dairy wethers for meat, and is this a fair deal?

[dk_40207]

I was wondering if some folks might chime in on thier methods of feeding and caring for dairy wethers that will be meat ...how long before you slaughter(by weight or age?), and what/how much do you feed them?

Here is our little plan so far....the wethers from this year will go to a friends farm where they will be fenced into approx 5 acres of woods, brush, and weeds. The friends will be responsible for feeding and caring for them until slaughter weight. We will then split the meat evenly.
Everyone wins(I hope) because we don't have the space to raise them--they do. They need the weeds cleared(ala-goat ), they feed are care for and then get 1/2 the meat(we will do the processing together).
Does this sound like a fair deal? We think so, but want an unbiased opinion because we certainly don't want to take advantage or anything like that....
thanks!

[Loda Farm]

Sounds like a deal to me, both ways. I have a friend at another farm that we trade stuff like that all the time. She has hens I bought, that she feeds, and I get all the eggs I want. She uses my Boer Billy on her Nubians, and I use her pygmy billy. She also takes care of a hog at her farm that I bought that goes towards the Boer Billy usage. It really all works out well.

Laura

[mpillow]

Are you sharing in the cost or time spent butchering as well? Seems fair to me

[dk_40207]

We will share in the time spent butchering--but not the cost of feed etc--as we are supplying the animals...just not sure about how much on feed rations...

[allenslabs]

This does sound good. The ONLY ONLY ONLY thing I can see is that you might wanna make sure they do actually add some grain in there. I know that most people do think goats live on cans and weeds but they do actually need some food to make em. And if they don't think they need grain and you do then taht could cause a bit of tenseness but if they know anything about animals then they should understand. Just make sure I guess that their standard of growing animals is the same as yours and you'll be fine!! Hope it works out good!!

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Since the cost of a diary wether at birth here is free to about $35, and your friends will have considerably more money than this in them with milk replacer, meds and feed, I would sit down with pen to paper and make sure everyone understands just how much it will cost to get these goats fed, until they ever eat one leaf in the woods for food. If you pay for one hour of labor, raising even free dairy bucks to weaning is more expensive than any meat. Knowing what is in the meat you are eating of course is better than what you can purchase.


Now if you are already raising them on mom until weaning andthen they are going out into pasture until you can butcher for cooler weather? Than yes, that would make more sense for you friends.

But premium meat on any goat is going to be right after weaning, once you start them on grain of any kind your profit goes out the window, and for me so does the tenderness of the meat. That is why boers are soo popular, they give you many times larger kids at weaning than any dairy animals. Months later those numbers are not that different, a year later there is no difference with dairy bucks having more meat to bone than a boer. Vicki

[ozark_jewels]

Seriously, if you are dam-raising these wethers, the best time to butcher for optimum meat is right at weaning. You can leave them on extra long if you are dam-raising, they will have more meat on them if they are still on milk. You have less in them and they have a higher meat to bone ratio at that time. This is when we butcher all our dairy wethers.
I do not feed them out or anything special, just a bit of grain, all the browse/hay/pasture they can eat and mommas milk. They are delicious.