Progress report for FNC24-1414
Project Information
Sylvester and Sabrina Friend, are the co-owners of Prairie Hills Farm established in 2021, we are first generation black farmers in Central Indiana. Prairie Hills Farm is about 9 acres in size, utilizing about 3 acres of pastured areas for raising livestock; goats, turkey, chicken, and bees, and about 1 acre for growing over 25 varieties of produce, including 3 hoop house structures. At the farm, we focus on producing high quality produce and pasture raised proteins using regenerative and sustainable methods, such as no till practices.
Over the course of the last 3 years Sabrina and I have studied and gained knowledge in every aspect of the farm. Our roles as farmers would be to load, haul and setup each job the goats go on. This will mean, loading, setting up temporary fencing, setting up temporary run in structure, setting up water and feed troughs, making sure the job site is secure and that the goats health during the job remains good. Over the years with the amount of learning and working with the goats, we feel we are both more than capable to carry out all job functions related to this project.
The cost of ownership of goat has increased by about 60% since
2020, when the pandemic occurred and inflation increased
significantly along with several years of drought putting
additional pressures on hay demand and pricing. In this project,
we will explore the feasibility of reducing the cost of goat
livestock ownership, by introducing a goat brush clearing service
to increase revenue to mitigate these increasing costs.
Small meat goat herders, with herd sizes around 80 - 120 goats,
have been looking for a viable solution to add revenue generating
services to supplement a farms meat goat operation. This project
will research if adding a brush clearing service is a viable
solution for small scale goat farms.
Solution:
In our research we are wanting to see if goat brush clearing is a
viable resource to increase revenue for the small farmer in
Central Indiana.
Traditionally, brush clearing is performed using heavy equipment
like tractors, skid steer, etc and rely on the use of carbon
fueled vehicles. The solution we have would be to introduce goats
to the area for a more sustainable, regenerative and efficient
way of brush clearing. In order to reduce the use heavy
equipment, nonrenewable resources, and hours of human labor
needed for various jobs.
Materials / Equipment needed for the solution:
In addition to the goats that will perform the actual brush
clearing there are other materials and resources needed. Some of
these supporting materials or resources are a livestock trailer,
a portable electric fence system, fencing material, hay, food and
water containers, PPE such as gloves and closed toed shoes, and
hand tools such as hammer, screw drivers, and portable power
tools. Most of the materials and equipment needed are already
acquired and in possession with the exception of a livestock
trailer, to met the capacity of the herd that will need to be
transported, and portable electric fencing. With these materials
the brush clearing service will be able to be flexible and adjust
to varying sized jobs.
Update for progress reporting:
Under materials and equipment we made the assumption that we would still need to feed both hay and grain. However, what we have learned is that while out on a job the objective is for the goats to to clear brush and in a more aggressive manner. So we cut hay and feed to get the grazing results our clients are looking for in a short time frame. With this we save on both hay and feed bringing our cost down, one of our goals going into targeted brush clearing.
Method of Sustainable Practice:
The handler of the goats will measure the size of the lot and
create a brush clearing layout plan. The portable fencing will be
setup prior to introducing goats into the area that needs to be
cleared. While the goats are performing the brush clearing
assignment, they will be rotated through the areas sequentially
to clear the brush in a systematic fashion. The size of the land
needing to be clear will provide a reference for the size of the
paddock created to promote high density grazing.
Objective:
- Identify if there is a demand or appetite for brush clearing
using goats in residential, commercial, and municipal locations. - To learn if goat clearing can bring in revenue for the small
scale farmer to be able to off set the cost of livestock. - Evaluate the rate of brush clearing by goats.
- Share our findings with other farmers and ag professionals
via, social media, field days and other farm related workshops
and events.
Research
Year 1:
We are researching if using goat to add a service of brush clearing is a viable service for small scale goat herd farmers. In the first year we were able to contract with 3 different jobs in our local area. We joined "Goats On The Go (R)" as affiliates in our local area and we had a specific service area that has about a 50 mile radius. There were benefits to joining an established organization when it comes to marketing and brand recognition. However, we seen for every job we secured, we had about six (6) inquires per contract that was secured. The conversion rate may have been higher, but with specific service areas, we passed along potential jobs to the appropriate service provider. The other learning was the choice to not service potential customers due to distance from our farm location, size of the potential job, and access to the customer site. Based on the variables of the inquiries, we seen that jobs over 50 to 60 miles and the density or size of the jobs available, it didn't make financial sense to service customers over 50 to 60 miles.
From a benefit standpoint, we seen with a herd size of 35 goats, there was an average of $23 explicit cost saving from feed daily, when the goats were on a job. The daily cost savings came from hay, $10 , and feed $13. There is a variable increase cost in fuel, depending on the distance to the customer location, that needs to be considered and tracked. One thing to note is feed and fuel cost are "commodities" so the price can fluctuate depending on uncontrollable economic factors.
Year 1:
Project on going, still obtaining data for the results.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Year 1:
Outreach and community event was cancelled due to location or property owner had situation were the land was no longer available for use. Will reschedule at another location during the 2nd year of the research project.
Learning Outcomes
Year 1:
Initially we planned to use Social Media as the primary way to market brush clearing to our community and realized that there were barriers to finding our target customers. Upon doing additional research, we were able to identify companies that had brand recognition and made the decision to join "Goats On The Go (R)" and became affiliates. The cost of ~$2,400 a year to join seemed reasonable to obtain brand recognition, an affiliate network, and share of best practices to support our brush clearing business objectives. Once we were trained as affiliates with this team, we realized we were under resourced in several important areas, very specifically fencing to meet the needs of potential customers.