Short answer: Goats make a sensible second enterprise for a Ghanaian farm because they turn browse, grass and crop residue into kids, breeding stock and meat, and they tie up far less capital than cattle. Start with a small group of proven females, a shelter that drains well and a feed plan that survives the dry months, then grow the herd from your own kids. Get current rates from your local market before you put any figure into a budget.
Key takeaways
- Goats earn from kids, breeding stock and meat, so plan the first sale around the calendar and the festivals, not around the day you buy the animals.
- Budget for feed, labour, vet work, housing repairs and transport, and fill every price in from your own local market rather than from a neighbour's notebook.
- Start with a few healthy females and one sound buck, and keep records from the first day, because a herd you cannot count is a herd you cannot improve.
- Keep goat feed and poultry feed in separate stores, and never let a goat reach medicated poultry feed.
- Check registration, district permit and Veterinary Services movement rules before you carry animals to another district or market.
Why goats fit beside a poultry flock
Plenty of people who order chicks from us keep a few goats on the side. The reason is rarely a grand plan. It is usually a corner of the compound that nothing else uses, a stretch of scrub behind the house, and a few scraps that would otherwise rot by the back door. Goats turn that kind of material into animals you can sell. A laying flock needs concentrate feed every single day. A goat can live on browse, grass and crop residue for much of the year, which is why it suits a farm where feed money is already tight.
Goats also run on a different clock. A broiler batch is finished in weeks, and a goat herd is slower. A doe carries a kid for about five months, the kids need several months before they are worth selling, and the money tends to arrive in lumps around festivals rather than every Friday. Running both gives you cash moving in different months, and that smooths out the bad weeks in a way a single enterprise rarely does.
What goats do not do is manage themselves. They need shelter from the rain, clean water, a feed plan that survives the dry season, a vet who answers the phone, and someone who walks round the pen every morning. If your poultry operation already has those habits, goats are a manageable addition. If it does not, put the poultry house in order first.
Where the money comes from
A goat enterprise in Ghana earns from four places. A starter plan should be built around all four, because relying on one sale in one month is how small herds get into trouble.
- Kids sold at weaning or as growers. This is the main income for most small herds. Healthy, well grown kids sell faster, and timing matters because demand climbs before festivals.
- Breeding stock. A doe or buck from a line with good kidding records can fetch more than a meat animal, but buyers want proof. Your notes are what turn an ordinary goat into a breeding animal in the buyer's eyes.
- Meat for households, chop bars and caterers. Plan the kill around your buyers and the calendar rather than around the day an animal happens to look ready.
- Manure. Goat droppings make a good fertiliser for vegetables and maize once they are composted, and the composting steps are the same as for poultry litter. Our poultry manure guide covers the method.
Milk is not on that list for most West African Dwarf herds. The breed gives small amounts, enough for kids and perhaps a household, but not enough to build a dairy business on. If milk is your goal, you need a different breed and a different plan, and it is worth asking your extension officer before you spend money on animals.
A worked example with your own numbers in the last column
Nobody can tell you what a goat will sell for next month, and anyone who gives you one figure is guessing. What you can do is count animals. The table uses placeholder assumptions, to be swapped for your own records. Its job is to show how kid numbers, not the goats you bought, drive the business.
| Line | Example assumption | Your figure |
|---|---|---|
| Starter does | 6 | |
| Starter bucks | 1 | |
| Kiddings per doe per year | 1 | |
| Kids per kidding (average) | 1.5 | |
| Kids lost before weaning | 15 percent | |
| Kids reared per year | about 8 (7.65 before rounding) |
Eight kids a year is a small enterprise, and it will not carry a household on its own. Still, the arithmetic teaches three things. First, every kid lost before weaning comes straight out of the income. Second, a doe that kids once a year on paper may kid less often in practice if she is underfed, so the feed plan is part of the sums. Third, buying a second buck early costs you money if your does are not yet kidding well, so buy does first and wait on the extra buck until you know your herd.
To finish the sum, multiply the kids you reared by the sale price your local market is paying, then subtract feed, vet costs, labour and the upkeep on the house. If the answer is negative in your first year, the herd is either too small or too many kids are dying. Both problems can be fixed before you add more animals.
The cost lines people forget
Most beginners budget for the goats and the shed, then get surprised by everything else. Write each line below into your plan, and get current prices from your local market, feed sellers and hardware shops. Do not copy a number from someone else's book, because feed and timber rates change with the season and the district.
- Feed in the dry season, which is usually the most expensive stretch of the year for keepers who buy in.
- A mineral lick and salt, small costs that get forgotten until the herd starts chewing the wood.
- Vet visits, routine treatments and any testing your vet recommends.
- Repairs after the rains, when a gap in the fence or a sagging roof costs more than the sheet you should have bought.
- Water containers, cleaning gear and a drinker you can reach from the path.
- Transport to market, which can take a bigger share of the sale than people expect.
- Labour. Someone has to check the pen before sunrise and again at dusk.
- Records, phone credit and the notebook you will be tempted to skip.
- Replacing animals lost to disease, theft or a bad kidding.
Keep a running cost book for the first six months, even if it feels like overkill. The figures you write down on your own farm will tell you more than any general estimate can.
Buy females that already look like producers
The first animals set the pace for everything that follows. A doe that is poorly grown, lame or thin when you buy her will cost you a season of feed and a poor kidding record. Buy from a seller you can visit more than once, and ask to see the mother of any animal you are considering if she is still on the farm.
When you look at a goat, work through it in order. Check the teeth for a rough age and a healthy mouth. Look at body condition: the spine and ribs should be covered, not sharp, and the belly should be full without being bloated. Watch how the animal walks, because lameness often shows only once it moves. In a doe, feel the udder for lumps or hard quarters. Look at the eyes and nose for discharge, and check the coat for sores or patches of hair loss that could point to mange or ringworm.
Then isolate new animals for two to three weeks in a separate pen, away from your poultry and your existing goats. Ask your vet whether any test is worth doing before the animals join the herd. A cheap goat with a hidden infection is an expensive lesson. For the breed most keepers start with, read our West African Dwarf goat guide.
Build the shelter before the animals arrive
The house must be ready before the first animal walks in, and the decisions about it come earlier than most people expect. The construction details sit in our goat housing guide, so this section only covers what you need to settle at the start.
Decide where the pen sits before you buy anything. It should stand on higher ground, away from the poultry house, the water source and the path children use in the morning. Decide whether a kidding pen will be separate, because you will need one within months of buying your first does. Decide how you will lock the goats in at night, since a pen with a gap at the door is an open invitation to dogs and thieves.
If you already keep poultry, look at the drainage between the two sites. Water running off the goat pen should not wash manure into the chicken run, and the chicken house should not sit downhill from the goats' drinking spot.
A first-year feed plan that survives the dry season
The long dry season runs from about November to March across most of Ghana, and the northern regions feel it hardest. Grass dies back, some browse trees drop their leaves, and goats that looked fine in October start to show their ribs by February. A first-year plan has to assume that spell from the start.
Build the plan in the rainy months, when feed is cheap and abundant. Cut and dry extra grass, store crop residues that would otherwise be burned, and plant a small fodder plot if you have the space. Keep dry feed in a dry, raised, rodent-proof store and check it for mould every few weeks. Our feed storage guide explains why mouldy feed is a serious risk, and the same rules apply to goat feed.
A goat that is short of feed for three weeks loses condition fast, so the plan should count the weeks of stored feed you actually hold, not the weeks you hope the rains will give you. The forages and supplements themselves are covered in our goat feeding guide.
Health: the calendar to agree with your vet
Goat health problems in Ghana are mostly the ones you would expect in a warm, wet country: internal worms, external parasites, foot problems in wet weather, pneumonia when cold damp air settles on the herd, and sudden deaths that turn out to be infectious disease. Your vet should draw up the routine with you, and your job is to keep to it.
- Agree a deworming plan based on faecal egg counts where your vet can run them, rather than treating every goat on a fixed date. Routine treatment without checks can speed up drug resistance.
- Ask Veterinary Services whether peste des petits ruminants (PPR) vaccination campaigns are running in your district, and get your animals on the list.
- Trim hooves and inspect feet regularly, especially in the rains, when footrot takes hold quickly.
- Check for ticks and lice, and keep the pen dry, because parasites thrive in damp bedding.
- Isolate any animal that stops eating, runs a fever or has discharge from the nose or eyes.
Keep a health log beside the pen gate. Write the date, the animal number, the symptom, what you did and what your vet advised. When you sit down with the vet in six months, that log will shorten the conversation and sharpen the advice.
Need chicks for your next batch?
Send breed, number and town. We reply with price, hatch date and delivery cost in writing.
Breeding from your own kids
Once the herd is established, most keepers want to breed from their own stock rather than buy in every year. That saves money, but it also brings the risk of close inbreeding if you are careless. Record every animal's parents, and do not mate a buck to his daughters or sisters as a shortcut.
Keep the best doe kids from the strongest, most productive does. Select on things you can see and record: kidding ease, kid birth weight, the number of kids a doe rears, her udder, her feet and her temperament. Cull animals with repeated foot problems or poor mothering, even if they look good in the pen. Introduce a buck from another line every few years, timed so the old one is replaced before he slows.
The breeding and kidding calendar, including how to count back from a festival date, is set out in our goat breeding and kidding guide. Read it before the first doe comes into heat, because the mating window decides everything that follows.
Papers, permits and selling
Registering a goat business is not a single form. Depending on how big you get and where you sell, you may deal with several offices. Check current terms with each one before you commit money.
- Registrar-General's Department for registering a business name if you trade under one.
- District assembly for any trading permit, premises rules or local bylaws on keeping livestock near homes and in towns.
- Veterinary Services for health certificates and any movement papers you need when taking animals to another district or market.
- MoFA extension staff for free advice on husbandry, feed and the local market calendar.
Selling is where the calendar matters most. Demand for goats rises before Eid al-Adha, around Christmas, before Easter and during funerals and chieftaincy festivals, then tends to dip in the weeks after a festival. Plan sales so animals are ready a little before the peak rather than a month after it. Keep a sales book with the buyer type, the date, the weight and the agreed price, because that record shows what your enterprise is really worth.
Where the poultry side still pays the bills
On most farms that keep both, poultry is the faster income and goats are the slower one. Poultry gives cash you can see every few weeks. The goat herd gives a larger lump sum that depends on kids, weather and the calendar. Each covers a gap the other leaves open.
If you are starting from the poultry side, the first step is still a healthy flock. We hatch day-old chicks in Opeikuma, Kasoa, so the first thing we can offer a mixed farm is the poultry side. Ross 308 and Cobb 500 start from GH₵20 a bird, Hy-Line Brown from GH₵23, Sasso from GH₵13 and Kuroiler or Noiler from GH₵11. The live price list is on our prices page, and the breeds page compares the birds we hatch against your market.
Chick orders go through the order form, delivery terms sit on the delivery page, and anyone wanting bulk or partner terms can start on the partner page. Questions about running goats alongside a flock can go to +233 24 915 1503 on WhatsApp, or to support@halaalfarms.com.
The first ninety days, as a checklist
Use this list as the plan for your first three months. Tick each line with the date beside it, and keep the list in the same notebook as your health and sales records.
- Choose the pen site, check the drainage and mark where the feed store will sit.
- Build or repair the shelter, with a dry sleeping area and a separate kidding pen.
- Get a list of reliable sellers from the district office or local breeders, and visit them before you buy.
- Buy the first does and quarantine them for two to three weeks in a separate pen.
- Agree a health calendar and deworming plan with your vet.
- Set up a clean drinker, a mineral lick and a raised, rodent-proof feed store.
- Store enough dry feed to cover the weeks you expect to be short before the dry season starts.
- Start the health log, the kidding record and the sales book on the same day.
- Confirm registration and permit requirements with the Registrar-General's Department and the district assembly.
- Review the cost book at the end of the month and deal with the line that is growing fastest.
Questions farmers ask
Is goat farming profitable in Ghana?
Whether goats pay depends on your feed source, how many kids survive to weaning and what your local market pays when you sell. Goats are rarely a quick return, and most small herds need a year of records before the numbers mean much. Build a worked budget with current local rates before you decide, and treat the first year as a learning year.
How many goats should I start with?
Most small keepers start with a few does and one buck, or with a buck borrowed from a neighbour under a clear agreement. Six does and one buck is a useful size for learning the routine, and a smaller start is fine if your time or pen space is limited. Grow the herd from your own kids once your records show you can rear them.
Can I keep goats if I already run a poultry flock?
Yes, and plenty of compounds manage it well. Store goat feed and poultry feed in different rooms, give each species a drinker it cannot share, and close both away at dusk, because rats and dogs are most active once the yard goes quiet. The shared-compound rules are covered in a separate article on this site.
How long before a goat farm starts to earn?
Most early income comes from kids, so the timing depends on when your does kid and when those kids reach a saleable size. Many well-fed does first kid at around a year old. If you buy in the dry season and breed in the rains, expect the first real sales a year or more after you start.
What permits does a small goat keeper need?
Keeping a few goats in a compound is usually governed by your district assembly's bylaws, and the rules differ between towns and villages. Movement of animals and health papers come through Veterinary Services. Ask both offices what applies to your location, and check current terms before you move animals or build a larger pen.
Where can I buy goats?
Goats are not something we stock. Our business is day-old chicks, and this guide exists for farmers who want to diversify. For animals, ask your district MoFA office for breeders they know, visit markets where you can see the animal's mother, and avoid sellers you cannot trace if the animals fall sick.
Are goats and chickens safe to keep near each other?
Yes, with sensible separation. Keep feed stores apart, keep drinkers apart and clean them daily, and make sure goats cannot reach medicated poultry feed. Keep the goat pen clear of the chicken house, because droppings and bedding can carry parasites both ways. If you are unsure about layout, your local extension officer can look at the site with you.
