🦾 Goat

🐐 How goats are priced in India

The band above is what sellers actually asked when they posted — not a fixed rate, and a very wide band on purpose. A goat can be anything from a weaned kid to a grown breeding buck, so two listings can sit thousands of rupees apart and both be fair. Know what you are paying for before you read any one price as high or low.

What moves the price

• Weight and age. Most goats change hands for meat, and meat animals are priced on live body weight — a heavier goat costs more, and the rate per kilo itself firms up in the weeks before Bakri Eid. A young kid is cheap; a grown, well-fleshed buck at slaughter weight sits at the top of the everyday range.
• Purpose. A doe in milk, a proven breeding buck, a wether raised for meat, and a flawless horned male bought for Bakri Eid are four different markets. An uncastrated, unblemished, well-grown male near the festival can command far more than its meat weight alone would suggest.
• Breed. A named meat or dairy breed — Sirohi, Beetal, Jamnapari, Osmanabadi, Black Bengal — sits above a nondescript local (desi) goat of the same weight, and a registered breeding buck with good conformation is the priciest animal on the page.
• Health and teeth. A sound animal — clear eyes and nose, no scouring, no limp, no cough — holds its price. Age is read off the teeth, and a doe's price turns on whether she is in milk or in kid. That gap is where first-time buyers most often overpay.

The breeds you will actually see

Most goats listed in India are one of a handful of breeds. The Sirohi of Rajasthan — brown with patches, hardy and low-maintenance — is a mainstay meat goat. The Beetal of Punjab is large with long drooping ears, kept for both meat and milk, and the tall, roman-nosed Jamnapari of the Chambal is one of the biggest Indian breeds. The Osmanabadi of Maharashtra is a mostly-black, prolific meat breed; the small Black Bengal of the east is prized out of proportion to its size for the quality of its meat and skin and its habit of twinning. You will also meet the compact, quick-growing Barbari and, where someone is chasing fast meat gain, Boer crosses.

Before you pay

• See the goat weighed, or weigh it yourself — you are usually buying by weight, and eyeballing it is how you overpay.
• Check the teeth for age, and pull down an eyelid: pale gums or inner eyelids point to a heavy worm burden and anaemia. Look for a bloated belly, scouring, coughing or foot rot.
• On a doe, check the udder and ask if she is in milk or in kid; on a buck, check both testicles are present and sound.
• Ask about vaccination — PPR above all, plus FMD — and recent deworming. Never send the full amount in advance to hold an animal you have not stood next to.

Goat prices move hard with the season — they climb in the run-up to Bakri Eid — and with region and weight. Use the band at the top of this page as your starting point, then judge each listing on the animal in front of you.