SU hosts Goat Field Day

• By ASHLEY M. BAILEY
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 26, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Louisiana goat farmers got a crash course Saturday in all things goat during the fourth annual Goat Field Day at the Southern University Agriculture Center.

About 150 goat farmers, both new and old to the industry,   came from all over Louisiana to attend the field day. The day was focused on Louisiana’s rapidly growing goat industry.

“It’s a strong, viable industry,” Sebhatu Gebrelul, a professor at Southern and a goat researcher, said.
 Gebrelul said the goat industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation.

The goat population in Louisiana has quadrupled in the last 10 years, and Gebrelul predicted it will be one of the biggest industries in the state if it continues to grow at its current rate.

Gebrelul said the demand for goat meat is increasing in Louisiana. He attributes the increased interest to a shift in population dynamics. The expanding population includes more people from areas such as the Caribbean and Latin America as well as parts of Africa, where goat meat is traditionally eaten, he said.

Researchers at the Agriculture Center  have been working on ways to make goat meat a viable commodity in the United States.
For instance, Curtis Chisley, a U.S. Agriculture Department livestock and meat specialist at Southern, has spent five years developing a recipe for goat sausage.

“I wanted to do something different than the traditional meats,” he said.

Chisley tested his recipe during the field day in a blind tasting. The tasters were presented with sausage containing different types of meat.

One sample contained pure goat meat. There were other  samples that were combinations of goat and pork and goat and beef. The fourth sample contained pork and beef.

Like beef, goat meat is a red meat, Chisley said. Goat meat naturally has less saturated fat than beef or pork.
“It tastes just as good and is healthier,” Chisley said.

During the tasting, the pure goat sausage fared just as well as the more traditional pork and beef blend. Chisley said that could be good news for the goat farmers who can profit from his product.

They all know selling goat meat to the American public will not be easy. Gebrelul singled out marketing as one of the goat industry’s biggest challenges.

“We know there is a demand, but there is no marketing structure for goats,” he said.