Goats

[jix]

Hi Eddie
As a youngster, I was boarded out with a goat-keeping family, they sold the milk for persons with special diet needs. It was expensive. They had two dams and one ram. these goats were pegged out in a pasture during summer and stabled in winter, milked by hand once a day.; They sold the kids on the hoof to anyone each fall, but the elder goats were kept on forever. They made goatmilk cottage cheese for their own use. It wasn't bad, but the goats, especially the billys were very smelly. The ram was quite aggressive and if he could reach you he would butt you very forcefully. I remember that I did not like goats, nor milking the nannys. Goats have sharp hooves and they kick viciously if they are not hobbled during milking. These goats were fed weeds from the large vegetable garden which the famnily kept..and the children weeded it. The family were very poor folk, I remember. They raised chickens, solild eggs and chicken meat and loads of veggies along side of the highway.
They wasted nothing. It was a quite primitive lifestyle that they lived. The widow worked in town cleaning offices, and the kids worked cleaning rural schoolhouses, way back in the fifties in rural Ontario. They had a fordson 2n tractor, but no car...and everyone had to work everyday, before and after school.we all had calluses from hoeing. One legacy I can rember was that after that experience, for one summer, I never felt underprivileged again.

But no, I do not ever eat goats meat. It is very very strong tasting. People from Nepal (GHURKAS) will eat nothing but.

 

[Bird]

they sold the milk for persons with special diet needs.

I wanted a goat, just for a pet, when I was about 10 years old and finally got a young nanny. But I had an uncle living near my paternal grandparents whose doctor recommended got milk and cheese for his stomach ailments. So I let my grandfather have the goat, he got her bred, and thought she was about to have a kid, judging by her teats, but he waited and waited, until one teat started to shrivel, and finally consulted a veterinarian. The vet said it was a false pregnancy (which we'd never heard of) and everything would have been fine if he'd just started milking her earlier. However, as it was, she produced enough milk from that one remaining healthy teat for what was needed.

My mother had a job with a family when she was a teenager that included milking a goat. She said goats and their milk stunk. So my youngest brother wouldn't drink goat's milk. UNTIL, one day, at my grandparents house at lunch time, I had a big glass of goat's milk and he had a big glass of cow's milk, and when he wasn't looking, I swapped glasses with him, and only told him what I'd done after he drank that whole glass of goat's milk. He never refused goat's milk again.

I do not ever eat goats meat. It is very very strong tasting.

What was the age, sex, and condition of the goat it came from, and how was it seasoned and cooked? I've eaten goat's meat and never found it to have any unusual strong taste. I wonder if your experience might have been like my parents' experience with caribou. They moved to Alaska in October, 1965, and had not been there long when a coworker gave Dad a caribou hind quarter. It still has the skin on it, was frozen, and in the trunk of the guy's car. Dad skinned it out, cut it up, etc. and after eating some of it, Mother and Dad decided they did not like caribou. But then a short time later, they had dinner one night with another friend and the main course was caribou, and was delicious. So Dad and my brothers shot caribou every winter after that. It just depends on how the meat is handled, processed, cooked, etc.

 

[yoshi1]

We got two goats a few years ago to eat some underbrush and thought would eventually eat. Well, now we have 11, wife and daughter won't let me butcher one they grew too attached. As far as fencing, if it will hold water, it will hold a goat. When in the rut, the billy goats are very determined. As far as eating underbrush, unless you can keep them in an area, they will move on to you wife's flowers and ornamental bushes (almost got to butcher one that day). On the other side of things baby goats are really cute and we have really enjoyed them. I think we are going to sell some or butcher some soon but I am not holding my breath.

 

[TomSeller]

We got two goats a few years ago to eat some underbrush and thought would eventually eat. Well, now we have 11, wife and daughter won't let me butcher one they grew too attached. As far as fencing, if it will hold water, it will hold a goat. When in the rut, the billy goats are very determined. As far as eating underbrush, unless you can keep them in an area, they will move on to you wife's flowers and ornamental bushes (almost got to butcher one that day). On the other side of things baby goats are really cute and we have really enjoyed them. I think we are going to sell some or butcher some soon but I am not holding my breath.

I know how that goes, you will pay dearly if you go against the wife and daughter's wishes. Better to sell some than butcher in your case. Even if they let you butcher, you will be eating that goat by yourself while they give you the stink eye at the dinner table. How could we live without these women anyway? ... I'd take living with women over eating a goat any day.

 

[DennisArrow]

Do you just round up all the males when they are too young to breed and haul them off to the sale barn? Are they big enough to be worth anything?

Eddie

Castrated males are called wethers. NO they aren't castrated to keep them from breeding. lol...perhaps the tree hugger element do that just as folks do for dogs or cats. For meat, they are preferred by the buyers at the market/sale, just as steers are when purchasing beef. Lots more to selling meat goats than the ethnic market. We raise Boer breeding and show stock. Our males at 3 months, ready for weaning and market are easily in the 80 to 100 pound range. This is just the perfect size that the meat buyers actually want. Even at 3 months, a wether goat has a different "load" of meat on the carcass......Most of what I am reading here is wive's tales and rumor/innuendo by folks who really have no experience with raising goats for actual money. Listen to folks like "Welding is Fun" who know a bit about what they speak..........God bless........Dennis