A stray goat led to a family’s farming business
POTEAU, OKLA. – What started with a single Kiko buck that Starr Lonto’s son gave her that has developed into a family business that is quickly becoming one of the more popular closed herds of goats in east Oklahoma, if not the entire region.
Sweet Creek Goat Farm is outside Poteau, Okla., and is run primarily by Starr, her husband Gary, and her son, Ellery, with additional help from a family friend. The farm started technically in 2005 with goats being added in 2007.
“He was a magnificent Kiko buck,” Starr said. “He was just wonderful, so we kept him.”
The family started breeding with Nubian/Boer cross to would have a good mix of meat and dairy goats. The cross produces better meat, larger animals, and overall a superior, higher parasite resistance.
“Some of our bucks can grow up to 300 pounds plus,” she said.
The family is careful to maintain a closed herd, with very little outside stock being used and even then, it’s from a small, clean herd, Starr explained.
“Because we produce breeding stock, we try to match our animals with the customer’s breeding program and their herd’s needs.”
The family has done so well with breeding that people are starting to recognize when the animal is from Sweet Creek Goat Farm or out of their bloodlines.
“That makes me happy to see the results of our breeding program and our genetic work over the last 18 years,” she said.
The herd, at one point, got to be around 300 goats, including 158 babies, but they now try to keep it smaller.
“We try to stay at 100 head or less,” Starr said. “We only have 39 acres, so we don’t want to overgraze our pastures.”
The herd receives grain and hay during the winter and are primarily on pasture during the summer,” she said. They like using Bluebonnet Show Goat Feed.
“It’s been crafted just for goats,” Starr said. “It’s an all-around good supplement pelleted feed.”
Most, if not all, of the kidding is done between February and April and depending on the intention for the animal, weaning is done around 10 to 12 weeks, at least for the bucks.
While getting goats may have started with one goat, it was her father’s dream of owning a farm that got it all started.
“He always wanted to be a cowboy,” Starr said. “He moved in with us when Mom died and lived with us until he died in 2017.”
The family also has Muscovy ducks that they sell for meat and eggs, and for those who simply want to raise them.
“Many in the Asian culture eat them,” Starr said. “They are a really hardy duck. They are great for meat and eggs. They eat everything that crawls, including crawfish and scorpions. They come in many colors. They are an all-around really good duck.”
Starr said she also likes that the ducks are largely silent. They have a flock of about 100 birds and they aren’t noisy, they don’t walk around quacking. They whistle and chirp. In fact, they walk through the barn with the goats and help with the bugs.
When they first moved to Oklahoma, there weren’t a lot of goat farms in the area.
“They were mainly found in Texas,” she said. But, the industry has grown to where there are more good breeding goats in Oklahoma and Texas. And those are starting to go all over the country; some from Sweet Creek’s bloodlines have been sold to people in North Dakota, Texas, the Carolinas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and so on.
“Through our cross-breeding program, we produce a better meat goat,” she said. “Our aim is to raise quality commercial cross-bred breeding stock for the smaller herd.”
Starr said she sees the industry growing as more people are trying goat meat and more cultures that commonly eat goat are moving to the area.
“A majority of the world eats goat,” she said, adding that another growing niche is those who simply want the smaller goats to keep as pets.
