Cattle Ranchers get Raided, Goat Herders get Subsidized

What with all the anger and finger pointing I see coming from the left towards the Bundy stand off I couldn't help finding this article I saw linked from Dudge this morning ironic in a way.

New Americans turn to goats to address food demand

New Americans? My guess was the article would have little to do with any of the Americans I know of who are raising goats on their own. Of course I was right on that assumption but even that little tidbit wasn't enough to make this article all that interesting to me this morning. No, it wasn't until I got down to a few numbers that were given in the article that I had to question the thing as blatant pandering.

The project is a collaboration between the Vermont Land Trust, which is giving the farmers access to the farm property on the Winooski River, and the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, now called AALV. The idea is that the land will be transferred to a cooperative entity representing the new American population and that group will take over the costs of the land - such as the insurance and taxes, Freudenberger said.

So they are being given the land. Doesn't say how much land. I wonder if they are buying all their feed?

A grant of about $20,000 from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters helped to get Dhaurali started last year with electric fencing, feed and other supplies. Another Vermont Working Lands grant of more than $10,000 helped create the custom slaughter facility. The project subsidizes the farmer for the first year, but when they sell the goats in the fall, it allows them to finance future years.

Here they have been subsidized to the tune of 30K (not counting the land value whatever that was). Then comes the money sentence.

Last year the project sold about 100 goats to families from more than 15 nationalities. Often, whole families including grandparents visit the farm to pick out the goat. Goat buyers can slaughter the animals on site the way they are accustomed to.

These numbers tell me that in their first year they would have been lucky to have covered barely two thirds of the grant costs gross. That is assuming a pay out of around $200.00 per goat sale which I doubt but let's give em the benefit shall we.

The article says the customer is doing the slaughtering but we can assume there is some charge for the facilities maybe.

Earlier in the article it is mentioned that in their second year they are raising about 200 goats for this year. Using my $200.00 pay out that would give them a gross figure of around 40K per year assuming all 200 live but doesn't include feed costs, insurance, structure maintenance etc. It also assumes all of the 200 goats have been acquired free of charge and without keeping a herd of breeding Does or Bucks which would add to the overall yearly feeding costs obviously.

Also of note was the paragraph where they complained that the "refugee" buyer couldn't communicate with the Farmer to buy their goats yet these two subsidized goat farmer families can communicate just fine with 16 different nationalities of origin?

Unless there are a number of not mentioned financial inflows I don't see how this endeavor would last more than another year myself, perhaps two if they completely write off ground and building maintenance. My guess is that the people running the farm are getting some type of  income assistance on top of what we are reading but that's simply a guess.

My final question is how many Old American's out there get free land and 30K in grants to raise say chickens and Pigs?

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!