Making a Place for Meat Goats in Oklahoma

–Wylie Harris

Between 1997 and 2007, the number of meat goats in the United States doubled. That may sound impressive, but in Oklahoma’s meat goat numbers grew twice as fast over the same period, catapulting the state into fourth place nationwide.

This rapid growth in meat goat production stems from several causes, including the increasing number of small farms and ranches. Two out of every three new farms in Oklahoma between 1997 and 2007 were smaller than fifty acres. (For more information on recent changes in Oklahoma agriculture, see p. 6.)

“Most landholders entering into farming these days have small acreages that do not readily support cattle production,” explains Kerr Center Goat Projects Manager Mary Penick. “In such cases, small ruminants are an attractive and workable option.”

According to Penick, the show ring counts as another major force behind meat goats’ growing popularity. “Show goats have become a major source of interest and revenue for many producers,” she says, “particularly due to growing demand from youth participating in 4-H and FFA competitions.”

The demand side of the meat goat boom is growing right along with the supply, keeping markets good. According to Dr. Sandra Solaiman of Tuskegee University, growing populations whose ethnic and religious backgrounds include a preference for goat meat are driving this trend.

Thanks to that increasing demand, the current growth in meat goat production opportunities shows no signs of tapering off anytime soon. Despite ongoing rapid growth, the U.S. is still the largest importer of goat meat in the world. Solaiman estimates that in 2006 the U.S. would have had to raise another 750,000 meat goats just to satisfy domestic consumption for goat meat, and that demand continues to grow.

Rising to the Challenge
Despite this rosy outlook, goat ranching in Oklahoma, and other parts of the southeastern U.S., also faces some hurdles. The sector is moving as it grows, and that movement brings goat husbandry face-to-face with new challenges.
Goats originated in dry climates, and the more arid southwestern zones of the United States have traditionally been home to the bulk of this country’s herds. However, southeastern states are the epicenter of the recent growth in goat ranching.

In that setting, goats face a number of environmental factors to which they are not well adapted, including heat and humidity, as well as an unfamiliar menu of forages. Moreover, the southeast’s humid conditions provide a more favorable environment for goat parasites, and at a time when chemical dewormers are rapidly losing effectiveness.

In addition, while numerous small herds of goats may indeed mesh well into a landscape of dispersed small farms, the slaughter and processing portion of the sector is highly concentrated in the northeastern U.S. Producers in other regions, if not located near an auction large enough to draw large processors’ buyers, may receive half or less the price per animal.

With such a dramatic increase in the interest in goat raising, the Kerr Center is working hard to keep producers informed about ways to adapt goats to ranching in the humid southeast, and to adapt ranching practices to a species unfamiliar to many livestock producers in the area.

The Center’s goat programs involve extensive on-ranch research and demonstration projects, as well as cooperation with innovating independent producers, and collaboration with other organizations & agencies, such as Langston University, and the Oklahoma State University Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service (OCES).

Testing the Best           
Parasites, and their increasing resistance to chemical dewormers, rank high among the challenges the meat goat industry faces in the southeast. According to Dr. Steve Hart, of the Kiko de la Garza Institute for Goat Research at Langston University, worms kill more goats than the next three most common causes of death combined.

“We can control parasites without deworming,” Hart says, “by using selection and pasture management.” In 2007, the Kerr Center and OCES launched the Oklahoma Commercial Meat Goat Forage Performance Test to tackle
the first half of that formula.

According to Penick, the test’s purpose is to identify the genetics required for forage-based goat production, with emphasis on parasite resistance/tolerance, weight gain using forage and minimal supplementation, and overall commercial viability.

In its first two years, the buck test has already revealed the variability in parasite resistance and overall performance necessary for successful selection and breeding. In both years so far, champion bucks’ rates of daily weight gain have been double the test average. New reports detailing the results of the buck test’s first two years are available free online (see box).

The buck test is almost as much about undoing the results of selection for the show ring as it is about exerting positive selection for pasture performance. The traits that let meat goats thrive on forage in the southeast don’t necessarily win points in the show ring.

“Emphasis on show ring quality has had a significant effect on the commercial meat goat animal, which has been selected more for its physical appearance than for the commercial characteristics of foraging ability, foot soundness, and parasite resistance/ tolerance,” Penick says.

From the beginning, the buck test drew interest and participation from all over the country. It has also garnered quite a bit of recognition and prestige, with champion bucks beginning to bring thousands of dollars at auction.

In this way, the buck test is also helping to reshape the breeding goat market, making it possible for producers to receive deserved compensation for putting in the necessary time and effort to improve meat goat lines.

Eyes on Management
Even the most parasite-resistant of goats will still perform better when parasites are scarce to begin with. To accomplish that, the second component of Hart’s parasite-control formula – management – meshes with the time-tested sustainable livestock husbandry practice of rotational grazing.

By synchronizing their herds’ grazing rotations with parasites’ life cycle, and carefully monitoring the animals’ health, meat goat producers can use a combination of management and on-farm selection that keeps a tight lid on parasite problems.

Once parasite eggs hit the ground in goat manure, it takes them five or six days to hatch. If the goats are gone before then, Hart says, and don’t return until forty days later, when the larvae have died, the goats’ chances of infestation are greatly reduced.

Once rotation is established, monitoring and selective treatment can replace blanket worming. Dr. David Sparks, a veterinarian who raises meat goats near Porum, uses this approach.

“We don’t have a time when we run everybody through and worm them,” he says. “Never, ever, ever.” Such indiscriminate use of chemical dewormers, he says, created the resistance problem in the first place.

Instead, every two to three weeks, Sparks scores each goat in the herd for parasites using the Famacha system, which is based on the amount of redness in the goats’ eyelids. (The goats’ main parasite, the barber pole worm, feeds on the goats’ blood, so whiter eyelids are a sign that the goat is anemic from too heavy a parasite infestation.)

When the FAMACHA score indicates that a goat needs chemical deworming, Sparks “helps” it. “The ones that need help several times get helped onto a trailer and go to town,” he quips.

Sparks also points out the simple precaution of not bringing parasites onto a farm. When buying goats, he advises, make sure to ask the seller about his or her herd health and worm control programs.

“It’s your hard-earned money,” he reasons. “Don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions.”

So Happy Together
Another hallmark of sustainable livestock raising – multi-species grazing – can further enhance parasite control. It turns out that cattle and goats are not only immune to each other’s parasites, but each can actually reduce populations of those harmful to the other.

“Cattle are like a vacuum cleaner for goat parasites, says Hart. “You can just lead with cattle ahead of goats in any pasture.” The parasites emerge during the pasture’s rest period, and the returning cattle consume them before the goats are exposed. (See Field Notes, Summer 2008.)

Grazing cattle and goats together can also convey additional benefits. According to Penick, some existing cattle operations are discovering them.

“Meat goats provide a second income stream that is always welcome,” she says. “Goats also complement cattle on pasture by eating browse and weeds that cattle avoid.”

According to Bob Woods, Area Agronomist with OCES, such a shift in vegetation is evident on Sparks’ farm, where he is using an Oklahoma Producer Grant to demonstrate the benefits of multi-species grazing.

“This has been an] amazing transformation. In the beginning there were not only tall weeds, but also places with bare soil,” Woods says. “The difficulty now is in establishing legumes in this much residue.”

On the Stewardship Ranch at Poteau, the Kerr Center is monitoring such vegetation changes in the pastures grazed by the new commercial doe herd. Transects and photo monitoring will reveal changes in plant species over time, and allow an assessment of any effect of those changes on the goats.

Established following the success of the buck test, the commercial doe operation practices rotational grazing, and uses FAMACHA testing and fecal egg counts to monitor parasite loads, to educate producers in such techniques of sustainable meat goat management.

Boning Up
Though most research to date on meat goats in the southeast has focused on parasites, Sparks is quick to point out that there plenty of other tricks to the meat goat trade, including fencing, predator control, watering, foot trimming, and many others.

“Goat management is not simple,” Sparks points out. “They’re not small cattle.”
To flatten out the learning curve, he strongly urges goat producers to take advantage of the services available to them.

One such service is OCES’ “Oklahoma Meat Goat Boot Camp.” Each session of the three-day boot camp is limited to 50 participants, who receive 30 hours of instruction, all of it either hands-on or in groups of three to four people per educator.

OCES has also published the new “Oklahoma Basic Meat Goat Manual, with full text available free online, to give new producers the latest information on all aspects of meat goat production.

In addition to these resources, both the Kerr Center and Langston University maintain extensive online resources related to meat goat production, and frequently host workshops and field days on the topic.

Getting the Right Price
Even mastering every aspect of meat goat production is still only
part of the battle. Marketing presents another major component of any
operation.

Just as with parasite control, in marketing, too, the southeastern region offers its own unique challenges. In this case, those challenges are structural rather than climatic. Large-scale meat goat slaughtering and processing facilities are few and far between.

With the recent closure of one such facility in San Angelo, two major plants in Connecticut and New Jersey now handle a large share of all meat goats produced east of the Rockies.

At smaller auctions not frequented by these plants’ buyers, meat goat producers may receive half or less the price offered at a larger sale.

In an effort to level that playing field, area producers recently formed a steering committee to investigate the feasibility of a statewide meat goat marketing cooperative. The co-op’s goal would be to assemble enough goats at one time and place to fill a truck headed for one of the large east-coast processing facilities, and thus receive the higher price.

The steering committee held its first meeting in McAlester on May 19. It plans to create and distribute a survey to Oklahoma meat goat producers to learn more about their operations and needs.

For more information, interested producers can contact James “J.J.” Jones, Area Agricultural Economist with OCES, at 580.332.7011 or jj.jones@okstate.edu.
The Kerr Center and its collaborators are demonstrating that with sustainable management, meat goats can thrive in the southeast, opening up new avenues for sustaining small farms throughout the region.

Sources
Solaiman, S.D. 2007. Assessment of the meat goat industry and future outlook for U.S. small farms. www.agmrc.org/media/cms/USGoatProductionFinal_E1367962C32D1.pdf

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Census of Agriculture. www.agcensus.usda.gov