MEAT GOAT FARMING FOR BEGINNERS | Ranching for Profit Grazing How to Raise Goats on Pasture

Wondering how to raise meat goats (maybe even for profit)? This video will give you the answers you need to get started raising meat goats! I talk with Karl Ebel who has been raising meat goats on pasture since 2005. Karl Ebel raises Boer goats and Spanish meat goats.

I hope this give you a good start as a beginner goat farmer!

Keep up the great work,
the Shepherdess

0:00 Farming Meat Goats
1:26 What is a good fencing for goats?
3:07 How many Goats can you raise on 2 acres?
5:27 How to get an education on raising meat goats?
7:39 Major challenges to raising meat goats.
9:03 Livestock guardian for your goat herd.
12:30 What is the best meat goat breed?
14:16 Will rams fight eachother?
18:00 Characteristics of a good breeding goat.
27:36 Kidding goats on pasture.
30:06 What is the best feed for goats?
32:04 The best minerals for goats.
32:59 How to supplement goats on pasture.
38:08 Deworming Goats with internal parasites
40:29 How to know if your goats have worms.
44:28 How to decide on paddock size for rotational grazing goats and sheep.
50:43 Goat market prices going up!

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In this video:
Micro Ranching for profit
Meat goat farming for beginners
Rising meat goats for profit
Goat market prices in 2023

About this Channel:

This channel chronicles my journey as a sheep farmer from the very beginning. My primary occupation is in business management. In 2020, I discovered the principles of regenerative agriculture and embarked on a journey with the end goal of building a profitable small farm on 23 acres by 2027. Thank you for joining the journey!

[Balb]

I cannot express my thanks for this content you and Karl are providing for free. For someone who started raising my own goat herd 5 years ago, I would suggest any beginner to listen to this episode several times. What he explains in one hour I had to learn in 5 years of trial and error. Thank you so much!

[entrepreneursfinest]

A good practice for hoof health is to spread coarse gravel and a lot of lime around their watering trough. They'll be exposed to it daily and the lime keeps down bacteria.

[arccroses]

We started Homesteading 6 years ago. Started with chickens for eggs then Tamworth hogs for meat and piglet sales. I already knew how to deal with those. We fenced our entire 7.5 acre perimeter and already had dogs. I no longer work due to a car accident, so I spent years watching YT and researching. Got Nigerian Dwarf goats for milk. Sell kids, occasionally milking does and use milk for us. Friends gave us 3 unknown breeds hair sheep, I think St croix/Katahdin and maybe some Gulf Coast. We bred up to 9, traded some for a breeding pair of young lowline cattle. Bull still under 2, heifer almost 3. Bought 2 unrelated Katahdin ewes and maintaining 3 ewes to 1 ram plus. All animals have their own pens. Goats have a small milking shed with attached stalls on the outside. Breeding pair of hogs moved every few months with hog panel and electric pens. Grazer/browsers get to have access to entire property most good weather days. The front of the house is fenced off to keep livestock away from house. Chickens and turkeys have a coop with yard but come out and free range all day. Meat chickens have a chickens tractor.
Parmak Solar Electric, cattle fence and goat fence has kept everyone in and a Labrador cross, a Belgian shepard and an Anatolian shepard keep the predators out.

[HoneyHollowHomestead]

I have watched my LGD "condense" (because it's not really herding) the goats, chickens, and ducks close to the barn when she thinks there is a threat. I even saw her stand with the horse when she was on high alert, the horse standing slightly behind the LGD. I was amazing to see how they sort of teamed up, yet the one with the skill took the lead.

[HoneyHollowHomestead]

I free range my goats during the day. I find that they will naturally rotate their browsing. They will make a circuit around the barn, browsing different areas at different times.

[countryfriedhvac]

This is some of the best content on YT.

[lizziehiggs]

I'm starting a milk goat herd... this will help ty so much!!! 66 acres grazing... love your videos!!!

[williamburke]

So I’ve done some rotational grazing studies at UCSC, and one thing I learned is that yes the grass recovers in 30-45 days (depending on water) and can be grazed again but that 60 days gives enough time space for parasites to die off. Not sure if that is with 100% consistency but relevant info. Thank you so much for this wealth of information and content.

I’m intending to do fire grazing with goats in the fire danger areas of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and I’m trying to figure out if milk or meat goats is a better fit for this business model. I’m guessing meat goats since they won’t always be on site for milking and I don’t want to miss milkings. I’ll still be getting some Milk goats for personal homestead food production but the logistics is a problem. I’m only worried about a good meat market for the goats, maybe the Hispanic population around here would like them but I don’t hear about Silicon Valley folk liking goat that often.

[caprahomestead]

We use livestock trailers to move them on pastures and then leave them there as shelter. We put feed in the trailer they all follow close up the trailer and go.

[syreeta]

I have had pyrenean mountain dogs (Livestock guardian dogs) all my life and my this breed has been a passion of my mum and her parents since the 1960s. I can vouch that they are the BEST family dogs, they mother and love us (especially the kids) but they are protective amd very, intelligent, independent minded, efficient guard dogs so owners need to have a strong personality to successfully raise them. Hope that helps

[zerotoeverything]

630 as starting, holy cow,
i started my with 5

[Oasisearthfarm]

Grace this was an excellent learning experience. I could have listened to you teo for another hour easily.

[realtalk]

recently purchased small acreage in southern Arkansas 🤠, I want to thank both Karl & yourself... this information will serve me well as I begin building my farm 🚜 God Bless... you both

[Justthemow]

You can treat your ground with diatomaceous earth it’s a powder and most parasites and bugs can’t live in it. It’s pretty cheap and it also treats intestinal parasites if you mix it in their feed.

[mikeyaustin]

Ma'am I absolutely love your videos. This is insanely helpful, and I really appreciate your cadence and pronunciation which is fun, eloquent and easy to understand but it's never hyper or simplistic. Independent of the awesome content and everything, you are one of the best spoken youtubers I have ever seen. God bless <3

[durgaprasadala]

The knowledge and wisdom from this video is really helpful to new farmer like me, thank you, My contribution is to not skip the Ads.

[cookingwithwine.]

We have somewhere between 30-40 cross goats. We raise them for weed control as much as for love. (I do not use chemicals or sprays on my farm.) The sheep, though, are more profitable, IMO.

[Velacreations]

I use electric on the outside of a mesh fence to be predator and hog proof. In other areas, I've excluded hogs with a single hot wire about 12" high. It works really well for that.

[wilde]

I am not a farmer, but am very curious about what it takes to be a farmer in todays world. I know nothing about goats, but found this discussion very interesting. As a typical grocery shopper I never think about about the farmer’s problems with parasites and the amount of pasture the farmer needs. Did I hear it right that a pasture of long grass creates less of a parasite problem than short pasture? If I heard right that’s the opposite of what this uninformed person would have thought.

[rataraunik]

Thank you for your knowledge of goat farming. I am a goat farmer from Indonesia, I have learned a lot from your Chanel.