meet your neighbors
The Making of Goatroper Farms By Michael Kinney
Katie Rose started her love for goats with the chance purchase of a billy Katie Rose wasn’t looking to get into the goat business. Being a native of bian named Kiki. A year later Katie got her first Oberhasli, a 9-year-old named Arius. “They’re red and black and they’re one of the lower-numbered breeds in the United Little Rock, Ark., owning a goat farm wasn’t even on her mind the day she came across States,” Katie said. “Within the Oberhasli breed, I specialize in purebred Oberhasli. And Jack the Billy Goat. It was back in 2007, just after Rose and her ex-husband bought a farm in Vilonia. They there’s only about 50 of them registered in the US, and I’m the only purebred breeder in the state of Arkansas.” had heard about a market in which people can sell their products and animals. While Katie is fond of her other breeds, it is the Oberhasli, she said, are her heartbeats. “It’s actually a complete accident. I don’t think it happens a lot,” Rose said. “I had gone “I think because they are really chilled. They all have very typical personalities. Nuto get chickens. I wanted chickens because we had a farm now. We have to have chickens, right? A lady had a billy goat, and I mean just a silly old mixed-breed billy goat for bians are loud. Saanen are stubborn,” Katie said. “I have very rarely met an Oberhasli that wasn’t laid back, very sweet. They’re also smaller goats, and I’m a smaller persale,” Katie recalled. “She claimed he knew how to kill rattlesnakes. Now, looking son. So, not having monsters in the barn is an addition for me. They’re back on it, that was obviously a bunch of malarkey to try to get me to buy really good mothers. They raise their kids easily. And it feels important the goat, but she saw a sucker coming.” to be working with a heritage breed, that I’m doing something in the Katie didn’t get the chickens, but she did pay $40 for Jack the Billy grand scheme of things that I believe is a benefit.” Goat and was suddenly the proud owner of an old goat. At the Katie’s herd is fed a locally-sourced grass hay, black oil sunflowtime she had no idea what she was going to do with it except er seeds and oats. They also eat alfalfa sprouts. have it on the farm. “Keeping the goat herd at capacity first, and then milk pro“I got him home. My husband was like, ‘You have to take it duction second. It sounds a little backward, since we’re a back,’” Katie said. “And I was like, ‘It’s not Walmart. There’s dairy, but we also aim to be completely natural,” Katie said no return policy.’ Then I discovered once you have one said. “Our land is very wet, so I have to worry about parasite goat, you need to have more goats, and it just kind of grew issues. When the goats get sick, I want to make sure they from there.” have ample body resources, because that way we get them At the time, she was in graduate school, working on her better.” wildlife biology degree. Katie’s first job was as a field ecologist Along with breeding show goats, Goatroper Farms also “I just wanted to have a little hobby farm with some goats sells goat milk and goat meat. They also use the milk to make and some chickens, and live that idyllic, bucolic life people fudge, salted caramels and gluten-free baked goods, which custhink that we being in the country always is,” Katie said. “There tomers are available to purchase. was no plan; There were just goats and impulses. Jack the Billy Despite that, business has been slow in 2022, which is why Goat, had babies – Gravy and David – and it just kept going from Goatroper has more goats than usual on the farm. there. And then I kept the goats, and I got rid of the husband, is what It has forced Katie to consider making some tough decisions. I tell people. Because the goats were a lot easier to live with.” Submitted Photo “Another part of that is the economy right now. People just don’t have the More than two decades later, Rose is the owner and operator of money to buy a pedigree animal,” Katie said. “I could certainly take them to the sale Goatroper Farms, a 9-acre farm in Roland, Ark., that specializes in quality American Dairy Goat Association goats, raw goat’s milk, milk products and goat barn, and get $100, $150 each for them, but then all those genetic quirks and pedigree and all that would just go right down the drain. And I’m just not ready to do that quite semen. Katie currently has 33 goats on hand, but normally likes to keep her herd capped yet. Because it’s not just my work that would be gone. It would be the people whose work came before me that I am breeding with.” at 25. Katie describes running the farms as incredibly frustrating, but also fulfilling. Katie has turned a mild interest in one goat into a passion for the animal. It was “Like most small farms, we’re not profitable,” she said. “We don’t sell any a passion she knew her current husband, Joshua Pangle, shared as well. goat’s milk to make money. So, this farm is a passion. It’s a passion for me. “We met 2009, and he grew up raising goats,” Katie said. “He grew up It’s something that I enjoy doing 99 percent of the time. There’s always that homesteading, a survivalist in the woods. I knew he was the one when, Roland, Ark. 1 percent when it’s been a really bad day, and you’re like, ‘I wouldn’t have to after staying the night one night, he came out and all my goats were do this if I just worked in a cubicle with a computer. I wouldn’t have a bad day asleep on top of his dinner. And he just goes, ‘Girl, that’s what they do.’ ever.’ But then I remind myself, that I had lots of other bad days, but I had no He didn’t even get mad about it. I was like, ‘Oh. Well, good for them.’ control over those bad days. So, I think that Goatroper Farms is a passion that I So, he’s the one that could stay.” never regret doing. I question my sanity at times, but I don’t regret it.” Two years after they were married, they got their first registered goat; a Nu-
8
Ozarks Farm & Neighbor • www.ozarksfn.com
AUGUST 1, 2022
