I have purchased goat meat in the past from Hare-Today. I have also bought a few books on raising goats, as Tina and I were seriously considering doing so as a meat/milk source, both for ourselves as well as for the dogs.Originally Posted by TFX
Some goats are specifically bred to produce milk (Nubian/LaMancha), while others are specifically bred to produce meat (Boer/Kiko), while a few breeds do an acceptable level of both (Tennesse Meat/Spanish). If you're looking for literature on the subject, I recommend Storey's Guide to Raising Meat Goats. You will learn that, as with dogs, in goats performance and pedigree are everything (really, even more so in goats!). Where opinion may vary as to what a good dog is, with goats it is a matter of FACT. What do I mean by this? Well, truly good breeders actually measure the amount of milk that comes out of their does, and they measure the amount of meat that slaughtered goats generate, and the animals on the high-end in these documented production results are simply worth more money ... especially when they come from a long history of similar pedigreed, ancestral documentation.
So, again as with dogs, you can buy a $50 goat out of the paper ... but if you want the best you're going to have to hit your hip pocket and plop down some cash
Jack
PS: It should be noted that certain milk goats do not produce as much milk as some of the commercial dairy breeds, but they do produce better milk (more fat/better taste), so for a small private enterprise to produce for self/dogs/family, these might be the wiser choices.
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