Marketing Goats from Farm to Consumer

ByFrank Pinkerton

Direct Marketing to Consumer

• Customer comes to the farm• Makes a selection• Negotiates a price• Money changes hands• Goat is loaded and departs; all is well• Seller avoids commission and shrinkage• Buyer meets his needs

More Direct Marketing

• Customer comes to the farm• Makes a selection, haggles, pays the price• Seller hauls goat to nearby custom slaughter

facility• Buyer instructs processor on slaughter,

fabrication, and packaging procedures• Buyer pays, hauls, stores, eats; all is well

Even More Direct Marketing

• Customer selects, pays, and is permitted to kill the goat on-premises

• This may or may not be legal; if legal, there are additional issues to be resolved: slaughter technique, disposal of offal, cleanup, fee

• Off-farm sales: farmers markets, flea markets, ‘informal’ roadside sales

Direct Selling of Goat Meat

• Producer does slaughter on-farm, fabrication of cuts, further processing, and merchandizing

• Producer has goats custom-slaughtered and does all else

• Producer has goats custom-slaughtered and fabricated and/or deboned and does the rest

• Producer ‘arranges’ custom products and does merchandizing only

Unique Goat Meat Merchandizing Strategies

• Producer sell cuts and products on-farm and via ‘mailings’

• Producer cooks and sells goat meat dishes (quarter-pounders, kebobs/veggies, and curries, etc.) at public venues such as Fairs and Shows

• (Introduction of speaker associates)