Farmer Focus: Hopeful for goatmeat income stream

Our maize has been planted at least 10 days later than usual. We have also direct-drilled some grass seeds into swards sprayed with glyphosate.

The contractors are under pressure, with three months’ work to do in a month, as muckspreading, maize planting and first-cut silage are all overlapping this year.

At short notice we had a Glastir agri-environment scheme capital works inspection, which prompted some panic and a couple of hastily finished fencing jobs. Thankfully we passed with no penalties.

I spent a day helping with the “Cows on tour” at Marshfield Primary School just outside Cardiff. Abi Reader started this initiative a few years ago to try to educate school children about where their food comes from.

See also: How to feed dry cows to prevent negative protein balance

It involves taking the farm to the school, with sheep, chickens, a cow and a tractor. I ended up taking a chicken and some chicks around the classrooms, explaining about egg and chicken farming, with my vast knowledge of poultry!

It was hard work, but very rewarding, and it is something we need to replicate across the country to bridge the divide between agriculture and the public.

We hosted a couple of separate customer visits for the Abergavenny Creamery. They arrived just in time to see the last part of morning milking.

One visit included a lady from the US, who had just placed a significant order of goat’s cheese. Hopefully we can be one of the few sectors of British agriculture to benefit from Brexit, as most of the new markets for goat’s cheese are outside the EU.

The Boer-cross kids are just starting to be born and are noticeably meatier than the dairy kids.

A local goatmeat farmer was featured on a BBC TV show recently and following the programme, their website was inundated with orders for goat meat. Hopefully this trend will continue and provide us with a new income stream in the future.


Gary and Jess Yeomans run a herd of 700 milking goats across 100ha, which supplies a local cheese factory. They also own a small pedigree Welsh Black suckler herd to graze permanent pasture.