On our farm, the goats earn their keep. Not only do they pay for their own feed, but they financially support other animals and projects on our homestead. Here are a few creative ways that we generate income with our herd of goats.
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The goats on our farm are not just pets, one way or another, they earn their keep.
Not only do they pay for their own hay, grain, and veterinary care, but they also financially support our two free-loading Quarter horses and fund projects on the homestead like pasture reseeding.
How Much Money Can You Make with Goats?
I know that animals making money sounds great, but don’t let the title of this post mislead you. Raising goats is not going to make you rich, even though I wish that were the case! Instead, realistically, our aim has been to have goats be a self-sufficient commodity and with that we have been successful.
Of course, there are many factors that can impact whether you will lose money, break even, or gain a profit from your goats. From herdsmanship to marketing strategies, there are countless choices to make. Making money has never been our number one goal, the health, safety, and contentment of the animals in our care always comes first.
What Kind of Goats Make You Money?
Any kind!
The cool thing about goats is that they are so versatile as a species. In keeping different kinds of goats, we have been able to capitalize on the strengths of a specific breed, but also use the herd collectively for more general purposes. Having a lot of options has allowed us to diversify our farm income and spread that income out so it is less seasonal, and more sustainable.
We raise three different breeds of goats, each for a different primary purpose. We have Nubians for milk, Boers for meat, and Angoras for fiber. Your favorite breed could be substituted for one on our list or maybe even leveraged in a new category!
This is not an exhaustive list; these are just some of the avenues we have explored as possible ways to make money with our herd.
1. Make Money with a Goat Herdshare Program
If you have dairy goats, it is likely that you will have a surplus of milk. One way to let others enjoy your goat milk is through starting a herdshare program. With a herdshare, customers invest in a portion of your herd. You can charge a sign-up fee and then weekly or monthly rates that cover the board, feed, and milking of the animals. Some farmers require customers to buy bottles from the operation while others have them furnish and clean their own.
With a herdshare program, it’s important that you have a comprehensive contract in place with clear rules and expectations outlined for all parties involved.
2. Make Money with Value-Added Goat Milk Products
Another business opportunity for dairy goat farmers is to make and sell value-added products with their goat’s milk. You can make luxurious, moisturizing skin care products like soap and lotion with goat milk. I personally make cold process goat milk soaps and sell them at farmer’s markets and do quite well.
If you want to get started making soap, click here to read my article where I outline all the basic supplies that you will need. For marketing tips, here is my article explaining the benefits of goat milk soap!
A word of caution, I recommend getting a lot of practice making your products before you start selling them. It is important that you test the products personally so you know if they will cause any irritation and determine their shelf life.
Selecting high quality ingredients is imperative. When you are setting your prices, make sure to cover not only the cost of the materials but the labor that you put into making the product as well.
3. Make Money Selling Goat Meat
If you raise meat goats, you can sell animals to feed your community. There is a growing demand for goat meat and very few domestic producers. One of our farm goals is to make goat meat more popular and that is why we raise Boers.
There are several ways to go about selling your goats for meat. The simplest way is to take your animals to an auction. Another option is to do a private sale and have a customer purchase your live animal and then arrange for processing themselves. If you want to sell cuts of meat or sell to a restaurant or grocery store, you will need to have a license and utilize a USDA inspected processing facility.
When selling animals for meat, it is important that you know and abide by the laws in your state to make sure what you are doing won’t get you in any legal trouble. Do your homework!
4. Make Money Selling Goat Hides
In addition to selling goat meat, you could sell the hides from your processed animals. You can pay someone to tan the hides or do it yourself. We have purchased tanning kits to try our hand at it and the spotted Boer hides turned out beautifully!
If you choose to remove the animal’s hair in the tanning process, you will end up with a very durable leather. Goat leather is great for making all sorts of things if you are crafty!
5. Make Money Selling Goat Tallow
Tallow is the rendered fat from a ruminant animal. Ruminants include deer, cattle, sheep, and you guessed it- goats! The use of tallow in skincare products has become quite popular and I feel this is an emerging profitable niche market.
We have started to save the fat from around the kidneys on the goats that we butcher and use it to make tallow. For more information on the rendering processes that we use, click here for wet rendering directions or here for dry rendering. We make solid and whipped tallow balm and sell it at farmer’s markets for people to use on their face and body. For our recipe and directions, click here.
6. Make Money Selling Goat Fleece
If you have fiber goats, you can make money selling their fleeces. We have Angora goats that are sheared twice a year. For information on shearing Angora goats, click here to read my step-by-step article. You can sell the fleece raw, washed, or once it has been made into roving or yarn. You have to put more work, or money, into processing the fleece, but roving and yarn garner a higher sales price. For directions on how to scour mohair fleece, click here.
You can invest in equipment to process fiber yourself or send it to a mill. Be aware that there is often a long wait time to get your processed fleece back from a mill.
Roving or yarn can be dyed and used to make many beautiful things. If you know how to knit, crochet, or weave you can sell these value-added items for a premium.
7. Make Money Selling Goat Kids
If you breed your goats, you can sell the kids that you don’t want to keep and earn some income. Healthy, registered animals with correct conformation will command a higher sales price.
You can sell goats as pets, 4-H projects, or breeding stock replacements. As a 4-H leader, I plan my kidding dates so that I can sell market wethers that will make weight for the area county fairs. I take reservations once my does are confirmed bred and collect deposits when the kids are born. At weaning time, the customer picks up their new animal and pays the difference.
8. Make Money with a Goat Stud Fee
If you breed goats and keep your own bucks, you could potentially stud them out for a fee. If you have a proven herd sire with high performing offspring and superior genetics, people might want to use him to help improve their herd. This can be accomplished through semen collection for artificial insemination or live coverage stud service.
We allow does that are clean tested for CAE, CL, and Johnes to temporarily stay on our farm to be bred. In addition to the stud fee, we collect money for the animals’ board and care while they are on site.
9. Make Money with Goat Farm Tours
Agrotourism is a growing industry. People today are very interested in learning about animals, growing their own food, and lost arts such as spinning and cheesemaking. For a fee, you could provide visitors with guided farm tours with feeding, petting, and educational demonstrations.
I know farmers that hold “snuggle sessions” with their baby goats. People pay to cuddle and love on goat kids which helps socialize them, it’s a win/win situation.
10. Make Money with Goat Social Media
Believe it or not, your farm or herd members could have their own social media profiles that can be monetized. People love seeing pictures and videos of goats doing silly things! Social media can be an effective way to tell your story and promote products to potential customers. I use Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to not only sell my goods and services, but to educate my audience about agriculture and conservation.
YouTube and TikTok are other possible outlets that I personally haven’t dabbled in but know can be utilized as a source of income.
11. Make Money with Goat Yoga
Goat yoga is just doing yoga in the presence of goats! It’s fun and people love it. Since we raise large breed goats, we only do it in the spring and summer when our kids are small.
We have had yoga instructors come to our farm to lead classes and have also taken our goats offsite to hold sessions at other venues. We use our portable electric fence to contain the goats and have purchased several yoga mats for people to use if they don’t bring their own.
12. Make Money Renting your Goats Out for Brush Removal
We run a contract grazing business during the summer. We rent out our herd to clear brush on residential and commercial properties in the area. We do a site visit to determine if the location is safe and appropriate for goats and then set up our portable electric fence on the property. We do daily checks on the animals while they are working and pick them up at the conclusion of the project.
You will want to make sure your goats are trained on the portable fence and comfortable foraging before starting out. Having a contract and insurance on your grazing business is also a good idea.
For more information on the benefits of goat grazing for vegetation management, click here to read the related article.
Other Ways to Make Money with Goats
I believe with research, experimentation, and creativity there are countless other ways that you could make money with goats. What has worked for you? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments below!
Mother, farmer, author, and teacher by trade… She loves tending to things and watching them grow!