Raising-meat-goat-for-profit
Goat Marketing - Ethnic Holiday Calendar
All those raising-meat-goat-for-profit should know what the market drivers are. Meat goat farming is a market driven enterprise and synchronizing your meat-goat raising activities to the demands of the market can reap you a nice dividend.
Easter - April 8, 2007
The market typically requires well finished, milk fed kids with a relatively light colored meat, and this is around 3 months or younger in age. Suckling kids of less 20 lbs (8kg) are not desirable as they have low meat to bone ratios and high carcass drying losses. The preferred weight range is 20 to 50 lbs (10-25kg) with 30 lbs (15 kg) being ideal.
If you are raising-meat-goat-for-profit, look at the market requirements. Eastern or Greek Easter - April 8, 2007 Type of goat wanted - Similar to Western Easter kids. A slightly larger milk fed kid (i.e. around 35 lbs) is considered optimum.
Navadurgara or Navratra Dashara or Dassai Oct 12 -20, 2007 A Hindu holiday honoring the goddess Durga. Goats are slaughtered from the 7th to the 10th day of the holiday. Female goats are not acceptable with reasonably tender male goats being preferred.
Start of Ramadan - Sept 13, 2007 – Depends on actual sighting of moon) The requirement is for both male and female kids that possess all their milk teeth, this means they will generally not exceed 12 months in age. Males can either be castrated or not. The ideal live weight is around 60 lbs (30kg) and weaned kids ranging from 45 - 120 lbs. (22kg to 60 kg) may be sought by some buyers. If you are raising-meat-goat-for-profit this is very important market period.
Id al Fitr - The Festival of the Breaking of the Ramadan Fast - Oct 13, 2007 Required goats are same as start of Ramadan.
Id al Adha - The Festival of Sacrifice - Dec 31, 2006 – Jan 3, 2007 Dec 20 – 23, 2007. The market prefers yearlings, these are goats with one set of adult teeth (2 teeth). Goats also should be near perfect with no defects or blemishes. Large kids in the 60 - 100 lbs (30 – 50 kg) range are also in demand.
Christmas The main requirement is for milk fed kids. In the US they are relatively rare and fetch good prices as they must be produced by out-of-season breeding in May for October kidding. The average weight criteria is around 18 lbs (9 kg).
Other Markets Caribbean holidays prefer relatively young and smelly 60-80 lb (30-40 kg) bucks. The Hispanic goat market prefers 15 to 30 lb (7-15kg) live weight suckling kids for cabrito, and also large weaned kids for seco de chivo and barbecues. Peak periods include Cinco de Mayo (May 5th), which is Mexico's Independence Day. Successful meat goat raising means raising-meat-goat-for-profit according to market requirements.
|