April is Goat Month in Kentucky

By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

FRANKFORT - Goats on four continents can trace their lineage back to northeastern Kentucky, more specifically to the herd at Bentley Bros. Farms in Lewis County. The farm is nestled along the south shore of the Ohio River near Garrison, Ky.

“I raised tobacco up to 2005 and never dreamed I would be doing this,” said farm owner Joe Bentley. “When my first son was born (21 years ago), that was the transition for me. I took advantage of a cost-share program and started my herd with seven Boer goats. My first big doe, I paid $300 for. The following year, I found a nice buck in Henry County. I’ve been reinvesting into our herd for over 20 years.”

Over those two decades, Bentley Bros. Farms has become known internationally for its Dappled Boer breed.

“We ship a lot of our animals overseas,” Bentley said. “We have a contract in Jamaica to ship them 1,500 breeding animals over a five-year period.

“What’s neat is those animals are from Kentucky, raised in our hills and hollers,” he added, noting he partners with small goat producers in Boone, Campbell, Carter, Lewis, Morgan, Perry, and Taylor counties to raise Dappled Boers to help fulfill the Jamaican contract.

“Because we are small, we raise only 10 percent of what we export,” Bentley said. “We have a lot of nice producers around the state.”

Bentley Bros. Farms has exported live breeding stock to Canada, the Bahamas, the Philippines, Thailand, and the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

“We have had our semen products distributed in Australia, Brazil, the UK (United Kingdom), and the EU (European Union),” Bentley said.

The farm’s Facebook page has 243,000 followers, many from foreign countries, that gets about 1,000 visits per day. Bentley adds photos and videos frequently.

“You think everybody wants to see your big bucks, but the whole world wants to see your baby goats,” Bentley said. “Social media is the door to the world. When I look at the people who follow the page, you’ll see a guy in Georgia with ‘Trump 2024’ as his profile picture, then the guy beside him has the Iranian president as his profile picture. Goats are a common language all over the globe. Every culture has an appreciation for the goat.”

Bentley said the farm is constructing an addition to its 88-year-old “world headquarters,” a peg-built former tobacco barn. The farm was awarded a grant for half of the $102,600 cost of the addition from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board.

When Bentley gave up tobacco farming, the goat business became his part-time job. He followed a family tradition and became a school teacher, currently at Garrison Elementary School.

“I took an opportunity to be on the same schedule as my children,” Bentley said. “I was able to teach two of them and take all three to school. My wife is a teacher, my mom retired from teaching from Garrison Elementary, and I have two aunts who were also teachers.

“It fit for me, farming in the summer and a nice, peaceful job the rest of the year. Elementary kids appreciate you,” he added about the 9- and 10-year-olds that he teaches in the third and fourth grades. “I bring in baby goats and let them bottle feed them. They love that!”