Going to the goats

Rockholds goat farmer shares his knowledge to fight poverty, kudzu

By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer

“It’s becoming almost chic,” Ray Bowman says with a laugh, “I never thought I’d say that.”

Bowman is talking about goats — more specifically, goat farming and the rising popularity of goat meat amongst America’s elite chefs.

As the executive director of the Kentucky Sheep and Goat Development Office, Bowman knows a thing or two about the goat industry, and Thursday morning, at the historic Sharpe Farm in Rockholds, he shared his knowledge with visitors from the Red Bird Mission.

“Ten or 12 years ago, when people like Barry and I would tell people that we are goat farmers, they would laugh in our faces ... but now, when we tell them that, they get interested,” Bowman said.

Barry is Barry Arnett, the current vice-president and resident of the Sharpe Farm. Arnett’s wife, Virginia Sharpe Arnett, inherited the historic farm that has been in the Sharpe family since 1822.

Arnett and his wife moved onto the farm after Arnett retired from his job on Wall Street in the late 1990s.

“I worked at IBM and Citigroup and retired from both of those and wanted to do something outside. I thought I’d get some exercise and I thought it’d be healthy for me,” Arnett said about his decision to start raising goats on his farm.

Members of the Red Bird Mission, which came to the Sharp Farm to get insight on how to make goat farming profitable, provides free livestock to families in need.

But Sharpe Farm is more than just a goat farm and a teaching tool. It’s also an experimental testing ground for the war against kudzu (pronounced kud-zoo).

If you don’t know what kudzu is, you’ve seen it and not even known it. Kudzu is an evasive vine with large green leaves. It will grow just about anywhere — sometimes even engulfing dilapidated sheds, fences and even towering trees.

Kudzu first came to the United States in 1876 as an ornamental flower from Japan. It was planted throughout the south during the Great Depression to fight erosion. But in the 1950s, scientists and farmers realized kudzu worked too well in the south — no one could control the spread of the “weed.”

It’s been called the “vine that ate the south” and Arnette is no fan of the plant.

“The goats came about because I would sit on my front porch and look at all that stupid kudzu over there. I thought it looked ugly and it wasn’t doing anything productive...” Arnette said.

Arnette sought out the help of professors at the University of Kentucky who suggested Arnette try raising goats as part of an experiment to clear out kudzu.

When the experiments are complete, Arnette and the UK team hope to come up with educational materials and “hints” for farmers looking to get rid of kudzu.

As much as Arnette and Southerners hate the plant, goats love the stuff.

“What’s miraculous about (kudzu) is it is high in protein and goats love it. We thought there ought to be some combination of goats and kudzu that would be good for everybody,” Arnette said.

Arnette isn’t making much profit these days, but eventually he thinks by selling some of the goats for meat and some for breeding, the farm will eventually become successful. Arnette is optimistic for the future of goat farming, a feeling he shares with Bowman.

“All this stuff, the kudzu, is just growing out here, and unless we have a drought like we did last year it, will just continue to grow. So use it ... Goats are the most efficient forage machines on the earth. I’m convinced of it. Nothing is better than a goat at converting forage to either milk or meat or fiber,” Bowman said.

America is a beef country, according to Bowman, and culturally Americans look down on eating goat — let alone raising them as profitable livestock.

Bowman says this borderline “mistrust” of sheep and goat farmers even seeps into popular culture. The good guys in Westerns are often cattlemen while the bad ones are sheepherders, he said.

“Well, that’s not the way it is. It was kind of that way historically. They (cattlemen) saw the sheepherders as competitors, but they are not. We (sheep and goat farmers) can be companions,” Bowman said.

Cows are the fickle eaters of the livestock world. Cattle won’t eat broadleaf plants like the kudzu, so any land stricken with the invasive plant is almost useless for raising cattle.

And trying to clear a field of kudzu is no easy or cheap task. With the price of gas soaring and the long man-hours it takes to clear fields, getting rid of kudzu is expensive. Herbicides can be used to down man-hours, but because kudzu is so hardy, it takes a lot of herbicide.

“Herbicide works too, but you have to put a lot on there. Again, you’ve got the expense of the herbicide, but you’ve also got potential environmental impact. So here come the goats. They go out there, eat the stuff, process it, and turn it into meat. And all they leave behind is fertilizer,” Bowman said.

Some farmers clear fields with sheep and goats, and then let the cattle feed on the remaining grasses. Others let the cows graze right along the goats, allowing the goats to keep broadleaf plants like kudzu in check, while the cows bring in the money, Bowman explained.

With recipes and a recent feature article devoted to the topic in Time magazine, Bowman says goats are a rising industry in America — even without help from their larger livestock cousins.

Approximately 90 percent of the world eats goat meat on a regular basis, making the United States a relative anomaly when it comes to goat consumption. Bowman says that immigrants from all over the world are bringing back demand for goat meat in the United States.

New Americans aren’t the only people looking for goat meat. Bowman sees goats’ appearance in Time as a sign the “elite” are getting interested in goats.

“The perception in America is changing tremendously, and it is changing from the top down. That’s the amazing thing. It’s the American consumers with the most expendable income that are experimenting with it and liking goat,” Bowman said.

With the renewed interest, Bowman said the goat industry is growing in the U.S., which bodes well for the farmers willing to try raising the “unconventional” livestock in these harsh economic times.

“It’s an industry less than two decades old and it’s growing exponentially. These guys that are getting into it, and staying in the goat business, are really in the driver’s seat. The future is rosy for them,” Bowman said.

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