Robert McMannamy is fighting an uphill battle.

He’s trying to get goats included at the Northwest Montana Fair market stock sale.

McMannamy said the “big three” in livestock  — cattle, swine and sheep  — have held sway in the market in the Flathead for as long as there has been a fair. 

“I think basically it’s because, ‘This is what we’ve done for so many years, so why change it?’” he said. “It’s mired in tradition. For me, it’s a matter of equal opportunity.”

McMannamy said there are 4-H children in the area just waiting to raise goats for meat, but the fair does not include goats at the same venue or time as the steer, hogs and sheep are sold.

Fairgrounds Manager Mark Campbell said goats would be welcome in the livestock auction, but their owners first have to prove they have a market.

“What needs to happen is there needs to be an acceptance all around,” he said. “We need to see solid, strong signs of the meat goat market and the interest.”

McMannamy said that interest can’t be raised for goats unless they can be sold in the auction. This leaves him and several 4-Hers in a Catch-22 situation.

Linda Guest, who has raised dairy goats for years, said her grandchildren have been raising meat goats for this year’s fair and would benefit from inclusion in the auction.

“I think that if they let us sell the goats, the popularity would grow in leaps and bounds,” she said. “I think the market is there. Goat meat is the most consumed meat in the world.”

The four or five 4-Hers raising goats for this year’s fair hope to sell their animals through private deals. Since goats sell for nearly $2 a pound and a good goat (6 to 9 months old) weighs 60 to 90 pounds, they still stand to make some money.

But with more than 100 local youths raising “the big three,” the inclusion of just a handful of goat raisers could skew the total numbers and money distribution, Campbell said.

“It takes more than a few kids with goats,” he said. “We need a proven track record. I haven’t seen that reflected in the market yet.”

McMannamy said that for some reason, goats have a bad reputation in the United States. He said he has invited people over to taste his goat cheese who were “flabbergasted” that it didn’t come from a cow.

One of the proprietors of Lost Prairie Farm, Ann Marie Becker, raises close to 70 meat goats at a time. 

“There has definitely been an increased demand in the last few years,” she said. “Goat meat is a very healthy red meat. It’s higher in protein than chicken or fish.”

The main breed for goat meat is the Boer goat from South Africa. It was only introduced to the United States in the mid-1990s, and Becker said she thinks people might be more inclined to buy goats for meat if they were better informed.

“People might be thinking of Uncle Billy-Bob’s stinky old Billy goat,” she said. “Times have changed. I sell 90 percent of my goats locally.”

Goats are popular worldwide for meat. The United States imports 65 percent of its goat meat from Australia and New Zealand. 

But what does goat taste like? There isn’t consensus.

“You might equate beef crossed with elk or venison, without any of the gaminess,” McMannamy said.

“It tastes delicious. Very mild flavored, kind of a cross between antelope and pork,” Guest said.

“It’s a mild, sweet meat in between chicken and pork. The closest wild game might be antelope,” Becker said.

But no matter how it tastes, the fair will need to see people wanting to buy goats before it will consider including them alongside the traditional pigs, cows and sheep.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.