6 Lucrative Business Ideas In Goat Farming Value Chain

Photo by Jess Manthey on Unsplash

There is money in every aspect of agriculture. While some means of making money are popular, some are silent and not too known.

This comprehensive post is aimed at revealing to you some secret ways you can make tones of cash by playing one or more roles in the goat business value chain.

Warning: It’s going to be a long read but I promise you that you will smile after consuming these secrets as you will be armed with the right knowledge to make cool cash doing the goat business.

Let’s begin.

There are many ways you can make money doing the goat business but we are going to focus on 6 major aspects of the goat business value chain you can be a player in and make money especially in Nigeria.

Inputs and Services

This aspect of the goat business focuses on the supply of feeds, vaccines and other essential materials needed in the farm for the successful breeding of healthy goats.

Many people are focusing on starting a goat farm and neglecting the most essential thing goats need to survive -feed.

There are different kinds of feeds you can choose to supply and make money. We have processed and locally made feeds. Why feeds are important is because grasses or forages are not always available most especially in an intensive method of goat farming.

Even if you run an extensive method where you allow your goats graze in an open field, there will always be a season where there would not be enough grasses in the field. So it always boils down to using feeds.

A 50kg bag of maize waste or chaff goes for about 3000 Naira in rural and semi-urban areas. This can go as high as 4000 Naira to 5000 Naira in urban areas such as Lagos. Imagine supplying 100 bags in a week or two to various farmers. Do the maths, that’s cool cash.

Producers/Farmers (Large or Small Scale)

This level deals with the main farmers. It is the most popular value chain of the goat business.

This is where you focus on breeding goats up to a certain age or weight and then sell them off either to an industry or the consumers.

Not all farmers sell matured goats; some focus on only selling the kid (baby goat)to people who want to start up their own goat farms or want goats as pets.

Those who sell to the industry that butcher and process goat meat or to places like hotels, restaurants etc always make sure their goats are matured enough and of good weight in order to command a good price.

So where is your target market when you start your goat farm business?

There is money in every aspect, just choose the market you want to serve and go all in.

Processing/Production - Meat, Milk (diary) or leather.

This is one of the most lucrative aspects of goat farming value chain. You can either choose meat production, milk processing or leather making.

At this level, you don’t necessarily need a goat farm, all you need to do is to purchase goats from farmers around you and either produce meat, milk or leather.

If you can afford to own a farm and get your goat directly from it, then it’s great and that will result in vertical integration.

To get this business up and running all you need is a clean environment for milking and butchering, as well as a constant clean water supply for washing the meat.

a. Meat Production - To produce meat, you will kill, prepare and package the meat and supply to people. With this method, you can make more than double the price of the buying cost of the live goat. All you need to do is get a supermarket or store you will be supplying.

You can sell directly using social media preferably Facebook and Instagram.

You can also choose to butcher, prepare and sell directly to consumers in an open market.

b. Milk Processing — Another area of processing in the goat value chain business is milk processing or production.

Here, you focus on collecting the breast milk of the goat for processing.

You won't have to spend money on goat milking machines as you can start off manually by using your hands.

Aside from normal consumption, goat milk is used in the production of cosmetics.

Goat milk is used widely for making soaps and skincare products. So, you can sell goat milk from your farm to the health and beauty industry and entrepreneurs.

Goat milk is not very popular in Nigeria compared to cow milk but that doesn't mean that there are no people who consume goat milk regularly.

You can choose to process the milk to powdered milk, liquid milk, yoghurt, cheese etc. The opportunities here alone are boundless.

You can also choose to collect the milk and sell directly to industrial processors.

When examining the processing stage of the value chain, special attention should be paid to hygiene and safety concerns. This is important for ensuring the safety and health of consumers.

c. Leather Making — Look at the leather shoes on your feet, the leather bag you use, the belt on your waist, your wallet, purse, wristwatch and so on. All these are products of leather which are mostly gotten from goat skins.

Leather is very lucrative and the market is everywhere locally and internationally.

As a goat value chain actor, you can either choose to supply the raw skin to processors or go into the processing itself, either way, you will make cool money.

Goat Transportation

One challenge with agriculture as a whole, whether crops production or animal production is lack of transportation facilities for moving crops and animals from the farm to the market.

This is also a major challenge facing the goat farming business. If you provide a solution to this problem by just providing means of transporting goats from farm to market or to processors’ factories, be sure to have many goat farmers contacting you for your service regularly.

Your service can also cover moving packaged meats from processing factories to supermarkets or to final consumers in the form of courier service.

A van and bike will be needed for this business.

Exportation

You will make lots of money supplying all goats products to your local market but have you thought about earning foreign currency doing this same business?

Of course, you can feed international markets with prepared goat leathers.

According to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, the export of prepared goat leathers has the potential of attracting about USD 1 billion into Nigeria by 2025.

Countries like Spain, Italy, India, Portugal, China are major destinations and markets for goat leathers with many countries such as Vietnam, Korea, Turkey etc still unexplored.

Register a company, get all necessary licenses and permits to export your product to any country and start smiling to the bank.

Manure Supply

Goats dungs are good manure. You can pay goat farmers little money for their goats' dungs, gather them and sell to farmers.

This is it; the values chain of the goat business.

Pick your business and start making money.