south district tour
meat goat tour

coop tours: ohio meat goat task force study tour

The Ohio Meat Goat Task Force was represented by 10 members on a recent study tour. The study tour involved visits to New Holland, Pennsylvania and New York State. The purpose of the study tour was to identify and access ethnic markets having a preference for goat meat.

New Holland, Pennsylvania is home to the largest goat auction in the country. As many as 2500-3000 goats are sold weekly to service the eastern Muslim and Hispanic market in New Jersey and New York City. We quickly realized that the demand for goats far exceeded the supply. Goats of any kind, size and shape were sold and met a variety of market niches from white cloth restaurants to hunting preserves. Goats were sold by the head rather than by the pound and were purchased by brokers who then further processed or re-sold live to their ethnic customers. While the live auction trade in the New Holland market was friendly to the farmer with goats selling for $.90 to $1.20 per pound. The true added value was by the brokers who merchandised processed goats for as much as $5.00 per pound and live goats in the live market in New York City for $2 - $3 per pound. A few brokers received 100% increase over sale day price for the goats purchased through the auction. Our task force members realized that direct marketing provided the greatest value to the producer.
From New Holland our group traveled to Ithaca, New York to meet with the New York goat marketing task force. While in New York our group toured two farm operations, with on farm processing capabilities. The on-farm processing was of interest as this approach provided a service to the customers while adding value to the commodity, in this case, goats. Chris Parsons a farmer and member of the New York task force allowed us to tour his meat goat operation and on-farm processing. Chris was able to share with our producers the importance of networking with other producers to provide an adequate supply of product to the ethnic market. Chris also shared the details of his SARE grant application which will be of value to our procedures in Ohio.

From here we traveled to western New York to visit Ed Roggans farm. Ed not only raises goats & sheep but he buys through the auction market to supply goats to meet the demand of his customers. Ed has accessed the Muslim market in Buffalo and Rochester, New York. Once again the direct market sales were adding the most value back to Ed as the producer/broker. Ed also had on-farm processing capability and had sold nearly 500 goats and lambs through his processing plant this year.
The remainder of our trip was spent with the New York task force members to discuss producer networking ideas, and regional opportunities between Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Western New York. Our task force members participating in the tour have initiated producer network to facilitate the marketing of meat goats to the Muslim & Hispanic communities located in and around the urban centers of Ohio.

The tour re-enforced the importance of grower networks working cooperatively to access these value added direct markets.