No kidding, Highland County has a lot of goats

Sutton County, Texas has more than 55,000 goats. You probably didn’t know that.

You also probably didn’t know that you needed to know that Sutton County, Texas has more than 55,000 goats. No kidding. (Pun intended.)

In Edwards County, Texas, there are some 45,000 goats – and fewer than 2,000 people.

I’m not sure that anyone touched on goats – even kidding about them (OK. Sorry. I’ll stop kidding around about goats.) – at this year’s Agriculture is Everyone’s Business event at Southern State Community College on Jan. 16. But maybe someone should have.

There are more than 2.6 million goats in the United States.

The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham puts the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Goat Census in an interesting perspective. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/12/map-literally-every-goat-in-the-united-states/)

Thanks to my friend from the Pricetown area, Mr. Bill Bear, I was alerted to The Washington Post story this morning.

Do you realize that Highland County is among the state of Ohio leaders, by county, in goat population?

From an interactive national map on the Post’s website, I found that Highland County has, by the 2012 census, 1,170 goats.

There were 1,284 goats in Belmont County, 1,218 goats in Perry County, 1,193 goats in Coshocton County and 1,155 goats in Adams County.

On the short (mo)hair side of the state, there were only 51 goats in Lucas County and, somewhat surprisingly, Vinton County could claim just 69 goats. That’s too baaaddd.

Mr. Ingraham writes: “There were 2,621,514 goats in the United States as of 2012, the year of the most recent USDA Agricultural Census. If America's goats were their own state, its population would be larger than that of Wyoming, Vermont, D.C. and North Dakota – combined. … Nearly 80 percent of America's goats are raised for meat. Sixteen percent are raised for milk, with the remaining 6 percent is comprised of Angora goats raised for mohair.”

While the U.S. cattle population was approximately 87.7 million in 2014, it’s trending downward from the 89.3 million bovines here in 2013.

Meanwhile, goat herds are increasing, albeit modestly. I’ll have to check at this year’s Highland County Fair to see about the local increases.

According to Marissa Fessenden, writing for www.smithsonian.com this week: “The demand for goat meat is rising as more people from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean settle in the U.S. The new arrivals won’t be the only ones eating goat meat: It’s lean, it makes a nice curry, and restaurateurs, foodies and farmers alike are pushing the idea. It shouldn’t seem odd: Howie Velie, an associate dean of the Culinary Institute of America told Modern Farmer that goats taste ‘like lamb.’”

It’s been almost 25 years since I helped Don Myers and Clarence Brabson, Jr. catch and field dress a goat (I was the one who had to catch it) in Adams County. We all agreed that – if you fix it right – it tastes like chicken. Maybe it was deer. I can’t remember.

We used to raise goats, too. We had one named Billy the Kid, but you couldn’t carry on a conversation around him. He was always butting in.

Thanks, Bill, for sharing this information with our readers.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.