RED DEER — The Canadian goat sector is quietly building demand and encouraging expansion.
Those showing their purebreds at the Western National Dairy Goat show in Red Deer July 15 already know how easy it is to sell breeding stock, milk and cheese. If a farm is close to a large centre, the products practically sell themselves.
“Where the population is higher it is going well because there is demand for the milk in the stores,” said Lorraine Keeping of Christopher Lake, Sask.
She sells milk to cheese makers, but her main business is selling purebred LaManchas, a Spanish type of goat without ear lobes.
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“Breeding stock is more lucrative,” she said.
Lindy Schira of Weyburn, Sask., raises Alpine goats, which she bought when one of her three children showed an intolerance to cow’s milk.
An active show person, she is also in the breeding stock business, even though her husband was dubious about getting goats.
“He rolled his eyes, but I made good money off the babies and covered all my costs,” she said.
This was her fourth show this year, and she plans to display at Canadian Western Agribition this fall when the dairy breeds make a comeback after a 10-year hiatus.
Goats are a family business for Bob and Lulu Abbott of Cobble Hill, B.C., on Vancouver Island. They showed Nubian goats to the grand championship arena at Red Deer.
A floppy eared type that traces back to North Africa and the Middle East, these goats are noisy but friendly.
“Nubian goats are a bit more personable. They are sometimes called prima donnas because they need more attention,” Abbott said.
The Abbotts have developed their own bloodlines under the Broad Maple Nubians name and have won three national shows since 2013.
They have eight children who are involved with the goats’ care. They drink the milk, and Lulu sells cheese and hand-made goat milk soap.
Goat’s milk and cheese are growing in popularity with Ontario being the dominant producer. The provincial association recently released a cost of production study to help producers gain a better understanding of the industry.
The study worked with 14 licensed Ontario farms and calculated the cost of production to be $1.368 per litre of milk, which included feed, debt and labour costs.
Feed took one-third of the ex-penses, but labour was more difficult to calculate because many of the farmers did not draw a full-time salary from the operation. The industry has drawn newcomers who may have other sources of income.
According to the Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative, 110 members sold 20 million litres of milk in 2013.
Agriculture Canada does not maintain regular goat inventories. It latest statistics, based on 2006 information, estimated national milk production at 21 million litres.
Ontario is the leading goat province, but Quebec and Alberta are also becoming larger producers.
On a global scale, goat milk represents two percent of total milk production.
