Goat processing photo tutorial - GRAPHIC

[PendergrassRanch]

I process whole animals for our raw fed dogs as well as ourselves. This was our mean buck goat that had to go.



Alrighty. We got a late start on this today due to some friends stopping by, pony rides happening and burning some brush.




I forgot to take a photo of where we shoot them so instead I took a photo of one of the goats we did recently. You can clearly see where the bullet went through, it angles down towards their nose. They don't even know whats going on when you do it. They drop down and barely kick and make no noise.

Then we hang them up on the gambrel and bleed them out. Then we cut through all the flesh around the neck. Following a line behind the ears.

Once you cut through to the neck, you can twist the head and it will literally pop off. In this photo you can see where they separated. This is the easiest way IMO to get the head off.

Then you give the head to the chickens : I bleach the skulls and hang them up so the chickens get to eat the meat off.

Then you do this, and skin it. I leave the penis and scrotum there and take them off later. My line goes down the belly, up the inside of each leg, around the ankles and along the back of the scrotum. Then its just a tedious job of peeling and cutting and pulling.

So around the back side you come to this little gem. The anus. I just cut across it and then cut through the tail bone. I find it easy. I save the hides to use for stuff, some people just leave the hide on or whatever.

Here you can see where to cut through the end of the intestine and the tail. Then you just keep peeling it off...

End result of the hide. I get the bits of meat off and salt them, and store them for later.

Then you are left with this. He is not bloated like you would think he would be. It is just food and natural gases. I lower the gambrel to gut it.

When you cut down the belly CAREFULLY (!!!) you will find this poking through. Be gentle and try to not pop it yet.

As you cut down, it will fall out naturally. I use a plastic barrel sawed in half as a catchall for gross stuff. At this point I let it hang and cut open the bottom of each stomach to empty the contents. Then I separate the stomach from the intestine. The intestine goes down into the barrel and the green tripe goes to the dogs.

Normally the animal will have a full bladder, then you pinch off the top like a balloon and cut it out and empty it safely. This guy (shockingly) had a totally empty bladder. It is the pale vein-y bag thing in the upper right corner of this photo. It was empty so I just left it alone and the dogs can eat it some time. The photo shows how I pull the intestine down and cut it off. You can see the goat nuggets in the intestine, I always make sure to squeeze those down so they all go away nicely.

Then it all pretty much shows you where to cut and tear it out. It is thin membranes so its very easy. I just let it fall into the tub and help it out by feeling for tight membranes to cut.

You will automatically see one kidney. That is the first "goodie" I cut out. The other is usually hidden and comes later.

The other kidney, you can see where I throw everything, into the wheelbarrow!

Then I cut the liver out and pop the bile sack and drain it into the barrel of nasty stuff.

Yummy liver!

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Next is the lungs/heart/trachea. They come as one bunch. The follow photos show how to move the lungs forward with my fingers to cut down the back, then I reach in and pull the trachea up, and just cut it off.

See? One nice little bunch.

Then we take the front legs off. Its really easy to just pull the leg back and cut up the "armpit", follow the shoulder blade up and around and sort of peel if off. The shoulder is not attached by any joints so you just cut around through the muscle and tissue.

Then we take a saw to the ribs. Sometimes a cleaver, sometimes a saw.

Then you get this!

I took the backstraps off just because. Good practice for deer season :smile:

To remove the hind legs, you follow the same protocol as the head. Cut around the hip joint and the pop it out. My knife is pointing at the joint.

Then we saw the back piece into a few 8 inch chunks and freeze!

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Doggies love warm green tripe

The girl that went for a pony ride She is my local 4H-er that will be showing some of my lambs next year!

 

[Myke]

Thanks for posting this. I wish I had checked the site regularly, this would have been helpful a couple weeks ago. Now I have 5 kids I'm fattening up. How long does it take for the chickens to clean the head?
Myke

 

[Womwotai]

Wow, what a great tutorial - thank you so much for taking the time to take the photos and write this up.

I sent two lambs to the processor in November. I do my own chickens, turkeys and ducks on a regular basis so I had no reluctance about doing a lamb except I was afraid that due to the size, I didn't have the ability to turn it into chops, steaks, ground lamb etc. However I wound up being disappointed in the processor. It wasn't cheap and the day after I picked the meat up and put it away in the freezer I realized I hadn't seen any organ meats. I called to enquire and was told that they "didn't pass inspection". I asked 3x what they were inspecting for but the only new piece of info I got was that "sheep and goats rarely pass inspection". Not only that, I noticed on my receipt I had been charged $10 per animal to haul those organ meats away. I was kind of furious that they had charged me to haul away meat that had value to me.

So I went back to thinking I'd like to learn to butcher myself, and went looking for info just such as you have provided, before starting my own thread on the subject. I love that you just used a sawzall to cut the ribs - I never would have thought of that!

My question now is "what next?" I.e., after you have it cut into the pieces in the last photo, what do you do with them? I've heard people mention aging - do you have the age the meat and if so, under what conditions and for how long?

 

[boothcreek]

Working in a gov approved abattoir, goats and sheep livers rarely pass inspection, most suffer from liver flukes and other parasites(especially in damper climates) that regular wormers don't treat. The heart and kidney should have been fine unless something really bizarre was wrong with them, in that scenario I would expect the carcass to be held back until lab tests came back tho and not cut, wrapped and returned.
Any other internal organs are not permitted to be returned since they cannot be cleared for human consumption by gov standards without being extensively lab tested. So Guts, hide, legs and head are what that $10 fee gets charged on for disposal. Most butcher places only are allowed to dispose in special facilities, we for example have to take it to be incinerated.

As for aging, if you cut up the animal like it has been above right after slaughter, no need to age since in pieces like that the muscles/tendons don't get stretched, so its either tough or its not, no changing it at that point. Basically you should give the carcass the chance to come out of rigour before cutting it up at least. Lambs, Goats and Pigs only need 2-5 day aging(hanging in a cooler) anyway. Aging goes by fat cover, the leaner the animal the more they just dry-out instead of stretch and age. Lambs and Goats mostly just hang long enough to come out of Rigour(48 hrs) and then get done.

I do most of my animals here at home too, I find the trip to the processor is just stressful. Only time I bring it to work is when I want to sell it so there for need it to be gov inspected.

 

[Womwotai]

Great info Boothcreek - thanks. Is there anything I can do to eliminate the liver flukes (and other parasites) prior to processing, if regular wormers won't do it? How long before processing should any such treatment occur?