(Nashville, July 22) A livestock sale barn in Thompson Station will hold Tennessee's first state-graded goat sale on August 9. Goat sales are typically conducted on every second and fourth Friday of the month at the Thompson Station location. Contact Darrell Ailshie, Tennessee Livestock Producers, (931) 388-7872, extension 2235, for more details.

Grading is a process through which animals are evaluated for a number of desirable qualities and then sorted into uniform groups, or "lots." Meat animals are typically graded for size or frame, muscle thickness and general good condition.

Grading animals before sale allows buyers to identify the quality animals they seek and to buy with greater confidence. Grading also provides livestock producers an opportunity to see how their animals compare to others. Producers can take what they learn at the sale barn home to improve their herds, and therefore profits, through better genetics and management. In Tennessee, grading is performed by professional graders with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture livestock grading service.

Tennessee's cattle and swine have been sold in state-graded sales for years, but until recently, the state's meat goat herds were too sparse and inconsistently bred to warrant serious or regular sales.

"The nation's fast-growing immigrant populations have changed all that," says Margie Baker, livestock specialist for the state agriculture department. "The vast majority of the world's people eat-and really enjoy-goat meat. The foods and cooking techniques developed in these cultures work better with goat meat.

"These new Americans have brought their styles and their taste buds with them. For Tennessee farmers, that means there's a wonderful opportunity to meet the demand for a market that doesn't need to be created, located or coaxed-it's there, and it's huge and it's hungry."

Baker says the amount of goat meat imported into the United States has more than quadrupled during the past decade, up to 12.6 million lbs. in 2001 from only 3 million lbs. in 1990.

"Right now, most of the nation's goat meat is imported and frozen," says Baker, "but only because fresh local goat meat hasn't been available. There's definitely a movement by Tennessee producers to meet that consumer need and to claim that market for themselves."

Tennessee's goats numbered close to 50,000 in a 1997 census, says Baker-but that was then, and this is now. "The meat goat industry has grown considerably since then. Having an official graded sale is just the latest positive indication that Tennessee's agriculture industry is aware of and working toward maintaining a leadership role in the nation's goat industry.

"Tennessee's producers are anxious to learn more, build better herds, provide the product the consumer wants," says Baker. "A graded sale builds a bridge between the buyer and the seller-a bridge where quality and confidence pass more easily to the buyer, and where more knowledge and profit can pass back to the producer."

Contact Baker at (615) 837-5323 or visit www.picktnproducts.org for more information about Tennessee livestock.