Auction goats for meat

goat meat doesn't marble like beef. no amount of 'fattening' will make the meat moist from fat. almost all the fat is subcutaneous and comes off with the hide or is around the internal organs. I think fattening a goat with corn is a waste. feeding corn for energy along with suitable amounts of forage material yes. feeding nothing but corn is unhealthy and can easily contribute to a swift death by shutting down the normal functions of the rumen. that is why so many people come on here panicking because their goats got into the grain, and why so many have had them die because of it. I am not into torturing an animal with metabolic and gut problems due to poor feeding practices before I eat it.

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A mystery is not an explanation..... on the contrary....no sooner is a myth forged than, in order to stand it needs another myth to support it.

Just those who are in the know.

I too enjoy going to auctions, but it is not where I would buy goats.

Stan, have you, or do you know anyone who has, done what you are advising? Just askn'.

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Paul Bridges - LaCabra Farm; Uvalda, Georgia - USA

Yes, and yes.

In fact it's the way I suggest people with little cash get meat. Not just goats tho. I get lamb and pork this way often. I still wanna do a beefer. But the transportation is an issue. You can put a few small critters in the back of a pickup and get them out. A beefer would be a bit of a pain to say the least. Not that you can't get it in, but out.

Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here and come out in favor of auctions for buying and/or selling meat goats...under the right circumstances. I raise meat goats and have sold many, many kids at auction. Some of the kids sold there go on to feedlots, others go straight to slaughter. There are plenty of good, safe, healthy meat kids sold at auction every day, but there are lots of sick ones too, so if you know your goats, or can take someone with you who does, you stand a better chance of getting a good animal.

As for withdrawal time on medications, I practice an On Farm Food Safety protocol. My animals are shipped with a Shipping Status Manifest, declaring they are free of meds requiring a withdrawal time (and free of foreign objects such as broken needles, etc. too) OR that they are NOT safe to slaughter at this time and the date at which they will pass the withdrawal time. That paper goes with the animals and it is expected it will be passed on to anyone purchasing them.

Not everyone does this, certainly, but until more producers do, the negative attitudes seen here about auction animals will continue. People are becoming more conscious and concerned about the safety of the food they eat and we, as the producers of that food, need to address those concerns. That said, auctions are a very valuable and necessary part of the marketing chain for a lot of producers. I know people who produce a couple hundred meat kids a year or more. They cannot depend of farmgate sales for that volume. Without auctions, they would be out of business.

the auctions where I live. You don't need any paper concerning meds.
Thats why I would at least quaranteen any animal for at least 30days.
Alot of people have goats with health issues and they may be trying to help the animal mediacally. But when that gets to expensive or its not working. Instead of culling the animal, they bring it to the auction loaded w/ steroids or antibiotics.
People that I know who buy meat goats at auctions quaranteen them for a long while.
I plan on selling/eatting any extra kids ...I always raise that animal organically. No meds.. so far it worked out. Of course I won't let the animal suffer, but I try my best. And so far I always keep one to eat, and have found homes for the others. But Im sure there will come a time that I will have to send an animal to the auction. And my animals will be there simply because I can't keep them all. and will be really healthy animals ready for the table.

I would just hold on to the animal for a few months, and get a reall young one.. they probably haven't run into to many problems yet!

There aren't auctions where you live. There is just one in the whole state. So tell the truth you have never been to an auction... right.

By the way... If you buy any stock from out of state. Your first stop before you leave the state of purchase should be a vet for the health cert.

Like Connecticut is a big state?

Heck, I probably drive farther for some of my auctions than I would from one side of CT to the other.

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"The man, who, by his own and his family's labour, can provide a sufficiency of food and raiment and a comfortable dwelling place, is not a poor man."
--William Cobbett, Cottage Economy, 1826.

I don’t shun auction yards; I take a load or two there every year. I take one load right after weaning to get rid of the kids that the match maker did a bad job with. The second load a few weeks before we start birthing to empty out the lot. I do not unload sick animals at auctions; I will treat them back to health of give them a 22 depending on there illness.

At auctions I have gone to there is no place on the forms that ask about medications or withdraw times. I think we are to far away form slaughter houses to have “slaughter auctions”.

I have been to auctions out of state to see what other genetics are out there. I have visited farms that I found at auctions and have brought back straws for AI a few times.

i buy goats from the auction all the time, buy them cheap at small town auctions (10-25$) bring them home, let them raise up a little, worm them, then hual them to the big city auctions and get(50-200). not all goats at the auction are sick, but i always vac. the new ones and keep them seprate for a while, and if its to bad ( and iv seen some ruff ones) ill pass.

Well at the very least since you do have a vision of a breeding herd in the furture if you like goatmeat, keep these aution goats in a small area with a barn/hoophouse, something you can easily take down and do away with. Because with CL and ecoli and staph and several forms of mastitis, and foot rot you are contaiminating your soil and building the animals live in until you do butcher them.

Picking up $10 and $25 dollar goats...imagine the care something like this has gotten to be sold for less than the auction fee or the gas to get there, what a waste of time. If you are picking up infants, why not do so from the farm rather than auction? You can get goat kids everyday for those prices at dairies, why have them hold them together until Friday for them to be sold as a group on Saturday? Go get them from the farms yourself. You then get $50 to $200, after gas, after feed for how long, medications? Are you really making any money? Wouldn't you make more by raising out your own? Cause if you can get $50 to $200 at auction than you can get twice that much privately. Auctions are the least amount you will ever get for any stock. They are dumping grounds in Texas, of all of the worst kinds of management and disease. Vicki

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Vicki McGaugh
Nubian Soaps
North of Houston TX
www.etsy.com/shop/nubiansoaps

A 3 decade dairy goat farm homestead that is now a retail/wholesale soap company and construction business.

I've been to three auction places in the towns near here. I enjoy seeing what’s for sale and talking shop with the buyers/sellers. The one I go to the most has cement floors and wooden slats in the holding areas. Hogs are sold first, and then any equine then goats and sheep mixed, and then fowl / hardware. No cattle. Where the animals walk the corridor going to the bid-pen, it is slimy with diarrhea. After the sale, it is rinsed down with a water hose. Debatably, the animals are treated in an in-humane way. To sale one of my darlin’s THAT would be last resort.

In my earlier post I wasn’t clear on auction use as I meant to be speaking only of the buying of goats to bring home to a farm. Bio from the auction presses into the crevices of the hooves, tainted splinters from the wood could infect the animals. A nightmare could be introduced to a clean home environment.

Someone who wants to eat a goat bought at the auction should do so quickly. I suspect that it would be rather unappetizing to see a CL lesion appear on the goat destined for the table. However, many meat-goat owners and some new-folks-to-goats will respond, “uh? CL?”

We find that goats are delicate and difficult to thrive for the novice or new goatowner. My short-time goating experience screams that new goatherders should buy from a reputable farm because there is still risk, but greatly reduced.

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Paul Bridges - LaCabra Farm; Uvalda, Georgia - USA

HAAA!!! It happened again.

I agree that you shouldn't let goats or any livestock for that matter run all over your place if you don't know their health.

Paul they aren't talking about building a herd. I don't disagree with your view of herd building. They are talking about freezer meat. It's not the same thing.

I am not sure I would feel good about eating the animals that go through most auctions I've been to in WV or Ky. . .though I am 14 yr vegetarian and obviously don't feel good about eating them in general - lol . . .
I just haven't seen anything go through auctions that seem to be animals healthy enough for me to want to see my family eat them. . . but maybe that doesn't impact the quality of the meat. I would think it does.

Thanks again for all the helpful input. I have decided to go ahead and attend some more auctions to look for some of the things mentioned in this thread. I'm not sure whether or not I will buy from them, but I will let you know one way or the other. What I do know is it will be a while before I actually make a decision.

I do have a question, though. How many of you either raise goats strictly for the table or for sale as meat, not breeders? It seems most of the responses have been from either breeders or from dairy folks. I'm wondering if that makes a difference. I know on chicken forums there is a huge difference in attitude for those who raise strictly for meat and those who do not.

Just wondering...

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"The man, who, by his own and his family's labour, can provide a sufficiency of food and raiment and a comfortable dwelling place, is not a poor man."
--William Cobbett, Cottage Economy, 1826.

Dairy. LaMancha, MiniMancha, Saanen.

I started 3 years ago with Boer but that didn't work out. I just couldn't eat one of them.

I'm so glad that I have dairy goats.

Enjoy your trips to the auction. I really enjoy going.

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Paul Bridges - LaCabra Farm; Uvalda, Georgia - USA

Working on my herd to make hairy and hardy goats that can thrive on this damp cold and rainy or snowy in the winter mountain top. Have them give an acceptable amount of milk, like a gallon a day. Making two babies a year. No prophylactic use of wormers or other medication based management crutches. All the while practicing natural herd management(all ages and sexes in one homogeneous herd.) Doing the above with only minimal inputs. Like summers on only pasture and winters on just hay. No grain with the following exceptions.
During Kidding time for the girls or if they are being actively milked. During the rut for the bucks.


If the current crop is looking good after this winter. I may have it. Which is still a big IF. Winters here are quite hard on the goats.

At the local livestock auction around here, there is a sign up that says "All goats and sheep are for slaughter." So supposedly, if you buy a goat, they are assuming it goes for slaughter.

On the other hand, when you bring animals in to sell them at auction, the auction company only asks for your name and phone number - so they make sure you get whatever the animals sell for. They NEVER ask anything about medications or anything.

The majority of goats are bought up by a person who drives a semi trailer - so I assume he either has a feedlot (and fattens them up) or he just takes them to a larger auction hoping he gets more money for them. I don't know, maybe he takes them to slaughter houses near the city and sells them for a profit. I would say he buys 90% of the goats sold each week - doesn't seem to matter if they are bucks, wethers, does, or even kids.

I admit, I've bought some at auction before. I also know I'm taking a risk of bringing home who knows what. Before I buy anything, I check the animal out before the sale - although all of the goats are kept in one pen.

Around here, I think most goats being sold are extras or people downsizing. They aren't bringing in a sick goat to get rid of it before it dies. But there is still risk involved.

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Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

While we do raise breeding stock (Boers) we are also raising for our own table - and others tables as well, when we have extra. People (including myself! LOL) would rather buy from someone who takes quality care of their stock - I mean, why cheap out on your family and what they eat?

Sometimes you can find nice animals at the auction - I think what folks are warning you about is that if you plan to raise goats in the future (which you have mentioned in your OP), then put these auction goats in a place separate from where you plan to raise other animals. because no matter how nice the animal is, it has been exposed to everything under the sun at the sale yard.

Another reason I don't use livestock transporters either for my Saanens and Boers - too many diseases out there for them to be exposed to. Just my take on it. You'll develop your own philosophy and go with that....

As far as the guys with trailers buying goats and sheep at the local auction, most of them have a contract/contact with a slaughter plant closer to big cities where they sell them for more. We have heard horror stories of one fellow who buys the animals and keeps them in nasty pens, throwing them onions and scrap waste until he has enough to make a run to Seattle. Even livestock folks who are very pragmatic are disgusted and shocked by his operation. Gives a bad name to the rest of them....

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Camille
Copper Penny Ranch
Copper Penny Boer Goats (home of 4 National Champions, 4 Reserve Champions)
Copper Penny Pyrenees
Whey-to-Go Saanens


www.copper-penny-ranch.com