Louise Penny is convinced goats set up kindergartens for their kids.
She and her husband Daryn Rickwood started farming goats for meat, not far from Wellsford north of Auckland, two years ago.
They're crossing meat-breed bucks with milking does in the hope they'll be able to branch out into dairy products as well.
Louise says some mothers stick with their babies all day. "But other mothers tend to group their kids together and leave one doe and then all go off. And there's a doe left there and sometimes they look kind of annoyed and they've got all these kids....jumping around."
Louise and Darren say a lot of New Zealanders have had a bad experience with goat meat and have eaten tough, strongly flavoured animals that are four or five years old.
"We have come to the realisation that Kiwis like young, tender goat. Goats have to be processed... between the 15 to 18 month age group....That gives us the right amount of meat and the flavour...there's no taint. It's actually a very nice, smooth, mild flavour, '' Daryn says.
Daryn and Louise sell their goat meat at farmers' markets and have been surprised so many people have the taste for it .
They're now able to sell every goat they process and have started selling goat meat from other farmers.
