Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Completed Competitive Grant

Is the meat goat enterprise profitable and sustainable?

Project ID: M2007-28

Abstract

Additional tools are needed to help producers successfully produce and market meat goats in Iowa. The project helped revise or create on-line tools to help producers monitor their operations more carefully.

Key Question: Would it be possible to gather enough production information from Iowa meat goat producers to create reasonable meat goat production budgets? From these budgets can good benchmarks be determined for reproductive goals, feeding efficiencies, and market expectations? What then is the profit potential for meat goat production? Is this potential durable across various enterprise sizes? Are the benchmarks attainable?

Findings: Addressing these questions can only begin by gathering actual records from producers in Iowa.

Lead investigator: Dennis DeWitt, ISU Extension

Co-Investigator(s):

Tom Olsen and Dan Morrical

Year of grant completion: 2010

This competitive grant project was part of the Leopold Center's Marketing Initiative.

Topics: Market research and feasibility studies, Models and assessment tools, Niche meat, dairy and poultry