Goat Farming, Part 1: Selecting a Goat Breed and Preparing for Arrival

Reader Contribution by Betty Taylor
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After a 2-day workshop in the fall of 2011, I became a “Tennessee Master Meat Goat Producer.” And although I had the paperwork to prove that fact, I still had never even seen a goat up close. Telling the difference between a goat and a sheep was an untested skill!

To further my education, I began attending the sheep and goat auction at our local sale barn a couple of times a month. The main thing I learned was that goats don’t go for much money at the local sale barn, but they do “go”–everyone of them was bought. Most were shipped for slaughter to the Northeast US. I also learned that If I were going to raise meat goats, I would have to consider some basics:

1. With limited resources, I needed to know how to raise them without putting more into them than I could sell them for.

2. What would I do with all those extra bucklings that were sure to come? Considering their rumored smell and disposition, did I even want to keep bucks?

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