How Much for This Goat?
November 10th, 2015 · 1 Comment · Posted in farming
Friends keep telling us how “easy” it is to sell lamb and goat here in Upstate New York just by word of mouth. So far, we haven’t found that to be the case. The good news: we recently sold half a lamb–a six-month-old ram–to one of our clients who regularly buys eggs and meat chickens from us. Now the bad: We thought we’d sold one of our young goats, but the our would-be purchaser never showed.
This was the Pakastani (?) guy who delivered our new chest freezer a month ago. He saw our livestock grazing the fields and announced he wanted some. A week ago he called and inquired about the price, indicating he’d be driving here on Saturday all the way from Schenectady. Saturday came and went. When I called him on Sunday, he came to the phone rather groggily, as if I’d woken him from a nap, and said, “I don’t need it,” with no further explanation.
At the strenuous urging of one of our friends, I’d set the price of the goat at $200. Now I wonder if I asked too much and merely scared our erstwhile client away. He wanted to know how much the goat weighed–about 60 pounds, I guessed. He never haggled, still, I admit I had some difficulty getting “$200” to pass my lips. I fantasized that this could be the beginning of a robust business with the local Muslim community, who will come to the farm, purchase an animal and slaughter it ritualistically on the spot.
Would $150 been more of an inducement? After all, the object is to sell the goat, especially now when the animal has fattened on grass in the field. It hardly pays to keep him over the winter, when we’ll have to purchase hay to feed him.
I don’t mean to complain, only illustrate the dilemma of the small scale livestock farmer when it comes to pricing. How to know what the market will bear when we are making our own, tiny market? Every transaction seems to come wrapped in mystery and every sale is precious.
Find your closest auction/packing house and use their numbers.