The US meat goat industry has expanded rapidly in recent years; however, the US continues to rely on goat meat imports due to a rise in demand associated with increased immigration. US meat goat industry leaders need to know the current direction and drivers of production so that necessary measures can be taken for establishing a sustainable and competitive industry. We seek to determine US meat goat producers’ goal structure and their perceived reasons of farming. Survey data from 584 US meat goat producers was used for this study. Using the fuzzy pair-wise comparison method, the hierarchy of 7 major goals that a meat goat producer could have were determined and ordinary least squares regressions were conducted to analyze the factors affecting producer goal structure. To determine the producer’s reasons of farming, the following question was asked with a list of 14 possible reasons in a 5 point Likert-scale: “To what extent do you agree or disagree that your selection of a goat enterprise as opposed to other agricultural enterprises is because of the following reasons”? Ordered probit regressions were conducted for factors affecting reasons of farming. Results show that Maximize Profit was the primary goal of US meat goat producers with the mean score of 0.51, followed by Have Family Involved in Agriculture (0.50), Avoid Years of Loss/Low Profit (0.49) and Have Time for Other Activities (0.48), Increase Net Worth (0.46), Control Weeds/Vegetation (0.40), and Increase Farm Size (0.33). Means of producer agreements showed that the most frequently cited reasons for producers selecting goat enterprise were: I enjoy working with goats (4.59), goat production fits well into my land management plan (4.30), I can raise goats on a relatively small acreage (4.25), and goat grazing preferences are different from other species (4.17). Regression results show that producer demographics, farm characteristics, regional variables, and other economic indicators affect producer goal structure and enterprise selection.