1. Learn about Goats
So many producers fail during the start-up period in their goat ranching enterprise due to lack of knowledge. Find out all you can about the animal. Goats are a little different than your run of the mill farm animal. They are intelligent, mischievous and they're great escape artists. Sheep are very docile and very timid animals.
Goats and sheep are unique in their management requirements and foraging habits.
2. Know Your Market
First, decide what market you are shooting for. Are you going to raise registered goats? Then you need to consider the expenses of advertising, showing in the circuit, and the much higher expense of purchasing quality animals. Will you have a good client base that will continually want to purchase your breeding stock? The commercial production avenue is a very viable option, but there are questions to be answered here also. Will you sell the kids or lambs in group lots off the farm? Will you have a good sale facility relatively close by or will you have to incur large haul bills to get your kids or lambs to market? Will the expenses of selling your kids drastically eat up your bottom line? Will you specialize in animals for the various ethnic communities? Many times these kids really need to be targeted to certain times of the year.
3. Understand Parasites
The number one reason, that I have witnessed first hand, for producer failure has been animal losses to parasites. Find out all you can about what worms are prevalent in your area. There is tons of material “out there” on this subject. There are several wormers, strategies and techniques that work. But, not keeping up with the latest information could be the “death knoll” for your operation.
4. Predators
Many animals love goat meat, including myself. There are feral and neighborhood dogs, coyotes, bobcats, and sometimes the kids just disappear. There are many options to assist you in defense. I have to rate dogs as my number one choice, they fit my management and production levels very well. I tried Llamas and on my farm they weren’t successful, but I know of many farms where they do an excellent job. There are a few farms I know of that also use donkeys successfully.
5. Fencing
When I say that goats are escape artists, I ain’t kidding. It seems to me that there must be a goat in the herd whose job it is to check the fences everyday. When they find a hole, she goes back and tells everyone else. And believe me, nothing makes enemies of neighbors quicker than 60 goats in your neighbor's vegetable garden or expensive landscaping. I would recommend a very well-built perimeter fence. There are many new and improved types of fencing of the high-tensile, electrified variety — check them out. There are many applications of this type fencing.
The goat industry has been one of the fastest growing animal enterprises in recent years. It can be extremely rewarding both financially and emotionally. Just remember the old sayings: “You gotta walk before you run,” and “If it seems to good too be true… it usually is.”
