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The hot new meat product- It's goatMANHATTAN, Kan. (AP)--The nation's changing demographics--and particularly the recent influx of several immigrant groups--is expanding a historically small market for Kansas ranchers: goat meat. Without the benefit of a flashy slogan or major marketing campaign, the industry is rapidly carving itself a spot right along the beef and pork markets. Demand for the meat has grown with the growth of Middle Eastern, Asian, African, Latin America and Caribbean populations, each of which buys goat meat and is willing to pay higher prices for a quality product. The Kansas Meat Goat Association, founded in 2000, numbers around 100 members. Beth Gaines-Riffel, editor of Grass and Grain weekly newspaper, and her family have been in the goat meat business for about nine years and have witnessed the growth. "I used to travel quite a bit for my job, and you'd see a pack of goats in southeast Kansas," Gaines-Riffel said. "Anymore, you don't have to drive very far to see meat goats popping up." As of Jan. 1, 2006, the total number of milk goats and kids in Kansas totaled 23,000 head, up 5 percent from 2005, according to a Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service report. Figures for the goat meat indsutry were not even compiled by KASS prior to 2005. In 2006, the country's goat inventory totaled 2.8 million head, up from 2.5 million head in 2005, according to the KASS report. The meat goat industry in Kansas has grown to the point that Clay Center Livestock Sales Inc., holds a monthly auction in which 700 to 1,200 goat are sold on a given night. "We started out with the intention to see if it (goat auction) would work and we were going to assess it after three months," said Mitch Langvardt of Clay Center Livestock Sales. "We are now in our fourth year. It has been going strong every month and the numbers have only increased. It is definitely an industry that is here." Langvardt said buyers generally come from as far east as Kansas City, as far south as Wichita, and from western Kansas. He said the goats are usually shipped back east to New York or Pennsylvania where processing plants are based. "There has been talk of opening a processing plant in Kansas, but nothing has ever been finalized," Langvardt said. "That would help in selling our product." Nutrition information compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture shows a 3 ounce serving of cooked goat as 122 calories, 2.6 grams of fat, 23 grams of protein, and 63.8 milligrams of cholesterol. The same size serving of chicken has 162 calories, 6.3 grams of fat, 25 grams of protein, and 78 milligrams of cholesterol. Similar servings of beef and pork were even higher in all these categories. "Goat is one of most healthy meats you can find," Hess said. Some goat meat experts describe the taste as similar to lamb, but with a slightly sweeter taste. Diane Hess, president of the Kansas Meat Goat Association, has raised goats since she was 13, but got serious about the business after her daughter needed a 4-H project in 2001. Today she has 30 goats. She said the main problem is that there has never been a good marketing plan for the goat meat industry. The beef industry has benefits from several large scale advertising campaigns. Economics is also playing a role in the growth of the meat goat industry. For example, a lighter goat is selling for about $1.50 per pound at auction as opposed to a year ago when the price ranged between 90 cents and $1. "The market has been good," Gaines-Riffel said. Goats adapt well to hot environments because of their small size and higher ratio of body surface to body weight. The meat goat industry is well established in Texas and Oklahoma and has been steadily moving north into Kansas in recent years. The feeding preferences of goats cover a wide spectrum of plants and they are inclined to browse from the top of a plant downward making them an effective biological herbicide for controlling many undesirable plants and shrubs. "They are browsers," said Gaines-Riffel, who has about 50 breeding does. "They don't graze like sheep or cows, They are good for cleaning pastures of brush and eastern red cedar trees." Pottawatomie County Extension Agent Glenn Brunkow also noted that goats can be used to clear out brush and weeds, especially in fields that border residential areas where wildfire risks exist. "If nothing else will eat it a goat probably will," Brunkow said. Because goats are small, it opens up possibilities for people who own smaller pieces of land. "People who move out to the country and have five to 10 acres can put up five goats," Hess said. Date: 5/2/07
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