Goats are quickly becoming a common sight along roadsides and on small farms all over the United States. Since we raise goats, and raise them for meat, we often are asked why. Beef, chicken, and pork are more widely consumed at the American family dinner table, but goat is actually the world’s most popular meat.

Approximately 75 percent of the world’s population eats goat meat. With America’s rising population of ethnic groups, demand for goat meat has risen sharply. American producers are struggling to keep up with the growing demand for a product that was virtually unheard of 15 years ago. In addition to the ethnic population that regularly consumes goat meat (also known as cabrito or chevon), many Americans are discovering the benefits of eating goat meat.

It has a good flavor and is very healthy. It is low in fat, cholesterol, calories, and saturated fat. In fact, goat meat is over 50% lower in fat than our American beef and is about 40% lower in saturated fat than chicken, even chicken cooked with the skin off!  The following meat comparison (per 3 oz. roasted meat) table is from the USDA Handbook:

            Calories            Fat (g)               Sat. Fat (g)      Protein (g)       Iron (g)

GOAT    122                2.58                     0.79                 23                   3.2          

Beef        245                16.0                      6.8                  23                   2.0

Pork        310                24.0                      8.7                  21                   2.7

Lamb      235                16.0                      7.3                  22                   1.4

Chicken  120                  3.5                       1.1                  21                   1.5

Since goat meat is so low in fat, this makes cooking more of a challenge. Goat meat must be cooked slowly and at low temperatures, or it will dry out and become tough. The best ways to cook goat are roasting (in the oven, in a smoker, or on the grill) or braising (cooking with added liquid such as water, wine, or milk). Marinating will help retain moisture and tenderness as well. Old-fashioned smoking has, in our opinion, produced the best-tasting goat meat of all. What I have had was even better than smoked beef or pork! Of course, most of us do not have the time required to smoke our meats daily, so I am including a few less time-consuming recipes for you to try. Enjoy!

Goat Meat Loaf

2 lb ground goat meat
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 envelope Dry Onion Soup/Dip Mix
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup water or milk

Directions: Mix 1/2 mushroom soup, goat meat, onion soup mix, bread crumbs and egg. Place in 8 inch x 4 inch loaf pan and shape firmly into loaf. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 min or until done. Mix remaining mushroom soup, 1/4 cup water or milk, and 2 tablespoons drippings from loaf in bowl. Heat in microwave 2 min or until heated through. Spoon over slices of meatloaf.

Jamaican Curried Goat

3 lbs goat meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 limes
1 large onion, sliced
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp thyme
2 Tblsp canola oil
1 tsp sugar
5 green onions, chopped
2 tsp curry powder
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Directions: Squeeze limes over goat meat and let stand for 10-15 min. Rinse with cold water. Place meat in sealable container. Add onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme. Rub spices into meat. Cover and let marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Next, in large pot over medium heat, heat the oil and sugar. Stir until sugar is brown. Add goat meat with marinade, green onions, and curry. Stir. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Simmer slowly, stirring occasionally until meat is nearly tender, about 40 min. Add potatoes and 1/4 cup water and stir. Cover and simmer for another 15 min until potatoes are cooked but not soft. Crush potatoes to thicken sauce if desired. To make more sauce you may add a little water and cook for 10 minutes more.

I can't believe how the summer has flown by! Earlier this summer, as the days turned warmer, we planted our garden. We broke brand-new ground this year, utilizing the rich soil close to the goats' dry lot. Kate was facinated by the whole process and was a big help! She was quite thrilled at having her very own new garden tools (a stellar garage sale buy, I might add!!), and put them right to work!

She helped me plant our cucumbers. We are enjoying them at this time and are worth all the hard work!

As I look back on how busy our summer has already been, I am thankful for my hard-working goats! I have been on the lawn mower only twice this year. Granted, our yard is a far cry from "manicured," but it is passable, especially when we live way out where we do!

Our goats appreciate the delicate lawn forage, leaves from over-grown young trees, and scrubby bushes. The last two years we have only used our lawn mower a handful of times. The goats are most happy to help with the yard work. Goats have lots of uses for those of us trying to "Go Green" by saving some money in these hard times, as well as the additional benefit of doing something good for the environment by not using our lawnmower, among other things. Here is a quick list of how goats can help anyone GO GREEN!!

1. Lawn mowers. We utilize a portable electric fence and move our goats around the property, rotating them from place to place as the grass and other brush is consumed. A solar charger provides portable (and inexpensive) electricity.

2. Free fertilizer. We have never fertilized our lawns or the pastures the goats are on. They do it for us with their wonderful little natural fertilizer pellets! During kidding season, we keep the goats in a lot and feed them hay. The hay and manure that piles up in the area can then be scooped up at leisure and spread on gardens, flowerbeds, given to friends, or sold at the Farmers' Market.

3. Herbicide-free noxious weed control. We have lots of nasty weeds around, including seresia lespedisia, poison ivy, cockelburrs, and ragweed. Goats will eat these and eventually can kill them out by keeping them eaten down to where they will not be able to reproduce. Seresia lespedisia needs a little more management, as the weed can be spread through feces. It is recommended that goats be placed on a dry lot after consuming the plant during its seeding phase. An additional plus to using goats to help control seresia lespedisia is that this plant appears to help control internal parasites (think all-natural wormer).

4. Pasture "clean-up." Goats prefer weeds and brush to grass, so they are ideal for improving pastures. They are easy on the turf as well, so a large number of goats can be put on an area to clean it up quickly if that is the need. A pasture rotation system where goats are rotated in and out with other livestock such as cattle or horses is a great way to balance out your pasture and get rid of weeds without having to use herbicides.

5. Control ticks. Since goats clean up tall weeds, brush, and other scrub greenery, they can greatly reduce the tick population. We generally do not see ticks on our goats, so they seem to have a natural resistance to them. And, since utilizing the goats in our yard, we have noticed the tick population dwindle to next to nothing. However, a trek across areas where we do not allow the goats at this time almost always ends with the ritual "tick burning." The most entertaining way to kill a tick is to hold a flame to it and watch it explode!

6. Tree trimming. Goats LOVE trees. That being said, they are great tree trimmers, but be sure to keep them away from young trees you actually want to keep around because they WILL eat them. We keep cattle panels around to fence off small areas we don’t want our goats into like flower beds and small trees. Goats will also skirt (eat the bark of) a larger tree, leading to it's demise, so put fence around the trunk and they will just eat the branches and leaves that they can reach. As you can see in this picture, the low-hanging branches of this tree have been stripped clean, making it much easier to trim.

7. Inexpensive entertainment. I always love to watch the goats work. Especially when they are trying to reach that elusive leafy morsel waaaaay up high! They stand on their hind legs and pirouette like a clumsy ballerina, waving their front legs in front of them as if trying to use the air itself to climb higher. And, a word of caution … if you are standing under the tree of which they are so trying to get to, they WILL use YOU to get to their target! Think "human ladder." Try explaining THOSE bruises to your spouse.  For even more entertainment, put out old kids' playsets, slipper-slides, swings, etc.

Young goat kids especially find these irresistable, but I find the biggest laughs come on those unexpected cool snaps in the fall when the older does feel compelled to catapult off the toys!

So, as you can see, goats are a great way to "Go Green" and save some green! And you don't need a whole herd! A couple will do the trick for most yards! Let them do the hard work, and you can sit back with your glass of iced lemonade in your lounge chair under a shade tree. Ahhhhh….summer!

We have had a hard year … as have many people in this changing world today. I was feeling particularly sorry for my personal problems one day and decided to go for a walk to clear my head. It was a gorgeous day, a sharp contrast to my murky mood. I began to pray for God to help me to understand why things were happening the way they were and to give me the strength and wisdom to get through it … Thankfully, I took my camera along …

I noted the brown, dry grass crunching underfoot. Everything, in the midst of what was supposed to be the dawn of spring, was still dead and lifeless.

Until … I stopped and saw a small, white flower peeking out from among the brown grass!

I began searching for more … and began to happily play hopscotch trying to avoid the bounty of blooms scattered across the native grass carpet.

I found many beautiful things on that walk.

And by the time I got back to the house, I again prayed to God. I thanked him for the beauty he created, the incredible land we are so blessed to live on:

And the gentle way he showed me that even though things in my crazy life look tough now, there is hope and life on the way …

Brighter days are coming, and God is in the midst of us, holding our hand.

My day ended with the quip from my husband: "Looks like Kate got some placenta on her shoe." It was true. I looked over the side of the bathtub where I was trying to soak away the day's latest misadventures and saw what he was talking about…a bright red blotch of blood smeared across Kate's little white tennis shoe. Kate, at 15 months, is frequently part of our farming activities and today's crazy day was no exception. So, here's what happened:

I spent the majority of the day working at my parttime job as a home health nurse. I came home, tired and ready to sit down for a while. Doug and his Dad were outside working on our old tractor, which had recently decided to go on strike after a particularly hard day of hauling hay.

"Have you checked the goats?" I asked, knowing we had three left to kid, and one of them was a first-timer.

"No we've been stuck here since early afternoon," came the reply. I handed Kate off to her grandpa and headed toward the doe pen. I fulled expected to return shortly, so didn't even bother to change out of my scrubs. However, when I approached the pen, I could clearly see one of the does was ready to kid … NOW.

My heart did a little leap (as it does every time I see a new baby!), and I gently entered the pen, so as not to scare the new momma. It was our last first-timer left, a fullblood Boer doe named Polly. She had afterbirth visible from her backside. But I didn't see any babies. Maybe she hadn't had them yet, and what I thought was afterbirth was really waterbag? As I approached Polly, who was nonchalantly munching on hay, I noticed a small white thing at the far corner of the pen. Yikes!!! She already had a baby, and she was nowhere NEAR mom! I jogged to the baby, who looked remarkably good considering she was dry, meaning she was at least a couple of hours old. She was bright-eyed and sitting up. Then another spot of white caught my eye, nearly buried in the deep hay. Another one! I scooped up both babies, healthy adorable does, and took them into the barn. I put them, squirming and squalling, into a kidding stall and went out to grab Polly. She wanted nothing to do with the babies. She scampered away, trailing afterbirth after her as she expelled the remains of her birthing process. About that time, Doug came into the barn with Kate in his arms.

"Polly had her babies and doesn't want them," I said.

"Great," came the reply.

"Well, let's get your dad to take Kate and …" Doug interrupted me.

"He's already left."

Now the situation was a little trickier. I needed Doug to help me wrangle this doe. But our own little kid needed supervision, I noted as she slid around the barn floor on the recently dropped afterbirth.

"Oh, gross!" I picked her up and moved her out of the mess. I took a minute to evaluate the situation.

"Ok, well, put Kate in that kidding stall," I said, indicating the one right next to us, "and put Annabelle in with her…maybe they will keep each other happy."

Annabelle was one of the first kids born and Kate really liked her and her sister, Angel. They were particularly gentle baby goats. Kate was already happily "feeding" hay to Annabelle in the stall, so we just closed the door.

Doug entered the stall I was in, dragging Polly along. Doug cornered Polly against a wall. I picked up a baby and tried to get the little goat to nurse. Polly wanted nothing to do with this invasion. She bucked, ducked, kicked, snorted, and did anything possible to rid herself of the humans trying to hold onto her and the strange little sucking beasts trying to attach themselves to her. Clearly, this was not going to work.

I decided to run to the house and get a bottle and container so I could milk Polly then give the babies her milk via the bottle. Should be easier, right?

I reentered the stall and positioned myself to start milking. Now to help you envision this, we are in a dark stall, about 4 foot by 6 foot, Doug wrestling with Polly to hold her still and me, practically standing on my head, trying to milk her. My first several attempts ended with the container being kicked out of my hand. Luckily, no milk was in it yet to waste. I finally was able to get a stream shooting out about 8 inches away, far from the reach of her flailing hooves, into the awaiting vessel. I was constantly pushing hungry babies aside and dodging well-aimed kicks by Polly.

Then, when I had gotten about 1/2 inch of milk in the container, Annabelle's mother figured out she was missing and started calling for her. Annabelle, still in the adjoining stall with Kate, begain to cry out in reply. Startled by this loud call, Kate also began to cry. The whole scene had to be out of a sitcom: momma goat, baby goat, human baby all wailing while my husband and I wrestled, grunted, huffed and puffed, and swore quietly at a very disgusted new mother goat. Doug had to give up his role as goat wrangler to comfort Kate and Annabelle. I still needed more milk.

Well, when times are hard you buck up and give it your best, right? I decided to go at the reluctant mother myself. I shoved her into a corner, up against the stall wall, planted my knee in her chest and my body against her torso. I proceeded to milk her, jabbing her in the ribs whenever she tried to bolt away. I was able to dodge kicks and she horned me several times and managed a good bite or two, but I succeeded in getting about 6 ounces of life-giving colostrum from her for her two hungry babies. They readily accepted the bottle and drained it dry in seconds. Still huffing and puffing, I glared at Polly.

"Shame on you," I told her. She snorted at me and tossed her horns my way. We let her out of the stall, fearing she would harm the babies.  "Guess we have bottle babies," I said with a sigh.

Later that night, after a good soak in the tub (Kate got a good scrubdown, too!), we watched the news as the weatherman tracked a thunderstorm bearing down on our area. The day's weather (VERY windy) and impending storms may have contributed to our new mother goat's fear and rejection of her babies.

As a topping to the night, we lost electricity for a while. However, we dodged the worst of the storm and gained some much-needed rain. And Kate now has two little bottle babies to grow up with … their names are Hope and Faith.

Kidding season is in full swing! Actually, we are almost done now. Last week, we took a trip to the St. Mary’s Manor, a local nursing home, with a couple of baby goats for the residents to see. We chose to take Lisa, a little blonde cutie who loves to suck fingers and nibble shirt collars, and Annabelle, who is a quiet and unassuming sweetie with the most adorable face. We gave the little does a good scrub in the bathtub, packed them into a large dog crate, and loaded everyone into the Chevy. The manor residents lit up when they saw those little babies! Annabelle quickly made friends with one resident, who cuddled her close on her lap and kept her almost the entire visit! Lisa went with some of the nursing home staff, trotting happily down the nursing home halls and greeting residents in their rooms. It was so heartwarming to see those people glow with pleasure at the touch of those little goats! Lisa, of course, had to pee on the floor several times, but other than that they were a hit! Kate, our daughter, did her best to draw smiles from the residents as well. She is such a sweet and happy little girl.

My parents came down to help out. However, there was a miscommunication between my mother and I, and they went to the Alma Manor instead of the St. Mary’s Manor. My parents told the nursing home administrator who they were looking for, and that we were already at the Manor with baby goats. The administrator and staff were all in a tizzy trying to figure out how we got in without them seeing us and couldn’t find out who had authorized our visit! After some confusion and a few cell phone calls, we figured out the mix up.

Usually we are done with having kids by now, but due to our carefully thought out strategic goat breeding plan for 2009 kids, we are learning how true it is that the best laid plans do not always (or even usually) work out how we intend.

Our original plan was for our kids to be born earlier this year to accommodate the desires of our 4-H customers. We put our hunk-a-love buck, Dawson, in earlier than usual, and also separated our does into two groups so as to space kidding out a bit. We only have a limited number of kidding pens and space for our newcomers, so we felt that spreading things out a bit might help us be able to keep up. However, things have not progressed as we had envisioned. I think Dawson must have taken his sweet time wooing the ladies this year, giving in to laziness since he didn’t have any competition staring at him across the fence (we have always had two bucks in the past). We started kidding February 12 and we still (as of March 22) have two more does to go!! So our plan kind of backfired.

We have 19 babies on the ground so far this year, with a nice set of triplet does born last night as our newest additions.

Our 15-month-old daughter, Kate, has really enjoyed the babies. It has been so much fun watching her with them, how she loves them, pats them, and has even helped bottle feed a couple who needed a jump start!

She is a real trooper, preferring to be down in the trenches with mom and dad versus behind the fence looking on. She is a true country girl, born with a love for animals that continues to amaze us!

Doug built new kidding pens this year and they have worked out very nice. We had kidding pens from year one of our goat breeding adventure, but they were built out of concrete steel forms (they look like cattle panels, but are much cheaper) and we learned that baby goats will squirt right through those holes! Let me tell you, trying to keep babies in the correct pens was quite a challenge. We spent more time patching holes trying to keep the onery little guys in than we did doing anything else it seems! In addition, the does seemed to think the pens were their own private demolition derby arenas and they enjoyed crashing, trashing, and mangling the pens until they were any shape aside from square. So much for that attempt at saving some cash.

Our new pens are sturdy and should wether the storms of the does’ various girl fights. At least, they seem to be so far.