WE KNOW MEAT GOATS
Goat Rancher magazine has been serving the meat goat industry for nearly a quarter-century. The monthly magazine provides news of upcoming events, reports on major production sales, producer profiles and fun features like goat meat cuisine (cabrito) and family goat photos. Our monthly columnists answer questions and offer helpful advice each issue on health matters, marketing, herd management and much more. Our readership includes large ranchers with a thousand head of Spanish goats to the homesteader with a few goats for milk or meat. News topics and advertising content target breeders of Boer goat show stock, Savanna goats, Myotonic goats, Kiko goats and a variety of commercial and crossbred herds.
Goat Rancher has the most complete list of seminars, schools, goat conferences, shows and sales in its monthly calendar, as well as market and sale reports from around the country. If you're getting ready to buy livestock, Goat Rancher has the industry's most extensive Breeders Directory, listed by state, offering a variety of different breeds. Plus, advertisers have learned that Goat Rancher is their best outlet for announcing a new product, a new service, the latest show goat genetics or the next big wether sire. Whether you're buying, selling or just learning about goats, no other magazine offers as much helpful advice and information.
Goat Rancher is published monthly from Egypt Creek Ranch, a working meat goat operation in northwest Mississippi. Editor and publisher Terry Hankins is a career journalist and a lifetime farmer and rancher — a unique combination that brings professionalism as well as common agricultural knowledge to the pages of Goat Rancher. In addition, no other magazine staff covers as many goat events, attends as many goat functions or meets as many goat producers as do the writers for Goat Rancher.
Goat Rancher was founded in 1996, just as America's growing ethnic population launched the meat goat industry on a trajectory of growth unheard of in the livestock sector (goat is the meat of choice for a diverse group that includes Hispanics, Caribbean Islanders and Middle Easterners). According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meat goat production is increasing at a faster pace than beef, pork or lamb.
Still, U.S. farmers can't raise enough goats. More than half of the goat meat eaten in our country is imported from overseas. This means the potential for our domestic market is unlimited. That's why thousands of farmers and ranchers are adding goats to their operations. They can easily diversify and find new streams of revenue.
In recent years, homesteaders have turned to Goat Rancher for information on starting and maintaining their own herds for home use. These suburban pioneers are leading the "eat local" and "sustainable agriculture" movements that are sweeping the nation. They have found that goat meat is heart-healthy and can easily be produced on small acreage. Homesteaders also are raising goats for all-natural milk and cheese — no dangerous additives and hormones here. And the fact that goats are environmentally friendly — they can clear land of noxious weeds without the use of dangerous herbicides — is an added bonus for landowners of any size. Decades ago, every farm had a milk cow. Today, the goat has taken its place. Goats can produce meat, milk, fiber and even profit for those millions of Americans who are fleeing past the suburbs looking for their small piece of Americana and a simpler way of life. Goat Rancher is here to make that move easier, more profitable and a lot more fun.
