Meat Goat Program
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The Kerr Center Meat Goat Program began in 2007 with the establishment of the Oklahoma Commercial Meat Goat Forage Performance Test, popularly known as the buck test. 2011 marked the fifth year of the test. In 2012 the center will establish a similar test for hair (meat) sheep rams.
The Kerr Center is beginning to implement multispecies grazing, incorporating the goat herd into the larger rotational system with the cattle. The long-term goal for the program is a lead/follow system with the goats and cattle throughout the entire acreage.
Commercial Doe Herd
The herd of Kiko and Kiko-cross meat goats, established in 2007 on ten acres of native grass on the Kerr Ranch near Poteau, expanded to include a commercial doe herd later that year. The commercial doe operation is used to educate and inform producers of while also demonstrating grazing techniques for sustainable meat goat management. FAMACHA testing and fecal egg counts are used to monitor parasite loads.
The Kerr Center goat herd is currently made up of approximately 20 Kiko and Kiko-cross does and two Kiko bucks.
In summer 2008, the does were moved to an 8-acre plot named "Native Grass Plot" to monitor how forages change in response to the does' grazing behavior. Using transects and photo monitoring, we can see the plant species change over time and the effect this has on the goats.
In late summer 2011, the doe herd was removed from the 8-acre native grass plot on which it had been rotated for the last three years. At this time the native grass plot had been essentially cleared of brush and other weedy species preferred by goats, showing that continuous rotation of a goat herd has the ability to transform a brushy pasture into grassland.
From summer 2011 through spring 2012, the doe herd was rotated through the 35-acre buck test pastures, as well as used to control some surrounding brushy areas through the use of portable electric fence.
Recently, the does began rotating through a 20-acre plot that had until 2012 only been grazed by the cattle herd. The plot is permanently sub-divided into three pastures by three strands of high-tensile wire placed in front of existing barbed-wire fence, and further divided by temporary electric fence to create week-long rotations. Portable shade structures and a portable automatic waterer that is filled by gravity flow from a nearby pond are moved with the herd. The does will be rotated through these pastures during the spring, summer, and into the fall, at which point the cattle will be rotated through after them to clean up the pastures of any remaining forage before winter.
During the winter the doe herd will be used primarily to control brush in areas surrounding pastures and ponds, decreasing the amount of labor that has been needed in the past to stop brush and tree encroachment into pastures.
Plans are also being made to follow the does throughout the summer with a newly established pastured poultry flock to observe whether the poultry can have a positive effect on decreasing the presence of either internal or external parasites that affect the doe herd.
Kerr Center staff will also be working over the next several years to develop a grass-based meat product using the buck kids born to the doe herd, as well as to market intact buck yearlings.
The Kerr Center uses livestock guardian dogs to protect goats from predators, both during the buck test and year-round for the doe herd. More information can be found here.
Resources
For more information about meat goats we recommend these external links:
In addition, see the Kerr Center’s resources related to meat goats.
Kerr Center Workshop:
Healthy Soils, Healthy Livestock 2011
Over fifty people from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kansas attended the Kerr Center’s “Healthy Soils, Healthy Livestock” grazing workshop on Friday and Saturday, April 8-9, 2011. Complete presentations and materials are available online. Topics include soil health, animal health, grazing systems, and pasture management.
Kerr Center Field Day:
Multi-species Grazing (Cattle and Goat) Field Day 2010
Forty people from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Kansas attended the Kerr Center’s multi-species grazing field day, hosted by Dr. Dave Sparks and his wife Linda, on Saturday, May 8, 2010 at their farm near Porum, OK.
Information and resources »
Kerr Center Field Day: Meat Goats 2011
About 25 people from several states attended the Kerr Center's field day on commercial meat goats, capped with an awards ceremony for the 2011 Oklahoma Forage-Based Buck Test, on September 24.
Contacts
Mary Penick
Livestock Projects Manager
mpenick@kerrcenter.com
Andy Makovy
Ranch Herdsman & Technician
amakovy@kerrcenter.com
Erin Campbell-Craven
Livestock Program Assistant
ecampbell-craven@kerrcenter.com |
