Goat Industry Assessment and Outlook
Trends in the U.S. Goat Industry (2007)
The following sections are designed to assess the current goat industry in the United States, with emphasis on its future outlook. In the United States, goats are used mainly for meat, milk and fiber production, but also as a holistic tool for land vegetation management and fire fuel load control. The data presented is drawn from four different sources—the 2000 U.S. population census, the USDA 2002 Census of Agriculture, the USDA National Agricultural Statistic Service, and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. In the United States, meat goat production has been gaining popularity in recent years particularly because of a growing population of ethnic and faith-based groups who consume goat meat. The national estimates, based on import data only, indicate that the United States in 2007 was more than 750,000 head deficient in meeting current demands for goat meat.
