A Goat Day at the Ag Center Saturday

GAINESVILLE - Everything you ever wanted to know about goats was on display Saturday during Goat Day at the Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center in Gainesville.

Hall County 4-H Club members and other youngsters learned there is a future in goat raising from members of Northeast Georgia Goat Producers.
Goat meat is popular the world over and with so many Latin Americans and Asians locating in north Georgia goats are the animals to raise according to Dale Smith, president of Northeast Georgia Goat Producers.

"The people who are coming into our area from outside the United States look for goat," Smith said.

Goat producers showed off their favorite animals in the Ag Center arena.
Association members conducted clinics on, among other things: How to Impress the Judge, How to Show a Goat, and Selecting your Goat.
Farmers are learning goats are an alternative revenue source according to producer Patricia Parson from Pendergrass.

"It's a way for the farmer to diversify; you can't just live on chickens, you can't just live on raising beef cows," Parson said.

Ten-year-old 4-H member Rebecca Bell says they make great pets.

"They're precious, they just adorable, they're little angels," she said.

Andrew Evans also age ten has a six-month-old goat named "Billy".

"It's fun to have responsibility for a goat and we get a lot of laughs out of him," he said.