Goats

Muckit

Anyone on here into goats? Are they a viable alternative farming enterprise in Ireland?

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

Anyone on here into goats? Are they a viable alternative farming enterprise in Ireland?

My parents used to keep 60 in the 1980's and sell the milk from them. It was an ok enterprise - a lot of people bought milk for children that had allergies and that kind of stuff. There came a lot of restrictions into goat milk production in the late 1980's and they would have had to spend a lot of money to stay at it so they opted out. You would need to be producing milk, cheese and yougurt and have a great outlet for it if you were going to do it. Unfortunately a lot of the branded goat milk suppliers have the market well sown up. The buck kids are worthless - we used to slaughter and eat them and your herd grows rapidly, they're hard to keep fenced in and they eat anything green that grows as well as the bark on any trees that may be on your land.

On a light note, the last year that we kept goats, 20 female goats raised 10 jersey heifer calves for us - each calf had 2 goats to suck and they did a great job on them.

pakalasa

reilig wrote: »

..........On a light note, the last year that we kept goats, 20 female goats raised 10 jersey heifer calves for us - each calf had 2 goats to suck and they did a great job on them.

That's gas! Any pics?

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

Unfortunately a lot of the branded goat milk suppliers have the market well sown up. The buck kids are worthless .

ya I was thinking as much. I couldn't see our local kepak taking them! Then as you say, not as easy to get rid of your milk, you'd have to be making cheese/yoghurt and flogging it yourself. I suppose if there was a few euro to be made in it, there would be alot more lads at it;)

Muckit

pakalasa wrote: »

That's gas! Any pics?

They're supposed to be great milkers alright. They produce more milk for their weight than a cow and they're the worlds biggest supplier of milk. I'd always just have assumed it was cows milk!

reilig

Sorry, no pics lads, it was around 1987. The calves got to suck the goats twice a day and they did better than other bucket fed calves that were getting fed twice a day. Made some nice cows too!!

LostCovey

reilig wrote: »

Sorry, no pics lads, it was around 1987. The calves got to suck the goats twice a day and they did better than other bucket fed calves that were getting fed twice a day. Made some nice cows too!!

Did it have any long-term impacts on their....er....em......romantic preferences......... in later life?


LC

RO 06

we use to stand the goat on a bale of straw and let a calf suck her or bring the goat into the milking parlour and she would stand there to be milked

agcons

Muckit wrote: »

Anyone on here into goats? Are they a viable alternative farming enterprise in Ireland?

Glenisk www.glenisk.com seem to be the main purchasers of goats milk. We have a couple of clients producing goats milk for them and making a decent living from it. Its very specialised, unlike cows the goats seem to be very sensitive to their environment but its certainly a premia free way of making a living from the land. There are some figures in The farmers Handbook re costs and potential marhins

moy83

glenisk won't take on anymore suppliers of goats milk they told me the market had "plateaued" .Thats crap what is needed is a new processing plant with a new brand there are only two brands currently on supermarket shelves . I think there is loads of room for expansion in goats milk , wish i had the money to set up my own bottling plant;)

Muckit

moy83 wrote: »

glenisk won't take on anymore suppliers of goats milk they told me the market had "plateaued" .Thats crap what is needed is a new processing plant with a new brand there are only two brands currently on supermarket shelves . I think there is loads of room for expansion in goats milk , wish i had the money to set up my own bottling plant;)

Are you dabbling in goats yourself moy83?

moy83

no but i know a couple of fellas stacking supermarket shelves and they reckon it sells like mad . Its very popular with people that have asmaha or an intolerance to dairy products .when i looked at getting into it glenisk said it wasn't selling as much now and they couldn't take any new suppliers on . Teagasc lad said he thought there was a good market for it aswell but he hadn't time to research it cos he was too busy with regular farming ie sucklers or dairy so not much help there

Muckit

moy83 wrote: »

no but i know a couple of fellas stacking supermarket shelves and they reckon it sells like mad . Its very popular with people that have asmaha or an intolerance to dairy products .when i looked at getting into it glenisk said it wasn't selling as much now and they couldn't take any new suppliers on . Teagasc lad said he thought there was a good market for it aswell but he hadn't time to research it cos he was too busy with regular farming ie sucklers or dairy so not much help there

I thought Teagasc had a dedicated advisor/researcher for Goats, or has he been redeployed?

moy83

i couldn't get talking to him , don't know where he went but the chap i was talking to said he was mainly dealing with sucklers even though he was supposed to deal with goat queries .Have you a few goats yourself muckit ?

Sundy

Got a Ugandian taxi driver once in Dublin and he procced to tell me how that he, his mates and their families loved goat meat, even prefered it to lamb. He was intenting on buying two goats to slaughter for christmas.

I dont know anything about goat meat but maybe there but maybe some of you who do could try some ethnic butchers.

Muckit

moy83 wrote: »

i couldn't get talking to him , don't know where he went but the chap i was talking to said he was mainly dealing with sucklers even though he was supposed to deal with goat queries .Have you a few goats yourself muckit ?

I don't Moy83 at the moment

But i was toying with the idea. Read up alot on them. They seem to be able to generate alot more income/hectare than most other traditional enterprises (well on paper at least:rolleyes:)

I suppose I'm a dreamer, but if I thought I could make a go of them i'd give them a shot. There'd be ALOT of issues to sort out first though.

Does anyone know if there is an abbattoir that takes them? I suppose if a lad decided to go milking them, that a local butcher would butcher the fattened males/culls? Saying that they're want to be alot of Africian taxi drivers about to buy it!:D

MmC1980

Does anyone out there know of goat butcher in leinster area. A good butcher that understands the best cuts for a goat not treat it like a lamb

Mad4simmental

MmC1980 wrote: »

Does anyone out there know of goat butcher in leinster area. A good butcher that understands the best cuts for a goat not treat it like a lamb

Any Indian take-away.

Kevin the sheep

MmC1980 wrote: »

Does anyone out there know of goat butcher in leinster area. A good butcher that understands the best cuts for a goat not treat it like a lamb

Had man from ballon meats in yard other day and he seen my goats and said to ring him when I wanted to sell them for meat so he would know what to do with them he might do them for you

MmC1980

Kevin the sheep wrote: »

Had man from ballon meats in yard other day and he seen my goats and said to ring him when I wanted to sell them for meat so he would know what to do with them he might do them for you

Sounds good where are they based

Kevin the sheep

MmC1980 wrote: »

Sounds good where are they based

Ballon meats in Carlow not to fare from Tullow

Kevin the sheep

MmC1980 wrote: »

Sounds good where are they based

Ballon meats in Carlow not to fare from Tullow