Sandy Larocque likes having kids around. In fact, she enjoys goats of any age and wants to see more of them in Western Canada.
The president of the Manitoba Goat Association was in Brandon recently to drum up interest in her industry.
Speaking at a conference on small acreage possibilities, Larocque said the demand for goats remains far ahead of supply. She said goats provide opportunities for people with spare land who are looking for extra income, and for farmers looking to diversify.
Much of the opportunity lies in producing goats for the meat industry, said Larocque, who raises goats near Dauphin, Man.
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“The markets are virtually unlimited and untapped. There is a definite need for more producers.”
The demand for goat meat is driven by Canada’s growing ethnic population. To satisfy the appetite, millions of pounds of goat meat are imported into Canada each year. Much of it comes from New Zealand and Australia.
For Larocque, it makes sense to raise more of that meat here.
“There is nobody in Canada or the United States who can say they are not getting a good price for their animals or that they cannot sell their animals.”
Kids weighing up to 100 pounds can normally fetch between $1 and $1.25 per lb. in the meat market. Cull does typically sell into that market for $72 to $151. Cull bucks sell for $82 to $169.
There also is a demand for breeding stock. The Boer goat is a leading breed in the meat goat industry. Purebred bucks sell for $1,000 to $5,000, said Larocque, while purebred doe prices vary from $250 to $2,500.
Larocque said people who raise meat goats can earn $15,000 to $20,000 a year. She said this would only require working 20 hours a week tending the animals.
There also is opportunity in dairy goats.
Larocque said there is a growing number of lactose-intolerant people who cannot drink cow’s milk. The goat industry has difficulty producing enough milk for that market, and finding enough breeding stock to catch up with the milk demand.
Other countries and provinces are scrambling to find breeding stock for dairy herds.
Larocque recently received an order from Quebec for 600 dairy goats and an even larger order from British Columbia.
She turned the orders away because she could not find enough stock in Manitoba to fill them.
A cost-of-production manual is available in Manitoba.
Larocque said it is already well known that goats can control brush encroachment on pastures because they browse rather than graze.
Research is under way to better gauge benefits of pasturing goats on land infested with leafy spurge, a weed that is overrunning Manitoba pastures.
