ohio. I visited his farm and was amazed that his records showed he netter over $1,000.00 per acre of grass with meat goats. The demand for goat far exceeds supply and in agricultural that is a good thing; no that is a great thing. While I was getting 20 producers to a field crop day at the Western OARDC in Clark County, over 70 people were driving to Clinton County to see and hear Mark Brooker’s massage on meat goat potential. Last winter 100 people attended my meat goat seminar. Today, there is a Task Force working on marketing meat goats including building a packing plants. Finally, the USDA released the 2002 Census of Agriculture. There were no questions on it, where one could place the number of meat goats. I suspect that will change in 2007. The Census did reveal a shocking statistic. The number of farms has declined every Census since World War Two. However, the decline between 1997 and 2002 was only 13 farms, the smallest decline ever for Clark County. The increase was in farms 200 acres or less. Could it be that meat goats are helping small farms stay in business? As for this old goat, I’m excited about the potential of meat goats in Ohio, especially for small farmers. Two weeks ago there was a Meat Goat Field Day in Clinton County and 145 people were there including bankers, all eating goat. Just maybe Tom Wiegel is a prophet. Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Admin. and Director, OSU Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868 Updated: August 2004 |