The future at Onion Creek Ranch...

How Onion Creek Ranch Came To Be
I began my goat-raising journey when I bought property on Onion Creek south of Austin in 1988. Escaping the big city of Houston for a better quality of life, I named the property Onion Creek Ranch, moved there in late 1989, and acquired my first goat in January 1990. As a real estate broker, I knew when I purchased the Onion Creek location that it was so close to Austin that I had about ten years to live there before Austin crowded me out. I was correct, especially after I began raising goats. By 1999, I had a decision to make: cut back the goat numbers to hobby status or move west to more acreage to raise meat goats on a larger scale. I chose to move. In 1999, I bought 500 acres in McCulloch County north of Brady, Texas, and greatly expanded my goat-raising operation. After many years of raising goats on a large scale in an isolated area, I decided to move back closer to civilization. In 2014, I bought acreage in Burnet County about 50 miles north of Austin and began building a new ranch as I marketed the McCulloch County property to prospective buyers. The big move came in March 2018, and the goats, dogs, cats, and I now happily reside at Onion Creek Ranch on Happy Ridge Road near Briggs, Texas, where I have applied what I learned from my 18 years in West Texas to build a new and efficient-to-operate goat ranch.

My Business Plan
I have taken a multi-faceted approach to my ranching operation. The first and most important goal is to breed superior quality fullblood Tennessee Meat Goat™ and TexMaster™ breeding stock to sell to producers across the USA and around the world. I no longer raise the smaller Myotonic goats with which I began this venture. If you want the best MEAT goat breeding stock on the planet, my ranch is where you should purchase it. I don't sell "seconds." My culls go to slaughter.

GoatCamp™ began in October 2002. Held on my working goat ranch, GoatCamp™ provides students with intensive education, both in the classroom and in the field with goats. There is nothing like it anywhere else. You will learn more in four days than you will learn in four years on your own. Details on the GoatCamp™ pages at http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com.

I offer a fee-based consulting service to people who want to set up their new goat ranch properly by benefiting from my years of experience or who want help correcting design or management flaws in their existing goat-raising operation.

I have been writing articles on meat-goat health, nutrition, and management since around 1995. My website http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com contains an Articles page with a search engine where you can locate and read articles on almost everything related to meat goats.

Since November 1998, I have hosted a free meat-goat education group called ChevonTalk on Yahoogroups.

In 2009, Pat Cotten of Bending Tree Ranch in Arkansas and I started our own on-line meat-goat magazine called MeatGoatMania, subscription to which is free. Onion Creek Ranch also has a page on Facebook where I can easily post recent goat photos. Facebook is not a good venue to discuss goat health issues. Instead, you must call me. I will have lots of questions. it is usually the simplest thing and people seldom realize it. I speak with as many as six to eight people per day.

FINAL THOUGHTS
The meat-goat industry still remains in its infancy. People go into and out of raising goats every day, with most folks not lasting five years because raising goats is difficult. Most people have a 180 degree out-of-sync-with-reality view of what goats are and what it takes to raise them. They also don't have enough acreage. Goats are like deer, needing lots of acreage to roam over and not be stressed by crowding. Crowding goats means sick and dead animals. Goats are dry-land animals and most of the USA is truly too wet to raise goats healthily and profitably. Read my article EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT RAISING MEAT GOATS BUT DIDN'T KNOW WHO TO ASK. Some day someone has to take the initiative to buy enough land and build the infrastructure that is necessary to raise goats on a large scale without trying to "feedlot" them. Until that happens, there won't be a real meat-goat industry in this country. Demand for goat meat is high. The market is there for the taking.

All information and photos copyright © Onion Creek Ranch and may not be used without express written permission of Onion Creek Ranch. TENNESSEE MEAT GOAT ™ and TEXMASTER™ are Trademarks of Onion Creek Ranch . All artwork and graphics © DTP, Ink and Onion Creek Ranch.