Value Added Goat Milk and Meat Products
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Beauty products
Goat milk bath oil
Goat milk soap
Cheese
Cheese Recipes:
Goat Meat Products
The
terminal market price for slaughter goats has risen since the late
nineties, reflecting the increasing ethnic demand for goat meat.
U.S. producers cannot currently meet this demand, and imports fill
nearly half of the demand.
Slaughter goat sales typically show a recurring seasonal pattern:
lowest prices July/October, followed by sharp rises in late fall, and
highest prices of all Thanksgiving/Easter, with prices typically
decreasing during the spring months and back into the doldrums during
the summer.
Premium prices are paid for goats 40-60 lbs. Those 80-100 lbs.
draw a lower fee, and those 80-100 lbs. draw the lowest price of
all. Where people cannot get the size they want, the price levels
out, but as soon as they have a choice they always pay top dollar for
the 40-60 pound goats.
Pinkerton says that there are two paramount considerations to weigh
when making decisions about when to sell goats.
The
first is Marketing Margin. This is the difference between the
final selling price/lb. and the current selling price/lb.
(Example: a 45 lb. weanling might sell for $1.20/lb in July; and if he
is fed to 80 lb. in November, he might sell for only $1.00/lb.
The marketing margin would be -$0.20 x 45 lbs. of gain or a loss of
$9.00/head by waiting until November to sell.
The second consideration is the
Feeding Margin, which is calculated as the difference between the
selling price/lb and the total cost/lb of the accrued gain.
(Example: If the 45 lb. kid we talked about above cost 80 cents per lb
of accrued gain, (feed plus overhead), then his feed margin would be
$1.00-$0.80, or a gain of 20 cents. Taking 20 cents x 35 lb of gain
would be a profit of $7.00 per head.
To find out whether it makes sense to do this, take the Marketing
Margin plus the Feeding Margin to find the amount of profit or
loss./goat. (+$7.00) plus (-$9.00) = a loss of $2.00 per head.
Pinkerton says "To make a profit in
this game, you simply must manage in such a manner that you have a
sufficiently positive feeding margin, so as to more than offset the
near certain negative marketing margin you will encounter."
Material summarized from Pinkerton, Feeding, Management and Marketing of Slaughter Goats Post Weaning
Starting a meat goat operation with extra dairy does
If you want to
take your extra doelings and slowly create a meat goat herd as a
value-added operation to complement your dairy, you do it through
breeding the right doe to the right buck.See the chart below:
G= Grade Dairy
Goat
B= Boer (purebred)
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Does
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Bucks
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Offspring
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G
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B
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½ B ½ G
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½ B ½ G
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B
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¾ B ¼ G
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¾ B ¼ G
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B
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⅞ B ⅛ G
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⅞ B ⅛ G
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B
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15/16 B 1/16 G
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15/16 B 1/16 G
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B
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100% purebred
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For each level of the chart above, save only good quality females,
preferably from multiple births and change bucks every generation.
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/goats/presentation/selectingfoundationandreplacementgoats04.pd
Frank Pinkerton,
retired goat expert, stated in an e-mail 8-21-06 that Boer cross Nubian
and Boer cross Alpine combinations attract considerable buyer interest
at markets. He feels that the demand and price for goat meat are
high enough that producers should consider raising kids for meat
sales. He states that it is important that you schedule birthing
to coincide with peak meat marketing periods, such as Christmas and
Easter, and that you keep feed costs down. He also advises
carefully considering the cost of your labor and other overhead when
deciding whether to do this.
Pinkerton, Feeding, management and Marketing of Slaughter [Dairy] Goats Post-Weaning. E-mail 8-21-06
Nutritional Value of Goat Meat
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3 Oz. Cooked
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Calories
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Fat (g)
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Sat'd Fat (g)
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Protein (g)
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Iron (mg)
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Goat
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122
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2.58
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0.79
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23
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3.3
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Beef
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245
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16
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6.8
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23
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2.9
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Pork
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310
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24
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8.7
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21
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2.7
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Lamb
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235
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16
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7.3
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22
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1.4
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Chicken
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120
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3.5
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1.1
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21
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1.5
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Source: USDA Handbook
#8, 1989
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Storing and Cooking Goat Meat
Pictures of goat meat cuts http://www.ausmeat.net/goat.html
Figuring freezer space for goat meat: 1 cubic foot for every 15-20 lb.
of meat. The interior of a milk crate is about 1 cubic foot.
Sear the outside quickly to seal in juices, then cook slowly. Do
not overcook. Goat meat is very lean and must be cooked with
moisture. Good for soups and stews.
2011 Langston Field Day notes: Goat Cookery, Terry Gipson. http://www.luresext.edu/goats/library/field/moore2011.pdf
Minimum Nutrition requirement CP 14%, TDN 60%
Langston, Training, p. 17 of Nutrition section
The differences between feeding dairy and meat goats
“The nutritional requirements of goats
managed primarily for milk production and those managed primarily for
meat production are quite similar with perhaps two notable differences.
First, dairy goats are expected to milk at relatively high and
persistent levels throughout a 9-10 month lactation; meat goats need
only achieve a 4-7 month lactation with high initial milk flow,
persistency beyond 4 months being of lesser concern.
Secondly, dairy
goats are typically fed considerable concentrates (grain mixtures) to
encourage maximum and persistent milk flow. In contrast, lactating meat
goats are not usually fed concentrates in addition to their forage diet
because the extra kid growth achieved from the extra milk may well not
repay the added costs. As always, special circumstances may
occasionally alter normal cost-benefit calculations.”
Frank Pinkerton, Feeding Programs for Meat Goats
Feeding Meat Does
4 production periods and corresponding feed requirements:
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Production Period
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Feed requirements
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Non-pregnant
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Medium quality pasture (like late summer) or a medium
quality hay
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Pregnant less than 95 days
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Medium quality pasture (like late summer) or a medium
quality hay
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Late gestation
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Energy requirements increase dramatically to feed fetuses
as well as to maintain doe’s body weight. Doelings are still growing, so they
need even more supplementation.
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Lactating
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Peak lactation at 3-8 wks of lactation. Increase grain over 2-3 weeks. Milk production begins to drop after 6 weeks
and continues to drop until quite low by 12 weeks, co start gradually
reducing grain at 6 weeks post birthing, until only receiving hay or pasture
by 12 weeks.
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Peak lactation at 3-8 wks of lactation. Increase grain over 2-3
weeks. Milk production begins to drop after 6 weeks and continues to
drop until quite low by 12 weeks, co start gradually reducing grain at
6 weeks post birthing, until only receiving hay or pasture by 12 weeks.
Flushing before breeding: BCS should be 2.5-3.5 at breeding. Flushing
with grain is not needed unless BCS is less than 2.5. (Haskell)
(Material summarized from Langston, Meat goat training, p. 23-24 of Nutrition section)
Feeding young meat stock
Keep with mother to nurse. Offer creep feed through area with holes 5” wide by 1 ft. high for kids to enter.
Give them 16% CP creep feed, medicated with a coccidostat. It takes 6 lb. of feed to produce 1 lb. of weight gain.
Doelings usually do well on pasture or hay alone. Watch
BCS. If not gaining as they should, add 0.05%-1% body weight/day
of corn for each animal that is low in weight. For a 50 lb. animal,
this is ¼ - ½ lb. corn per day per head.
Do the same with the bucklings, but watch their body condition score
even more closely, as they must gain a lot more than doelings to reach
maturity by 7 months.
This section summarized from Langston, Training, Nutrition section p. 21
Expectations for breeding weight of meat goat breeds (varies by breed)
Spanish Doelings:
Weaned at 3 months (40 lb).
Expect gain of 5 lb. per month, so they will weigh 60 lb. at 7 months of age for first breeding.
Boer Doelings:
Wean at 3 months (50 lb.)
Expect gain of 7.5 lb. per month, so they will weigh 80 lb. at 7 months of age for first breeding.
(Pinkerton, Frank. Feeding, Management and marketing of
Slaughter Dairy Goats Post-Weaning. E-mail from author,
8-21-2006.)
Meat Goat Links
Here is the table of contents of the training program, with hyperlinks:
Value-added Links
Agritourism and the Family Farm Dairy Goat Journal . Vol. 84 No.5, September/October 2007. P. 32-36.
This article tells you how one family set up tours and milking and cheesemaking training sessions on their farm.
WI Center for Dairy Profitability: Budgets, financial benchmarks, decision making tools, etc. http://cdp.wisc.edu/
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