Participant in the new Goat MQP contest will begin by weighing and tagging their goats in late May!
Livestock producers know that raising an animal that possesses carcass and meat quality traits that are important to the consumer is vital to a successful livestock enterprise. Those same producers also realize performance is an important component of profitability with their livestock. Resulting from the effort and encouragement of the Fairfield County Goat Committee, now, beginning in 2022, local junior market goat exhibitors will have the opportunity to participate in a real-world market goat production contest that rewards participants for excelling at producing both those added market value traits.
The Goat Muscle Quality and Performance (MQP) contest will evaluate entries based on a combination of growth, performance, and carcass characteristics to identify a contest winner. Very similar to the way the Lamb MQP contest is conducted, Goat MQP will begin with exhibitors weighing in their young goats at the Fairgrounds. These goats will return home with the exhibitor, be fed to an appropriate finish weight, and then returned to the Fairgrounds for final weigh-in and transport to a local packing house for harvest. Once harvested, the goats will be evaluated and ranked based on a combination of factors including carcass weight, fat thickness, ribeye area and performance. Performance will account for 30% of the total score with the goat carcass score accounting for the remaining 70% of the score.
Dates are still being established but weigh-in will likely occur in late May or early June with conclusion of the contest and goat harvest being scheduled for a date in late August.
Exhibitors will be responsible for marketing the meat product that results from their entry. Similar to the Lamb and Barrow MQP contests, all Goat MQP entries will be eligible to sell either individually or within a group at the 2022 Junior Fair Livestock Sale.
More details will be announced soon.