Enterprise Budget for Meat Goats – 25 Does

By
Basil Bactawar, UF/IFAS Duval County Extension Service

This enterprise budget is a tool to project costs and returns for goat enterprises and is a general guide to plan individual farm operations. It should be used as a guide only and should not be used for business analysis. Each farm should develop their own budget to reflect their production goals, costs and market prices.

Market Factors

Meat goat production is a growing business in North America. The market is built around an ethnic demand for the product. This demand increases at specific times of the year according to religious and social traditions, such as Easter and Christmas. Producers are expected to continuously research their markets in order to determine the exact product required by various customers at different times.

Meat goats can be marketed either directly through farm gate sales or through conventional auction markets. While farm gate returns are higher than conventional auction markets, the producers undertake an additional function which is selling. Farm gate sales are largely dependent on individual marketing ability and location (i.e. proximity to a large ethnic population).
The availability of imported goat meat from countries with low costs of production tends to place a price ceiling on the price paid for goat meat in Florida. Producers must be price-competitive with imported meat at the wholesale and retail level. Generally, fresh goat meat commands a slightly higher premium than the frozen product because the fresh local goat meat is the preferred product.

Risk Factors & Strategies

Individual operator must address the following risk factors:

• Disease and parasites – a good preventive health and parasite control program is required, including careful selection of replacement stock.
• Loss of kids at birth – good kidding management is essential to ensure kids are nursing at birth.
• Marketing ability – producers must thoroughly understand the specific markets they wish to sell into and their customers’ preferences for size, age and finish.
• Price – meat goat producers must produce and market products that are price competitive, particularly with imported goat meat. Producers need to know the cost of production for each group of market-ready goats. This justifies the need to develop an enterprise budget for meat goats for your enterprise.

Key Success Factors:

• Marketing ability
• Kids weaned per doe
• Minimizing feed costs
• Good Pasture

Assumptions on development this enterprise budget

The sample enterprise budget provided below should be viewed as a first approximation only. Use the column “Your Estimate” to add, delete and adjust items to reflect your specific production situation. The figures provided are estimates based on above average production and farm management practices.

• Animals are rotationally grazed on 5 acres of pasture.
• Kids are sold at the target weight of 70-90 lbs. Some are slaughtered, cut and wrapped and sold from the farm gate, or farmers market. The remaining is sold on the auction market.
• Animals are pasture fed from mid-spring to mid-fall and confinement fed during the winter.
• Hay and grain is purchased in bales, 25 kg bags or by tons.
• Transportation costs cover trips to the slaughter facility and auction.
• Pasture maintenance costs include fertilizer and lime (annually) and reseeding (every 4-5 years).
• Fence repairs are approximated at 5% of replacement value.
• Building and equipment repair and maintenance costs are approximated at 3% of replacement value.
• The income from selling a buck every two years will be used to purchase another buck of improved genetics.
• Replacement does will be selected from the herd.

A Sample Spread Sheet 
This spread sheet can be used to calculate you cost of production for meat.  It can give an estimate of how much it may cost you based on your own information.  The spreadsheet is found on the next page.

• Sample Enterprise Budget and Worksheet (xls)

You can modify the above sheet to print and pencil in your information before entering it on the spread sheet above.

Calculation of Projected Net Income

To assess the net income of an enterprise indirect expensesmust be considered. Indirect expenses do not vary with the level of output and are typically associated with input used in more than one enterprise.

Budget Resources

• Budget Considerations for Various Herd Sizes of Meat Goats
• Meat Goat Budgeting and Marketing
• The Use of Enterprise Budgets to Measure Cost of Production for Meat Goats
• An Enterprise Budget For Meat Goat