BusinessHABCommercial goat farm: Starting a farm is no easy task. It involves many variables involving where you want to farm, how you want to farm, what you want to farm, and how big you want your farm to be. There are many things to consider, and even though this is a how-to guide to get you started on starting a farm, the rest is up to you.
Read also: 17 Tips to Become Grain/livestock Buyer
Commercial goat farm
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1. Get the Business Background:
Goat farming involves the raising and breeding of domestic goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) as a branch of animal husbandry. People farm goats principally for their meat, milk, fibre and skins.
Goat farming can be very suited to production alongside other livestock (such as sheep and cattle) on low-quality grazing land. Goats efficiently convert sub-quality grazing matter that is less desirable for other livestock into quality lean meat. Furthermore, goats can be farmed with a relatively small area of pasture and with limited resources.
2. Pasture
As with other herbivores, the number of animals that a goat farmer can raise and sustain is dependent on the quality of the pasture. However, since goats will eat vegetation that most other domesticated livestock decline, they will subsist even on very poor land. Therefore, goat herds remain an important asset in regions with sparse and low quality vegetation.
3. Get the Business idea:
When overgrown brush or other large patches of ground must be shorn of grass and weeds, the goat rental business provides an environmentally responsible way of cutting and even naturally fertilizing the land. Also known as goatscaping, the goat use enables landowners to landscape without chemical fertilizers, gasoline, or the risk to human mowers of steep or uneven ground or poisonous weeds and thistles.
Read also: 41 Analytical Fact on Livestock Farming Business
4. What are the costs involved in opening a goat rental business?
Goats need a certain environment and amount of land in which to be raised and housed. Thus, you should own at least a small farm or an acreage before considering goat rental as a business. With that as a given, here are your likely startup costs.
- Goats: $75-$300+
- Transport: $10,000-$20,000+. You will need a stock trailer in order to transport your goats, the size of which depends on the size of your herd. Here are some examples of typical transport.
- Goat care: ~$350 per year. Goat care may be more or less expensive, but will include medicine, food, etc.
- Goatscaping equipment
- Solar electric fencing
- Wiring: $30 for 100 feet
- Charger: $100+ for 5 miles
- Posts
- Shelter for overnights: $530
- Goat waterer, 5 gallon: $33. You will need one per goat.
- Snake bite kits: $6. You will want to have multiples for emergency situations.
- Solar electric fencing
Commercial goat farm
5. Marketing and promotional — $500 to $2,000 per year, or more.
This can include logo development and signage, a website and marketing materials.
Here’s an example of the marketing and promotional image of one business.
Legal and insurance — $1,000 or more. You should have a lawyer write a basic contract for customers and carry liability insurance in case your herd strays or gets in trouble with homeowners.
See also: 8 Tips to Start Livestock Farming Business
6. Staffing — Zero to $10,000 or more per year.
This is highly variable depending on whether you set up your business to run it solo or only use employees to transport your herd to and from locations. In some business models, the herd renters are responsible for basic care, and employees are only needed to drive and to set up and take down electric fencing (which can take as long as four hours, depending on area). In other models, you might want someone on hand all day to protect and oversee the herd. Another form of “free” labour might be herding dogs who can protect the herd from such predators as coyotes or other dogs.
Commercial goat farm
7. What are the ongoing expenses for a goat rental business?
Goat care, transportation, off-season feed, and labor costs will be your main ongoing expenses. While one business owner estimated annual goat care costs to be $350 per goat, total expenses will be determined by the size of your herd and the number of jobs you take on.
8. Who is the target market?
Although some goat rental businesses have golf course and homeowner customers, goatscaping works best on less well-sculpted lawns. That’s because the goats might not eat everything on the land, and could cut vegetation to varying heights.
Therefore, many goat rental businesses look for municipal and Department of Transportation customers in charge of large underdeveloped tracts of land such as empty or abandoned properties or commercial strips of brush that need clearing. Fire departments can also be customers, especially in parts of the country where overgrown public lands present wildfire risks. Wetlands and steep property are also perfect for this business model.
Other customer types would include municipalities, commercial, and even residential landowners with strong feeling on ecology who would prefer a more environmentally safe and even beneficial mowing solution.
Commercial goat farm
9. How does a goat rental business make money?
There are various ways of charging for the business. Smaller operations might consider it as a way of feeding their herd for free and only charge for transport and the hourly rate of a herder to oversee the goats. Larger operations might charge on a per-goat basis or per-day for the herd.
10. How much can you charge customers?
Rates vary wildly depending on location and competitive pressure. One business charges $20 per goat, per day, while another charges $700 to $850 per four-goat herd on a weekly basis.
See also: How to Write Superior Livestock Business Plan
11. How much profit can a goat rental business make?
That’s variable depending on the size of your business, but check out this Shark Tank blog in which the owner of a goat business alluded to grossing $600,000 a year. More typically, your business might gross $750 a week per herd during grazing seasons.
Commercial goat farm
12. How can you make your business more profitable?
Consider breeding some of your goats for sale. You can also take fuller advantage of the novelty of your business by renting your goats out for kids’ parties or other celebrations or events.
Or expand your business and take advantage of your knack for selling to landowner and municipal customers by also offering more traditional means of landscaping.
13. What will you name your business?
Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Goat Rental Business Name Generator
If you operate a sole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.
When registering a business name, we recommend researching your business name by checking:
- Your state’s business records
- Federal and state trademark records
- Social media platforms
- Web domain availability.
It’s very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.
14. How to promote & market a goat rental business
Take advantage of the novelty and “cute” factor of your business. Approach the local media with a story that focuses on the silence of the herd (no noise pollution) and the ecological benefits.
See also: How to Run a Successful Livestock Agent Business(customer service)
Commercial goat farm
15. How to keep customers coming back
Your best customers are those who have the largest headaches getting their ground mowed. Look for goat-friendly topography and call prospects directly. Shoot and post videos of your herd quietly munching away and show before and after shots of customer property. Once you’ve made a beneficial customer relationship, consider volume discounts for additional acreage or monthly retainers for repeat business on the same property.
16. Set up your business phone system
Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.
There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use.
Commercial goat farm
17. Get the Chart to Know the highest areas on goat farming:
World goat production: Selected regions and countries,
Country/Region Total animals (millions)Goat milk (MT)Goat meat (million MT)World—–15.24.8
Africa294.53.21.1
Nigeria53.8N/A0.26
Sudan43.11.470.19
Asia511.38.893.4
Afghanistan6.380.110.04
Pakistan60.00N/AN/A
Iran16.00N/AN/A
India125.74.00.48
Bangladesh56.42.160.21
China149.370.261.83
Saudi Arabia2.20.0760.024
Americas37.30.540.15
Mexico8.80.160.04USA3.1N/A0.022
Europe17.862.590.012UK0.09N/AN/A
France1.20.580.007
Oceania3.420.00040.018
18. Is this Business Right For You?
Since a herd of at least four goats requires a certain amount of space, this business might be ideal for a farmer or landowner with at least an acre or more of real estate within zoning that allows livestock. You should also have a basic understanding of how to care for a herd of goats, and enough knowledge of vegetation to know weeds or plants that might be harmful to your herd and those plantings that your goats will ignore.
On top of that, you should be skillful at convincing sometimes dubious prospects that your business had advantageous over conventional landscaping and mowing techniques.
Commercial goat farm
19. What happens during a typical day at a goat rental business?
Your typical workday could consist of a range of activities including:
- Feeding and caring for your herd, including hoof trimming, birthing, observing health, dealing with a livestock vet and other responsibilities
- Promoting your business
- Selling your services to individual prospects
- Transporting your herd to customer locations and setting up fencing or providing human supervision
- Picking up your herd and receiving payment for your services
- Paying bills, maintaining your books and conducting the typical responsibilities of business ownership
20. What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful goat rental business?
You should be able to look after herds of livestock and make the sale. Once hired, you need to be able to make your herd feel safe, comfortable and motivated to get the job done without damaging the property.
21. What is the growth potential for a goat rental business?
As environmental concerns grow, so can the business of cutting grass in an environmentally responsible way. Wildfire concerns and reduced hiring of municipal maintenance workers can also boost your business.
Commercial goat farm
22. Find a business mentor
One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.
Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.
23. Learn from other business owners
Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.
Commercial goat farm
24. Resources to Help Women in Business
There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:
- Funding
- Events
- Guides
- Support
If you’re a woman looking for some guidance in entrepreneurship, check out this great new series Women in Business created by the women of our partner Startup Savant.
25. What are some insider tips for jump starting a goat rental business?
Learn about your herd’s eating habits and where they’re likeliest to do the most good. Look for topography that challenges human mowers, such as heavy, dense brush, wetlands, steep hills, and rocky ground. And always be sure to stroll the grounds before accepting an order, so you know that the job can be completed to customer satisfaction and the safety of your herd.
Commercial goat farm
26. How and when to build a team
You might stay solo, only obtaining enough business to keep you occupied and making your customers responsible for the basic care of your herd while on-premises. Alternatively, you might consider the need of one employee per herd. So if you get enough business to provide three herds on a regular basis, you’ll need three employees.
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