Production and Marketing of Meat Goat in the Northern, Thailand

Abstract

     The main objective of this research is to study the production and marketing of meat goats in Northern Thailand. The sample size of this research were 216 farmers who raised meat goat and participated in the community enterprise in 6 provinces. The sample size calculation used was the Taro Yamane formula and simple sampling method by lottery method. The data collection used was an interview schedules and in-depth interview. Data analyzed used descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, minimum, maximum, and standard deviation together with content analysis.
     The results showed that most farmers were male with an average age of 51.36 years old with primary education. The main occupation of the farmers was the cultivation of crops and raising meat goats was an additional occupation. The interest of farmers in raising meat goats started from studying from the Department of Livestock Development officials, experienced farmers, and the internet before decided to join the project in 2020, which leads most of the farmers to have only 1-2 years of goat farming experience. In production, farmers preferred to raise Hybrid-Boer Goat using their land with an average of 8.0 rai and 1.85 households as the primary labor force. At present, farmers had an average of 36.29 goats and rearing in semi-barrel type by using Napier grass or natural growing grass as the main roughage. In marketing, farmers preferred to sell living goats with the weight of at least 20 kg/goat at the average price of 110 – 120 baht/kg. The distribution method used was 1) sell together through Chiang Mai Agricultural Council 2) sell together and contact directly to intermediaries and 3) individual farmers sell to intermediaries.