Other livestock trends have failed because they built a breeder market and no real consumer market. The difference with goats is that peole eat them.

Meat goats are the fastest-growing animal enterprise in the country today. Production has more than doubled in recent years and the trend shows few signs of subsiding any time soon.

"We have a tremendous response when we hold a goat production meeting," said Janice Spears, MFA feed division. "There are more people raising goats than we had thought earlier, and many more who are interested in getting into the goat business. We're aware of that at MFA and have formulated goat rations and minerals for the market."

Prices for good quality wethers (castrated males) and does have held strong for some time now, ranging from a dollar per pound and up. And there are more organized markets for goats all the time. Several established livestock markets in Missouri and Arkansas hold regular goat sales.

Missouri now has one of the few USDA-graded goat markets in the country. It's located at the Oregon County Sheep and Goat Collection Center at Bub Ranch, just south of Koshkonong.

"We established a USDA-graded market here in September 2004," said Don Bush, manager of Bub Ranch Alliance. "We market goats on the last Saturday of each month. This market operates a bit differently from most. We get price quotes from buyers on all classes of goats and pass that along to producers in Missouri and Arkansas. If producers want to sell at that price, they deliver their animals here, where they are graded by a USDA grader.

"Depending on the season, we will have 500 or so goats at each sale," he continued. "We pay on in-weights, and we're getting better quality animals here all the time. We've sort of become the market standard for this region—producers from other areas often call to find out what our market is doing."

"Marketing is becoming less of a problem than it was only a few years ago," said Mark Kennedy, grassland conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Service. "Most Missouri goats still go to the East Coast, where there's a bigger ethnic population. But we're seeing more consumption in the middle part of the country. There's a slaughter facility in the St. Louis area, and several retail stores in that region now are carrying goat meat."

Despite booming goat production and the development of more markets, the United States is still a net importer of goat meat. Production falls short of domestic demand by nearly 2 million pounds per year.

"Goat is the preferred meat of 60 percent of the people in the world—most of the Eastern Hemisphere," said Max Stephans, Buffalo, Mo., who runs 500 Spanish-cross does in Dallas and Laclede counties. "About 80 percent of the goats that sell in Missouri are shipped live to markets on the eastern seaboard. Ethnic consumers—Hispanic, Middle Easterners, Caribbean Islanders, Muslims, Jews—form the big demand for goat meat, and most of them won't buy frozen meat. In most cases, they want a live animal."

Peak demands for goat meat coincide with major holidays: Easter, Muslim holy days, Fourth of July, Christmas. And the size of the goat preferred for ethnic holidays can vary from 20 to over 100 pounds.

"We have several ways to sell goats now—at auctions, by private treaty," said Julie Mabrey, who raises registered and percentage Boer goats near Humansville, Mo.

"We're selling mostly breeding stock, although we do sell a lot of show wethers and goats for meat. For a 60-to-80-pound wether, we usually get $1.20 to $1.50 per pound. But, unlike some exotic species such as emus, we already had a market for meat goats."

Julie and Jim Mabrey have raised goats at their Turtle Rock Ranch for several years, starting with hair goats and dairy goats. Shortly after South African Boer goats came into the United States in 1993, the Mabreys began breeding up their females, with the goal of producing Boer seedstock. In the years since, Turtle Rock has become a leading Boer goat producer.

Meat goats are attracting more attention at livestock shows, too. At the 2005 Missouri State Fair Sale of Champions, the Grand Champion Meat Goat, shown by Laurel Van Brummel of El Dorado Springs, sold for $8,500. The Reserve Champion, exhibited by Sheldon Guilford, Meadville, fetched $5,000.

If you are thinking about a meat goat enterprise but have little experience, you may want to start small. And do some homework.

"Before committing to meat goat production, prospective producers should investigate markets, estimate costs and work out a rough budget," said Linda Coffey, agriculture specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, Fayetteville, Ark. "Goats are generally an easy-care animal, and meat goats can be raised with little supplemental grain and with minimal shelter. Goats can use land that is not fully utilized, such as brushy land on a cattle farm. The key management considerations are fencing, parasite control and predator control."

Goats can be a good go-together enterprise with beef cattle.

"Goats will eat weeds, forbes and brush that cattle won't eat. In fact, goats will kill out brush and briars in two or three passes, and the fescue thickens up. We get at least 25 percent more grass after goats graze a pasture."

"You can run six or seven goats on the same forage resources a beef brood cow would need—the rougher the pasture, the more advantage for the goats," said Mark Kennedy. "A cow should wean off a 475-pound calf worth $1.30 per pound. With a 150-percent kidding rate, six goat does will wean nine kids, or about 630 pounds worth $1.30 per pound."

"An early step is to install adequate fencing," said Linda Coffey. "Existing fences can be adapted to goats by adding strands of barbed wire and stays, or by installing offset hot wires inside the permanent fence."

"We use high-tensile electric fencing where we run goats closer-in, in more open pastures that we can check more often," said Stephans. "But most of our pastures are rough and partly timbered. There, we run a 9-strand barbed wire or 12-inch woven wire. If a limb falls on the wire, it doesn't disable the entire fence the way it would with electric fencing."

Housing needs for goats are pretty simple. In Arkansas and the southern half of Missouri, natural cover will provide most of the shelter needed.

"Our goats are outside year-round," said Stephans. "We brought them here from a semi-arid region of Texas, and they have some trouble in wet, cold weather. But they just have to get used to it—we aren't building any barns."

As with sheep, internal parasites are a continuing problem with goats.

"We de-worm goats every 6 weeks to 2 months, depending on the kind of forage they are on," said Max Stephans. "The more often you rotate pastures, the better off you are from a parasite standpoint." Stephans said he uses products  such as Safeguard.

Predators—dogs and coyotes, especially—are potentially more of a problem with goats than with cattle. Most producers with sizeable goat operations use "live-in" guard dogs, such as  Great Pyrenees, that stay with the goats 24 hours a day.

Once fences and finances are in place, it's time to get your goats. A small group of goats will provide a lot of learning experience in the first year or two. And, since one buck (billy) can safely service up to 50 does in a relatively short breeding season, that's a logical size with which to begin.