Image : Kidding areas with pens should measure 5 feet by 6 feet. Depending on the climate in your region

Grow quickly and are easier to raise than other livestock. “You don’t need a lot of land like you do with cattle, and you don’t need a lot of buildings like you do with hogs,” said Finch.
Offer income potential within seven to eight months of breeding. Goats have a five-month gestation. The kids can be weaned at three months at 45 to 55 pounds and can go directly to market.
Provide a tax benefit in some states. “Most people who have an acreage want horses, but in Iowa they aren’t considered livestock for tax purposes,” Finch said. “Goats can classify you a farm business and offer some tax benefits.” Consult your tax advisor for more information.

Feeding

In a local farm economy dominated by a corn-soybean-hogs-cattle mindset, you can expect to get some flak when you try something new like meat goats.

Just ask Eric Finch of State Center, Iowa. “When we started this niche business several years ago, some of our family said we couldn’t make any money on goats,” he recalls. “Some of the neighbors and the people at church laughed, too.”

When Finch and his wife, Deb, marketed more than 100 goats in a year to the local Hispanic population and turned a profit, the doubters didn’t give up. “They’d tell us, ‘Yeah, you have a market now, but it’s a fad. It won’t last.’”

Now that the Finches direct market more than 300 goats a year and still can’t keep up with demand, people have changed their tune.

“We have never lost money on the goats,” Eric Finch said. “That’s not true in the hog market, where you might only make money two or three months of the year, and those profits don’t make up for the losses the rest of the year.”

While Finch continues to work in his family’s conventional corn and swine operation, he’s learned that direct marketing specialty products can pay off. But it requires a different mindset.

“You have to think outside the traditional agricultural box. You have to learn to work with customers directly, and you have to respond to what they want to buy.”

But for farmers who can make this paradigm shift, the rewards are worth it, Finch said.

“The goat market excites me. I see it as a way to spread risk on our farm, and I’m honored to share what I know with others.”

Source : http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/0704/meatgoat/index_print.shtml