Goat Meat

[Hillsvale]

I just sent my boer goat off... we gathered he was about 80 pounds live weight and dressed to 31...

His meat is very mild, very lean and if you didn't know what it was you would guess wrong... same witht he lambs!

ETA... the goat was neutered.

 

[Karma Creek Farm]

Thanks for the info on butchering bucks. I have two young bucks, 5 and 6 months old. They have both become stinky and I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to butcher them now! I raise lamb but this is my first time trying goat, I've never even tasted it.

I have no does around but my ewes have gotten the bucks excited, they are definitely in rut. Can I still butcher them at this time?

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

What does goat meat taste like exactly? It is more like deer or beef... or something else?

 

[Ariel301]

We raise dairy goats, so they are not terribly meaty. We don't have a set age to butcher them, it's whenever we want to eat one, basically, or we have too many to feed. We are getting ready to process a vicious stinky buck with horns, he started attacking me when I try to feed him or clean his pen, so he is going in the freezer. Normally we eat wethers, any male we are not selling as a breeding buck will be wethered and grown for eating. We may eat a doe if she is not really a good producer or quality enough to breed.

As for taste, to me goat tastes more like beef than like lamb. If you have eaten elk or venison, it's pretty similar. I find from the dairy goats, it is best ground, made into stew meat, or slow cooked at a low temperature with lots of liquid (I make broth from the leg bones to cook the meat in), since they don't have a lot of fat on them. A smallish animal, say 4-6 months old, is also pretty nice stuffed with herbs and roasted over a fire outside whole for a special occasion.

 

[Calliopia]

Since the buck we did was close to 2yrs old we did the low and slow cooking method. Low heat, long time and be careful not to over cook it. Drench in olive oil, garlic, onions, maybe a little Greek seasoning.. mmmm.... It just tasted like a different version of lamb.

Also stuck him in a curry with no issue.


Goat has all the cooking issues that venison does. Either wave it at a heat source and barely cook it or plan on cooking it a while. It's a fairly lean meat even if the animal itself carries a lot of fat. It doesn't seem to marble. At least the ones I butchered haven't.

 

[Amber]

The goat I have tried was more like pork (lean pork) than beef or deer. It is not as greasy as lamb. I really liked it and can't wait to raise my own.

 

[mcf3kids]

Hello,

My husband and I are planning on raising a couple of goats for meat next year can you recommend a particular type of goat that would be preferred to be raised to fill the freezer and has a disposition that would be good for a newbie to deal with? Thank you so much for your thoughts!

 

[20kidsonhill]

Hello,

My husband and I are planning on raising a couple of goats for meat next year can you recommend a particular type of goat that would be preferred to be raised to fill the freezer and has a disposition that would be good for a newbie to deal with? Thank you so much for your thoughts!

boer or a boer cross.

They do better when grain fed, unless you have amazing browse/pasture or are feeding very very good hay.

http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=3140-boer-goats



Kiko can be a little hard to handle, they can be a little wild, but are also known to be a little hardier.

nigerean dwarf are a meat breed, if you want to go with something smaller and they are quit hardy.

 

[zzGypsy]

My customers want 40 - 80 lbs live, under one year of age. The best prices are for 45-60 lbs. Individual goats vary a lot in growth rate so weight is better than age. Anything over one year old, the price drops dramatically.

that matches pretty well with what we see here in SW MO also.
the goat buyers at the auction look for animals in the 50-60 lb weight because they're going to the customer market at 70 lbs. market consensus seems to be 70 lbs at <1year is the right time to slaughter.
and anything with it's yearling teeth in brings less per pound, unless they're buying breeders.

 

[Mamaboid]

Hello,

My husband and I are planning on raising a couple of goats for meat next year can you recommend a particular type of goat that would be preferred to be raised to fill the freezer and has a disposition that would be good for a newbie to deal with? Thank you so much for your thoughts!

Fainter, or Myotonic goats are wonderful meat goats, easy keepers , good mannered as a general rule, and because of their myotonia, their muscles are somewhat stiff so they cannot jump fences, gates or anything else used to keep them in. Because of the myotonia, their meat is usually tenderer than boers of the same size and or age.