Franklin County Extension Leads Meat Goat Effort

For Immediate Release
August 28, 2001

Franklinton, NC: A burgeoning market for goat meat, driven in part by a rapidly expanding Hispanic population, has been met by an active meat goat industry, thanks to the efforts of the Franklin County Cooperative Extension Center.

With an innovative grant provided by the Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Martha Mobley of Franklin County Cooperative Extension organized the county’s goat farmers into the Franklin County Goat Producers Cooperative.

“With the growing Hispanic population of Franklin County, the demand for goat meat has risen sharply,” says Mobley, an agricultural extension agent. “At the same time, a number of the county’s farmers were raising meat goats and shipping the animals out of the state for processing, because no centralized processing and marketing tools were available to them locally.”

According to Mobley, the producers had to organize themselves and their efforts, if they hoped to have better access to the local market. Part of this process was establishing a way that their product could be certified to earn the trust of grocery buyers.

Membership in the cooperative requires meat goat producers to apply for certification, and to pass tests and USDA inspections. Once certified, a receptive market is waiting for them in the form of Fiesta International IGA, a company with seven Raleigh-area locations which cater to ethnic markets.

“When we read in the local newspaper about what Ms. Mobley was doing, we were very interested,” said Frank Gonzalez, president of Fiesta International IGA. “The ability to buy local goat meat fits nicely in our supply system, which already includes local produce. We enjoy being able to support local growers, and their proximity gives us the freshest possible product, so it’s a win-win situation for both parties.”

To date, the Franklin County Goat Producers Cooperative has enrolled 40 producers, who, in addition to testing and certification, participate in educational workshops held in conjunction with the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

At the end of the summer, Franklin County Cooperative Extension will turn the cooperative over to the producers, helping the producers on an as-needed basis.

According to Dr. John O’Sullivan, a farm management and marketing specialist with the A&T Cooperative Extension Program, the cooperative is a good example of what can happen when groups come together to respond to an opportunity.

“The market for goat meat was there, but it wasn’t being met locally,” said O’Sullivan. “However, when the Cooperative Extension Service became involved, with specialists at both A&T and NC State, and the producers organized themselves, great things began to happen. Now, everyone is capitalizing on their strengths and moving toward the goal of producing and marketing a quality product, which will meet a demand and provide income to local, small-scale producers.”

Funding for the Franklin County Goat Producers Cooperative was provided through an innovative grants program coordinated by the Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina A&T State University. Twelve projects were funded through the program, ranging from solar greenhouses to corn mazes.

All are led by Cooperative Extension personnel working in county Extension centers, and all target limited-resource audiences and are tied to A&T’s current major program thrusts.