Goat Production: Management and Marketing

This unit teaches intermediate, hands-on management, animal health, product handling, and basic marketing skills needed to operate a small goat enterprise. Building on introductory husbandry and anatomy, students will practice milking, routine procedures, sanitation, recordkeeping, pricing, and simple infrastructure to prepare for capstone production and business projects in the final unit.

Learning Objectives

• Apply best-practice husbandry and biosecurity measures for kid rearing, feeding, sanitation, identification, and herd supervision by developing a written standard operating procedure and demonstrating key care tasks.
• Demonstrate humane handling and routine production procedures—including operating a motorized milking machine, collecting fecal samples for analysis, performing castration following welfare guidelines, and following safe transport/restraint techniques—during skills assessments.
• Evaluate production and marketing decisions by using a goat scorecard to assess animal readiness, calculating costs and pricing for sale or buck service, and drafting a basic contract or sale/slaughter plan.
• Construct and implement basic on-farm equipment and management plans—such as a milk stand, hay feeder, predator protection, and a transport/bringing-home checklist—by producing sketches, materials lists, and a maintenance schedule.