# Castrating Older Goats/Quality Meat Buck



## michickenwrangler (Dec 14, 2012)

I've gotten into meat goats this past year (kinda happened by accident) and there is a large Hindu family in southern Michigan who are my main purchasers of goat meat. I slaughtered 5 wethers earlier this year, ate maybe 5 lbs of it myself, and then my father who works with the wife of the family, told them about my goat meat after overhearing them complain that they couldn't find any good goat meat here in the USA. So, over the course of several months, they have bought ALL of my goat meat from me. The husband called Saturday to let me know that they wanted at least 2 morewhole goats.


I went online and found some for sale. I called the woman and she had 3 wethers available and a friend had 6 young Boer bucks. I made her an offer on all 9 and she took it (even delivered them because her FIL lives the next town over from me!). The 3 wethers are going to the processor on Fri (tomorrow) and I'll take the other goats at a later date.



However, the other 6 are bucks. Young bucks--the oldest is about 7 months old. They do have the "bucky" smell but it is not full rut. I was wondering if a burdizzo/emasculator could be used on an older buck. Fiasco Farms website says yes but only had demo photos of younger (4 weeks old) bucklings. I have never used an emasculator before and these bucks are not terribly tame. When I spoke with my customers last night, they didn't seem too terribly worried about "bucky" taste to their meat. All their goat meat ends up in curries which all end up tasting like curry powder anyway. One of the other 4-H moms said that so long as they weren't in full rut and hadn't been used for breeding, they should be fine.



Also, since I don't have a buck of my own, I thought about keeping one for my own breeding purposes. I'll post photos later. I'm not familiar with what "quality" I should look for. None of these bucks are purebred or papered, but they will be bred to unpapered dairy does for cross bred kids. The woman said they they were all half-siblings (some were full siblings) and all 7/8 Boer. I do have a Saanen/Boer doe who has 3 teats so I do know I want a buck with only 2 teats. What else should I be looking for?



Thanks


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## Straw Hat Kikos (Dec 14, 2012)

Ok you said the oldest is 7 months. I'm not sure you can band him and idk about the other methods. I don't know much about them. I would say that your best bet though would be to get a vet to come out and cut them. Once a buck hits a certain age he can have that buck taste. Some people can't tel but some people can. What you can do to rid the buck taste is to castrate the buck and leave it for 30 days before slaughtering it. That will get rid of the buck taste and they will be wethers. You just have to pay a vet to cut them and wait 30 days.


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## DonnaBelle (Dec 14, 2012)

I band my boys at 2 months of age for butchering at 90-100 lbs.

I just barbequed leg roast last night, it is delicious!!!

Anyone wants the recipe just pm me.

DonnaBelle


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## michickenwrangler (Dec 14, 2012)

I want (fairly) quick turnaround. The vet is more expensive than I would like to pay. I will probably band the 2 smallest ones, but can I use a burdizzo/crimper/emasculator on the older ones? 

The family I sell to is from India and they weren't overly concerned about a "bucky taste". They raised goats in India so they are not ignorant of goat behavior. A friend who raises meat goats advised I take in the 3 biggest bucks since they aren't in full rut abd band the 2 smallest and keep the other for a breeding buck. He said the wethers will still be wethers in 6 months and since they are LaMancha/Boer crosses, he said an extra few months to put some weight and growth on them would be good.


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## Straw Hat Kikos (Dec 14, 2012)

michickenwrangler said:
			
		

> I want (fairly) quick turnaround. The vet is more expensive than I would like to pay. I will probably band the 2 smallest ones, but can I use a burdizzo/crimper/emasculator on the older ones?
> 
> The family I sell to is from India and they weren't overly concerned about a "bucky taste". They raised goats in India so they are not ignorant of goat behavior. A friend who raises meat goats advised I take in the 3 biggest bucks since they aren't in full rut abd band the 2 smallest and keep the other for a breeding buck. He said the wethers will still be wethers in 6 months and since they are LaMancha/Boer crosses, he said an extra few months to put some weight and growth on them would be good.


I really have no idea. Never used them before.

If they don't care about the buck taste, then why even castrate them?


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