New York State Fair 'One Thing" Series Begins on Empire State Farming -- Today's Feature, Dairy Goats

A dairy goat at the New York State Fair checks out the photographer

This year's New York State Fair series for the Empire State Farming blog is called "One Thing."

What I have done is visited folks involved with various agricultural endeavors and asked them the one thing they would like the public to know about their animal or agricultural product.

The first one up: Dairy Goats.

"They are like productive dogs," said Holly Phillips, of Pultney in Steuben County. "And I want people to know goats are friendly, outgoing and trainable."

Added Trudy Lombard, of Skaneateles, superintendent of the goat barn at the fair: "They also produce milk and a lot of people make cheese and other things out of the milk."

There were about 30,000 goats in New York state in 2010. About 13,000 were milk (dairy) goats and the rest were meat goats. The goat industry is growing in the state because more and more consumers are interested in goat cheese and goat milk.