# Selling Goat Meat to the Pet Food Industry



## Miwo (Oct 10, 2020)

Hi all! New guy here, doing a lot of research, plotting and planning on the best way to find a niche market and be profitable. 

Does anyone here have knowledge about selling goats to the pet food industry? Is there a way to sell to pet food producers directly or do they just buy from auctions? 

As I understand it, dairy goat wethers are usually culled soon after birth. I'm wondering if buying unwanted wethers from a dairy farm and then raising them to sell for dog food meat would be a good approach to making a profit. Has anyone does this before? Any insight you could share? 

Thank you!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

This is exactly how I got into goats! Dang those little dairy boys lol 
Honestly for me there was zero money in it. It might work for someone that already has some dairy goats and a lot of extra milk, but to just get and raise I had more in those suckers then I could even dream of getting back. 
Dairy goats don’t put the meat on like a meat goat does. Because of that you won’t get as much bang for the money you put into them. They will also end up grading very low so the price per pound is low. 
Now this was MY experience with them! If you want to try it go for it! I would just warn not to start of with a huge number and just a few to see how it goes. 
The dog food I honestly have no idea. I know raw meat is a huge thing so you might be onto something there, I just don’t know how one would go about getting into that.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Welcome. 

Good advice above.

When I was just into selling goats at meat prices, on the hoof, I didn't make much doing it.
Prices always fluctuated so low and there is always someone trying to offer an even lower price than they are worth.

So I changed to selling goats as breeders and show type stock, which does puts more in your pocket.

Selling goats for dog meat, rather than for people consumption, I would think would bring in even lower prices per lb, because it is not an FDA type per say thing.


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## CountyLineAcres (Jan 22, 2014)

I agree with everyone above.

If you want to get into meat production, bottle feeding could be your worst enemy due to time and cost unless you have a cheap supply of milk and experience with lambars. 

I recommend checking out some Facebook groups and asking around for other breeders who are involved in that line of work. Even if you don’t find someone who does that specifically, you could discover some connections along the way!


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

If you had a way of processing, grinding and freezing the meat into patties and selling them to pet owners or pet shops, that may be the way to sell for the pet market. Not sure how pet food companies buy their meats.


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## mariella (Feb 23, 2017)

In my area, there is a Raw fed dog community that will buy bones with meat on them and all sorts of other things like it. Do some research on the benefits of goat meat and find a few Facebook groups for raw fed dogs to post on and find out what they would be willing to pay for a pound of ground goat, a full goat leg, a spine with meat, and so on. Look up how heavy a wether of those breeds gets, at what age do they get there, how much would it cost to get them there, do you have a vet that knows goats, how much are you willing to spend on these goats as bottle babies, do you have time to feed them every 6 hours as bottle babies, how much do you know about goats. There is a lot to consider before buying the first batch and you have to make sure the animals are healthy before you can sell them as pet food.


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## AlabamaGirl (Jun 18, 2020)

Miwo said:


> Hi all! New guy here, doing a lot of research, plotting and planning on the best way to find a niche market and be profitable.
> 
> Does anyone here have knowledge about selling goats to the pet food industry? Is there a way to sell to pet food producers directly or do they just buy from auctions?
> 
> ...


Try marketing to homemade/ diy pet food groups on FB, but I don't think they'll buy anything overly expensive.


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