Meat goat producers- what do your customers buy and why?

[jodief100]

There was a good discussion on another thread about what ethnic groups buy what goats and why. It was off topic for that thread so I thought I would start one. I think this will be valuable information for marketing purposes.

Please tell us what your customers want, what ethnic groups and why they want that particular animal. If you are relating what you have "heard" and not presonal experience please say so. I

I had two gentlemen come by the farm last night to buy some goats. I think they were Indian but I am not certain. I always want to ask but am worried that my intentions may be misinterpreted. They bought some 50-55 lb wethers I had. They didn't specifically ask for wethers, just "young meat goats, under 1 year". Wethers was what I had.

Last year I had a large group of gentlemen who looked at everyting I had at the end of September for a Hindu holiday in October. They specifically asked for "castrated males, under 1 year 50-80 lbs". They turned down one they said was too fat and another they said was too skinny. Essentially they took all of my "grade 2" wethers.

Hubby works with a Jamacian who says he will buy older, intact bucks. I never have any available so I have never sold any to him.

I have some SE aisian customers who prefer wethers but will buy any young goat.

I get calls from latinos occasionally but they have never bought any. I think my prices are too high for them. I sell at about $0.10-$0.25 per pound less than what the Richmond auction prices are that month.

 

[Griffin's Ark]

We work closely with some meat buyers and mostly they won't touch a wether. Intact, perfect animals, both sheep and goats are needed for Muslim and Jewish buyers. Our Jamaican customers don't really need perfect, but they do want intact goats. Our Indian customers want young just weaned bucks, and they don't care if they are wethers or not when they are that age. If they are older they want them wethered. I think it has to do with hormones and taste. I hate when I have to many bucks and have to sell them for meat, but my income skyrockets because I also do the processing. I try not to process my own kids though, the money is good, but the emotional trauma really sucks. We don't really have a meat processor near us, so I ended up getting thrown into doing the deed myself to keep the customers. I also had to set up a buck paddock, because our main reason for having goats is for the dairy aspect. I can also wether a buck, but can't reverse the wethering process, so they all stay intact until I know what they need to be. This is a good idea for a thread, since most goat producers raise kids at the wrong time of the year (mostly due to the seasonality of goats) to get the best prices on the market. Which might be something else to add in here... When is the best time to sell goats? There are specific holidays or religious celebrations for each nationalities or religions, and each require something just a little bit different. I do ask nationality, and explain to the person that in general I know what size goat I need to have for specific nationalities. I would go further, but I have to go feed the kids...

 

[20kidsonhill]

We sell mostly whethers for 4H projects, but on the occasion I have had a person from India come to the farm and butcher, he had to do the butchering himself, since he requires a certain method to the butchering process. He wanted above 80lbs, buck/whether or female, not too fat. He would rather have thin than fatty. It would have been a great opportunity for us to work with people closer to washington, but he was getting a little too friendly with me and I asked him not to come back. He continued to call several times a year for a couple years, but I just started ignoring his phone calls. I know, very weird and creepy.

We have had a greek gentlemen come and get a couple goats, I beleive they were whethers, but it was a while ago. He runs a restaurant in town and was caught butchering them in the parking lot behind his business. Needless to say he was fined.

We occasionally get a call from hespanics in the area looking for goat meat, but our prices are always too high for them.

OUr stockyards have pretty good prices and I prefer to take my chances at the stockyards with them than sell them for less than I feel they are worth. One could argue the stockyard charges per head to sell them, and there are some transportation costs, but in my experience we can be quit surprised how much they will bring. the last onse I took in there(in June) braught a steady $2 a lb live weight and they werent' my best, infact they were my worst in the bunch. Not grading selection one, proably a selection 2 or even a low selection 2.


OUt of 32 kids this feb, 15 of them went to 4H shows(including 4 for our kids) and were sold at 10 to 12 weeks of age.
8 of them went for breeding stock,
I kept 3 for myself for breeding,
we lost one of them.
and the remaining kids ( I beleive 5 of them) went to the auction in town,
They were all sold by 4 months of age, except for my keeper does and the 4 my kids used for their 4H projects.
None of them were sold off the farm this year to a privit buyer directly for butchering.

 

[cmjust0]

I have to tell two stories..

A goat friend of mine had some Mexicans come looking for a goat to butcher.. Two got out of the van, but only one really spoke English.. The other just kinda stood there like he hadn't a clue what was going on.. He took them to a pen full of killers and told them to pick one out. The English speaker picked a doe.. My friend asked if they wanted it live, or dead.. He said dead. He asked if they wanted it shot or its throat slit...throat. So, he goes in the house and comes back out with a corn knife (a machete, basically)..

He said the clueless Mexican started getting a little wide eyed and nervous when he came out with the big knife.. So, my buddy goes in the pen, wrangles up the goat they chose, and walks her over to them.. The English speaking Mexican looks her over again and says that's the one he wants.. The other Mexican is getting pretty agitated at this point, kinda chattering to the other one in Spanish.. My buddy takes her under the chin with his left hand and pulls her head back, then proceeds to basically start sawing this doe's head off..

The other Mexican started yelling something in Spanish and fell all over himself trying to get away and ran back to the van as fast as he possibly could.. My buddy said when he started running, he could hear all the other Mexicans in the van just DIE LAUGHING.. Pretty sure that's why they sent him over to "help", and doubt he really knew what was about to happen since the whole conversation was in broken English..

I also once saw, at a friend's farm, some Africans drag a downer doe over a hill with a machete, and no sooner than they'd gone over the hill, here they came back carrying her.. They wasted NO TIME.. They already had a big bonfire going, and they just pitched her right on it. Hide, hair, guts, ears, hooves -- the whole goat -- right on the fire. As you might imagine, by the time they started carving big chunks of bloody meat out of her backstraps, she was distended so badly that all four of her legs were pointing in a different direction.. That was pretty gross..

Aside from that, I've never sold one off the farm so I don't really have anything to contribute to this thread...except stories.

 

[abubakar4u2003]

We use to do same with one of our friends who use to get frightened like that. It's very funny!!! I can tell you must have enjoyed what happened there.