Storey's Guide to Raising Meat Goats

by Maggie Sayer

Discover how raising your own meat goats can be a fun and profitable endeavor. With expert advice on selecting the best breed for your needs, maintaining facilities, and providing necessary medical attention, this guide covers all aspects of successfully keeping meat goats. Offering plenty of tips for creating an economically viable operation and identifying niche markets for your products, Storey’s Guide to Raising Meat Goats shows you how to care for a thriving and productive herd full of healthy and happy animals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Agriculture

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2007

About the author

Maggie Sayer has written numerous articles on animal raising and husbandry. Her Boer goats and dozens of rescued animals share the farm with Sayer and her husband in the Ozark region of Arkansas.

Reviews

[Paper Lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edge of my seat reading. Where will the goats and I meat 🐐🥩

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a helpful guide for anyone interested in raising meat goats, it is one of the most thorough and useful goat books I have read. Why 3 stars? It just wasn't that interesting to read cover to cover, it was pretty boring. This doesn't take much away from the value of the book, however. I would suggest both beginner, intermediate, and advanced goat farmers read this book.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, at least for those who have some interest in animal husbandry, that suggests to the financially-minded goat breeder that there can be some income found in growing goats for meat and that there are some opportunities to encourage people to eat more goat.  This book indicates at least that a substantial amount of that effort will require either raising goats that are meaty and capable of appealing to unmet demand for goat mostly in ethnic areas and in trying to convince Americans to use the French term for goat meat because it doesn't have the negative connotations of goat in the minds of Americans.  I find such things pretty risible myself, because there are plenty of tasty goat dishes and it is lamentable to see the way that snobbery is a threat to the expansion of business opportunities for those who think that there could be three times as many meat goats merely to meet unmet demand for the meat among immigrant populations.  That is a lot of goat, and it appears that few people, for whatever reasons, are raising those goats at least in my own observation.

This book is about 300 pages and is divided into fifteen chapters and several appendices.   The author begins with a discussion of why people should raise meat goats (1) and then discusses the preparation one needs to do before one begins (2).  After that the author discusses which breed to choose based on a variety of factors (3) as well as where and where not to buy goats for one's farm (4).  There is a discussion of selecting breeding stock (5) as well as how to think like goats when it comes to handling, feeding, and behavior (6).  A chapter is devoted to goat hauling (7) as well as the housing and facilities required by goats (8) and how to properly feed them (9).  A chapter is spent on keeping goats healthy and taking care of them when they are ill (10) as well as the parasites that can afflict them (11).  The author discusses various options for livestock guardians (12) to protect goats from predators as well as the breeding of meat goats (13).  The book's chapters then end with a look at the marketing of meat goats (14) and the promotion of one's goat business (15).  Seven appendices then follow on the DEFRA's code of recommendation for the welfare of goats (i), photographing goats (ii), identifying oats (iii), trimming hooves (iv), adding a milk goat for kids to take care of (v), clipping for shows (vi), and emergency killing (vii) before the book ends with resources, a glossary, and index.

The book offers a variety of ways for people to raise meat goats for fun and profit, and those ways are worthwhile to investigate for those who are interested in engaging in animal husbandry.  For one, one can raise goats for the show circuit as a way of increasing the value of purebred and fullbred lines, although there are certainly costs involved in putting animals up for show.  The book helpfully offers tips on how goats need to be certain weights and ages to meet certain markets' demands.  The book even discusses the use of goats to pull carts and bear burdens for camping and other overland expeditions.  Truly goats can be trained to do a diverse set of tasks and this speaks highly of their intellect as animals and the way that they can be profitably grown, even if breeding remains at the core of successful goat raising, requiring a great deal of attention to multiple births so as to raise enough goats to make it possible to sell them to other optimistic souls.  I wonder if this is how my grandmother had to reason when it came to the cows that were on her farm, for this sort of book with its shrewd financial advice would have appealed to her own business interests.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm actually interested in raising dairy goats, but my library only had a book on meat goats. Still, good info on the basics of raising goats. It had a really good description of the different meat breeds and why you would choose one over the other. If I had an actual farm or acreage, I would definitely consider meat goats. This book also put into context all the diseases and ailments you read about goats. The author said you probably won't encounter most of them even if you raise goats for 30 years, but books are exhaustive and provide you an encyclopedic look at all the possibilities and how to handle them.

[Liam O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liam O'Connell

I found this book very helpful in finding answers to the problems I was having with my own herd of meat goats. The book really covered and executed problems with my herd. I also found meat goats to be a lot different then the dairy goat I grow up with. The book also gave me some new ideas and plans for building my herd and farm in the future. The book also went over problems that I solve but made them even easier now for me. The book also gave me other resources to find more information on topics of raising and growing meat goats. This book has really helped me grow and learn as a young adult learn about the ways of working with meat goats.

[Wolf Fortenberry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book should have titled “Marketing Boer Goats”, because that is essentially what this. There’s a lot of outdated information in here as well. This is not at all a book I’d recommend for a novice. There is some good bits of information in here as long as you don’t mind wading through the rest of the garbage.

[Kyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

good info!!!

[Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource. I will revisit if I do indeed decide to get some but not anything you would put on the shelf otherwise.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for people primarily interested in pet goats!! Suggests very brutal means of disposing of unwanted kids.

[Paul Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has some information that can be useful in raising Boer goats, raise goats up until 2018, , utilizing an acre I purchased. Many purposes 🐐 are helpful in.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am very pleased with this book. It was exactly what I was looking for. Its a good book that covers every aspect of breeding Boer goats. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in breeding Boers. Its a good book to keep on your shelf.