Raising Meat Goats - Purchasing a Foundation Meat Goat Herd

The biggest mistake one can make, when purchasing a herd of meat goats, is buying too many goats. It is always best to under stock so one dose not have to purchase much feed. When pastures are under stocked one has fewer problems with internal parasites (mainly stomach worms.) Start with just a few goats and gradually increase the size of the herd as pastures are improved. See the Critter Ridge web site for information on pastures for meat goats.

It is best to purchase your foundation meat goats directly from the breeder who produced them and to buy them at his farm. Avoid purchasing at livestock sale barns because that is where breeders get rid of their culls and animals that will not breed or produce kids. When one buys an animal at a sale barn one usually has no way of knowing which herd the animal came from or why it is being sold. If one purchases them at the farm, one can see how they were raised. Purchase animals that are raised on pasture with no extra feed because that is the most economical way to raise them. It is the only way to raise them if you want to make a profit.

From an economic perspective the most important traits in meat goats are hardiness, fertility, mothering ability, and resistance to internal parasites. Unfortunately these traits are difficult to measure by looking at the goats. They can not be measured in a show ring. Perhaps performance testing under pasture conditions might be the answer, but be careful because goats that do well on pastures in the dryer climates of western regions of the United States might not do well further east where more humid conditions would cause greater parasite problems.

Avoid purchasing stock from producers who over feed and pamper their goats. Many producers worm their goats every thirty days. Trust me the meat from a goat that has been wormed every thirty days is not safe to eat. If one worms too often the worms build up a resistance to the worm medication. One is actually breeding superior worms instead of better goats. Many herds of meat goats have lost their hardiness, their fertility, their mothering ability, and will not do well in commercial operations. Some producers put their does into embryo transplant programs before they know if they are capable of having offspring naturally. Their kids are raised by foster mothers, usually dairy goats. The growth rates of these kids have no correlation to the milking and mothering abilities of their mothers.

Bucks are the most important purchase one will make. They will account for fifty percent of the genetics of your kids. One mature buck can usually handle about fifty does. So it pays to invest in top quality bucks.

Ken Ziemer, author, has a bachelor's degree in agriculture. He started breeding dairy goats in 1962. His wife Candy was raised on a dairy goat farm and has worked with goats all her life. They have farmed and raised goats in northern Arkansas since 1967. They started breeding full blood Boer meat goats in 1999.