A market for meat goats?

AURI examines raising goats for Minnesota’s ethnic communities

 By E. M. Morrison

Marshall, Minn. — For Lul Hersi, food is a powerful link to her lost homeland.

Hersi, 30, was born and raised in Burao, in northern Somalia. Her family fled the civil war, living in refugee camps in Kenya until 1992, when Hersi and her seven brothers and sisters immigrated to America. Hersi, who “wanted to see snow so bad,” settled in Marshall, married and had two children, now eight and three years old.

Her kids’ favorite foods?

“French fries, chicken nuggets, chocolate chip cookies,” she says with a sigh. “All things not Somali.”

That’s one reason Hersi family meals include traditional Somali dishes such as goat stew. “That is a way to keep our culture alive.”

A staple of Somali cuisine, goat meat is hard to get in Minnesota — it’s usually shipped in frozen from Australia or New Zealand. “We would prefer fresh meat,” Hersi says.

Emerging demand for fresh goat in Minnesota’s Somali and Hispanic communities prompted AURI to take a close look at the meat goat industry. In June, AURI completed a yearlong study on the feasibility of producing and processing meat goats in Minnesota.

The study examines production costs, processing requirements, marketing channels and product demand. It charts a course for future development of the industry in Minnesota.

Who’s got the goat?

AURI has worked with Minnesota dairy goat producers for several years. But a call from Somali meat brokers to AURI meat scientist Ted Gillett alerted the institute to a possible demand for fresh goat meat.

Imports, which account for most of the goat meat consumed in the United States, have grown steadily over the last decade to about 10 million pounds in 1998. A dozen Twin Cities retail outlets now carry frozen goat meat, and goat meat dishes are on the menu at several metro-area ethnic restaurants. “When we realized there was a demand for meat goats, we wanted to look at whether it would be profitable to raise them here” says Jody Koubsky, AURI program specialist in Morris who also farms with her family in Pope County.

In the United States, goats have been raised mainly for fiber or milk. Domestic goat meat production, which represents just one percent of world production, is concentrated in Texas. Minnesota raises fewer than 5,000 goats a year; nearly all are dairy goats.

Because U.S. meat production has been so limited, “we wanted to make sure goat meat production was feasible before we got producers involved,” Gillett says. “We don’t want to start an industry that can’t sustain itself.”

Get your goat answers here

With Gillett’s help, the study was carried out by Jay Lillywhite, Southwest State University agribusiness professor. It examines several breeds of meat goats, including the Boer, “a new breed that grows a little more rapidly and has a better constitution for meat than dairy goats do,” Gillett says. “They are known for their reproductive capacity and may be able to kid three times every two years.” However, almost all goat production research has been conducted in Texas and Oklahoma and studies need to be done in Minnesota’s climate, Gillette says.

The report compares production methods, including intensive grazing, feedlot and range systems, and includes a detailed analysis of production costs and returns. Capital requirements for breeding stock, housing and equipment; fixed costs, including depreciation, maintenance and interest; and variable costs, including average per-animal outlays for feed, health care, supplies, transportation, marketing and interest on operating capital are included in the report.

Marketing is a main feature of the study, which summarizes historical market prices on both live weight and carcass bases. Goat prices vary widely by season, location and product quality, the study found. Markets spike around the time of religious holidays such as Ramadan and Easter, then drop in late summer when supplies are greatest.

Minnesota goat producers will likely face strong price competition from imported meat, the study warns. “In Australia, they just run in the wild and they round them up … so there’s not a lot of management,” and production is subsidized, Gillett says.

However, domestic goat meat prices have increased about fifty cents a pound over the last ten years. And producers who market directly to consumers report substantial price premiums.

Bullish on billies?

Still, the study casts doubt on the profit potential of meat goats in Minnesota.

“Using a set of reasonable assumptions concerning market prices and production costs,” the study concludes, “it appears that meat goat production in the state of Minnesota would not be profitable as a stand-alone business.”

But Koubsky points out that profitability “depends on numerous factors, including an individual’s skills and resources, animal productivity, production efficiencies, weather and the market. Under certain circumstances, meat goats could be profitable.”

For example, she says, a grower with an existing building could cut the cost of housing by $10 to $15 per square foot over new construction, increasing returns per animal by about $2.

Similarly, she says, skillful pasture management or successful out-of-season breeding could improve productivity. As distribution channels develop, meat could become a viable coproduct, boosting margins on dairy or fiber goats.

On North Dakota cattle farms, some ranchers are grazing goats that eat leafy splurge, which usually has to be sprayed. “The cattle do better; farmers are paying to have goats run with them,” Gillett says. Besides pastures, he says it may make economical sense to raise goats in the swampy, marginal farmland of northern Minnesota.

More questions

Still unknown is the strength of demand for fresh goat meat in Minnesota.

The primary market is the growing Somali population. The Minnesota Department of Human Services estimates that at least 15,000 Somalis have settled in Minnesota. Most live in the Twin Cities; smaller communities have formed in Rochester, Owatonna and Marshall.

Lul Hersi, a social worker for Lutheran Social Services, has helped resettle more than 250 Somalis in Marshall this year. She says Somalis prefer the taste of young, grass-fed goats. The meat is lean and tender, she says, and Somalis use it in a host of traditional dishes: in soup with vegetables, in stew, broiled with spices, deep-fried or stir-fried with rice. Somalis would eat goat several times a week if it were available and affordable, Hersi says.

But will subsequent generations continue to favor goat? Will immigrants begin to substitute other meats? How much will price influence demand? “There are still lots of questions to answer,” Koubsky says.

Halal handling

Most Somali people are Muslim and consume only meat that is “Halal,” or permitted according to Islamic tradition. Halal meat cannot be processed in a facility that handles pork, which is forbidden to Muslims.

Animals must be slaughtered by a Muslim butcher, who says a prayer to Allah. And animals must be drained of blood before processing, which adds 10 to 20 minutes to processing time.

These requirements make Halal processing expensive, says Steve Olson, former AURI manager in Marshall. “Often, the processing cost is so high it kills the deal. But if we can demonstrate demand and guarantee volume, the processing cost may come down.”

Olson points to New Zealand, which has had successful Halal processing since 1983. Closer to home, livestock producers in North Dakota hope to build a $3 million multi-species Halal meat plant in Harvey, N.D. “That plant may also be beneficial for the Minnesota goat industry,” Olson says.

Typically, meat is imported from Australia as frozen, whole carcasses; U.S. processors cut it into chunks with the bone on. If Somali customers had the option to purchase goat steaks or roasts separately, “would they be willing to pay for it?” Gillett says. “Would it make it more economically feasible? There’s value in having fresh as well as frozen and they could buy it in smaller quantities.”

Customers prefer 20 to 25-pound carcasses, assuming larger goats would be too tough. “But we think we could raise them economically by getting them bigger but still young so they will be tender,” Gillett says.

“I don’t think we’re at a point where we can say goat production is feasible or not. We need production studies in the state of Minnesota.” But, he adds, with a growing ethnic population, raising meat goats is worth a closer look.

For more information about the Minnesota Meat Goat Feasibility Study, call the AURI Southwest Field Office at (507) 537-7440.