It might be the best deal at the 2024 NYS Fair.
For $10, you can snuggle a baby goat for as long as you want. Two minutes, two hours. However long it takes for you to get your fill of giddy goat love.
“We’re in the era of goats right now,” said Justin Steinmetz, who runs Steinmetz Family Farm in Berks County, Penn. “People love goats.”
Goats have always been a part of the NYS Fair. There’s a whole barn dedicated to goats (and llamas and swine). Goat exhibits are even expanding this year with a new Goat Pavilion showcase near the goat barn.
But baby goat snuggling is a NYS Fair first. It’s also the first time Steinmetz has taken his goats outside out of his home state since he started the goat snuggling business two years ago.
“The goats ride in style,” he said, “They have an air-conditioned trailer.”
Steinmetz is bringing around 100 baby Nigerian dwarf goats to the Fair, about half of his entire herd. All the goats come pre-snuggled for maximum intimacy.
“We have to spend some time to make sure these goats are friendly enough to interact with the public,” said Steinmetz. “We do a lot of socialization on the farm, so this way when we do come to fairs they’re friendly. And second off, they can go to a home.”
Nigerian dwarf goats are the second smallest goat breed, said Steinmetz, but when they get to be around six to eight months old, they start getting too big to snuggle. Steinmetz cycles through about 150-200 goats per year. He puts the older goats up for adoption.
“If people fall in love with them while they snuggle them, they have the option to adopt some goats,” Steinmetz said. “Seems to work out pretty well.”
Running a goat snuggling business isn’t all hugs and smiles, however. Last year an animal rights group from Allentown, Penn., targeted Steinmetz Family Farm, accusing them of exploiting their goats. The group threatened to picket various events, including the New Jersey State Fair, forcing Steinmetz to pull out.
But as far Steinmetz knows, no group has threatened to protest his goat snuggling booth at the NYS Fair. Steinmetz says opposition to his business comes from a few “vegan extremists,” and that he’s mindful of his goats’ wellbeing.
“We only allow a certain amount of people in the booth space at a time,” he said. “We don’t go around and stick the goat on your lap or anything like that. If the goat wants to be held, it’ll jump in your lap, or somebody can pick them up. But the goats make it very obvious if they’re done being snuggled, they jump down.”
Part of the booth is designed for the goats to get away from people whenever they want.
“I built this goat mountain area, a place for them to jump and climb,” said Steinmetz. “In the end they’re getting socialized, they’re getting fed, we have staff watching over everything to make sure no one’s misbehaving. The worst thing that ever happens is children are always throwing hay inside their water dish.”
The Steinmetz Family Farm goat snuggling booth will be located in the Horticulture Building, next to the live butterfly exhibit.
“When you get here and you see the big banners, the mood lighting, the hay bales, and all the baby goats,” said Steinmetz, “and you look at someone else in there holding a baby goat—there’s something in you that says I want to do that too.”
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Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.
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