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Meat Goat Markets: Seasonality, Volatility, and Availability

James Jones

Summary

One challenge facing meat goat producers is the development of a marketing plan. Determining the optimal size, age, and time of year to sell is difficult due to lack of information about sale locations, market seasonality, and relationships between small local markets and larger regional markets.
Market seasonality has often been tied to ethnic holidays. Although this can indicate when demand will increase for certain types of meat goats, it does not reveal price relationships between these peak periods and other times of the year. We use price data from the three largest U.S. regional markets (San Angelo, TX, New Holland, PN and Thompson Station, TN) as well as the two reported markets in Oklahoma (Perkins, OK and El Reno, OK) to generate price seasonality charts. The price data are also used to examine market volatility across seasons and across markets.
Identifying possible sale locations is another obstacle for producers since not all livestock auctions conduct goat sales. Oklahoma State University is currently completing a survey of state livestock auctions and nearby auctions in bordering states to determine which have goat sales, the sale frequency, and categories of goats handled. Summary information from this survey will be presented.
The goal of this session is to provide improved market information and economic analysis that assists meat goat producers in making better marketing decisions.

Details

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