The owners of Shepherd Song Farm say a market exists for their product.

They want consumers to Get their goat

By Pamela Powers
Menomonie News Bureau

Sunday, February 19, 2006
Page 1F Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

CONNORSVILLE – With about 1.5 million pounds of goat meat imported each week to America, two Dunn County farm owners want to fill some of that market with howegrown variety.

Larry Jacoby and Judy Moses Jacoby own Shepherd Song Farm near Connorsville in northwestern Dunn County.

They have a herd of about 150 breeding goats and 200 sheep on their 140-acre farm.

“The United States is the largest importer of goat meat,” Larry Jacoby, 61, said. “All that profit is going out of the country when we grow goat here and there is a market here.”

The Jacobys last year received a grant of nearly $49,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a business plan to market goat meat. The grant also was to conduct some trials on Halal certified slaughtering in Wisconsin.

Halal, when used in relation to food or drink, means it is permitted and fit for consumption by Muslims. It must conform to the Islamic dietary laws in the care, slaughter and handling of the meat.

“The Somalis go to the Twin Cities to buy goat meat because that is the only way to get it. They drive 80 miles one way to bring home goat meat to eat for a week,” said Larry Jacoby.

Goat meat is a big part of Somalian culture and tradition, he said.

The Jacobys’ main market is to sell live goats. They sell about 300 to 400 a year.

A study of Somali goat meat preference done in 2004 by the UW-River Falls Survey Research Center showed Somalis living in the area would like goat meat seven days a week. And as Somali residents live in the U.S. fo a longer period of time and their incomes increase, they seek even more goat meat for their families.

“The market is here,” said Larry Jacoby, who owns the Stillpoints, a resonance dampening system manufacturer. “The demand is here. The animals are here.”

The problem is that if the Jacobys haul their goats to the Twin Cities to be processed, the meat cannot be sold in Wisconsin. However, if the animals are processed in Wisconsin, the meat can’t be sold in Minnesota.

The solution they believe is a USDA processing plans in western Wisconsin.

“This is a huge, growing market,” said Judy Jacoby, 59, who works for Pacer in Richfield, Minn., to train people who work with the disabled. “For agricultural producers it could be a good, steady income if we could get the infrastructure set.”

Osman Musse, a Somali who owns a restaurant in Barron called Kalkaal, said he would love to get fresh goat meat from Shepherd Song Farm, if it were legal. “It is a favorite food really,” Musse said.

He said he does serve goat meat in his restaurant that is frozen and imported from Australia.

“If we could get it from the farm in Wisconsin, and fresh, people would like it better,” he said.

Goat meat, or chevon, is a lower fat meat because the animals tend to deposit fat around their internal organs rather than create a meat marbled with fat, Judy Jacoby said.

A 3-ounce serving of roasted chevon has 122 calories and about 2.5 grams of fat. Chicken has 120 calories and 3.5 grams of fat.

As more people experience ethnic foods, such as at Kalkaal, it will help expand the market, Judy Jacoby said.

“A lot of us don’t see goat as food yet,” she said, adding that about 73 percent of the red meat consumed worldwide is goat. “As people sample it they will see it is tasty.”

Larry Jacoby said restaurants want fresh goat meat rather than import it. “They are looking for higher quality,” he said.

At the farm, goats and sheep wonder their pastures, guarded by llamas and dogs that keep predators away from them. The goats largely are fed on pasture in the summer and hay and grain mix in the winter.

In a barn area, baby goats nurse from their mothers. An occasional “baa” is heard as well as soft music in the background to keep the animals calm.

The Jacobys have boar goats, large-framed goats that usually are used as meat animals, as opposed to smaller-framed dairy goats. Boar goats first were bred in southern Africa, Larry Jacoby said, noting the farm also is home to some Angora goats, known for their wool.

They also have diary and boar crossbred goats, which are raised as a meat animal.

The Jacobys raised their first goats to give their Belgian sheepdog something to do. “They like to herd,” Larry Jacoby said.

They moved to the Connorsville area in 2000.

The average gestation period for goats is five months. When they are about 80 pounds and about six months old, they are ready for market.

The Jacobys want to work with other producers to help supply goats for the Midwest market. Goats are raised at other area farms, usually with sheep, Larry Jacoby said.

“We want to be the better alternative to frozen,” Judy Jacoby said.