WHAT PRICE FOR GOAT MILK?
There have been a number of attempts in trying to express standard economic theory to example goat enterprises (Ace, 1978; Olorunnipa et al., 1990; Gebremedhin and Gebrelul, 1991). In relation to cow milk it has been determined that the price for goat milk at the farm gate must be at least from 1.5 to 2.5 times higher because of extra labor costs; and that lactations should be 2,200 to 3,300 lb per doe with herd sizes from 60 to 120 does to be a sustainable enterprise (Yazman 1983a). At an annual cash cost of $352.- for production per milking doe per year, the necessary “break-even” milk prices for production levels of 1,500; 2,000; 2,500 lb/doe/yr were calculated to be $23.47; 17.60; 14.08/cwt, respectively (Yazman, 1983b). Labor as one of the principal constraints in dairy management has been compared on different farms (Kapture, 1991). The range was 26 min to 1.1 hr/cwt. for goat milk versus only 3 to 14 min/cwt for cow milk. If labor was $6.- per hr, then there were only $1.40 labo
