when to eat goat...and when to not

[bgraham]

After reading the thread on butchering the possible bloated goat I have a question. I have never butchered goats before but plan on putting 2 young bucklings in the freezer.

When should you NOT butcher/eat goat meat? Is there anything that should be done prior to butchering? Are there specific goat maladies where you would cull the goat but not eat it?

For example, should you worm goats a couple of weeks before butchering? Or is that not important? You don't worm deer.

Thanks!

Beth

[Jim S.]

I don't know of a time when you should not butcher or eat goat. Butchering in fall is cooler with fewer flies.

We do not worm them prior to butchering.

I have eaten meat from goats 6 months to 3 years old, it all has been good because it all was butchered right and cooked properly.

The KEY to butchering, in my opinion, is to try to kill the goat without it knowing, or with a minimum of tension before the killing. It's just like a deer, which always tastes better with a clean head or heart shot than it does if it has bled out while running a half-mile. Keep the adrenaline out of the meat.

Keep the hair from touching the meat, too, if at all possible. Especially with an uncut buck.

These are the things that worked for us, I dunno about others.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

When I daried initially we kept all wethered at birth males in the same pen to sell for Cabrito. When we would get cocci in the pen, we butchered them the first day of diarrhea...this was diarrhea without fever (usually ecoli) and diarrhea without bloat (entero and a myriad of other things). I have let a 10 year old sterile buck be butchered, and a 5 year old doe who foundered. There have been few animals at my place buried, it's wasteful.

But unless you are ging to use the stomach or intestines, than there is little reason to worm before butchering. Butchering them young is of course best, and although the kill and the inital skinning and gutting happens outside, you can eaisly handle most animals in the house once that part is over, so flies and the heat of summer shouldn't really be an excuse to put off butchering. Vicki

[DocM]

Animals we home butcher (including deer/elk), we take a good look at indicator organs, like the liver, and see if they look healthy. An obviously sick animal wouldn't be eaten.

Now, on the other hand, any healthy butchered animal should be crock potted with this sauce and eaten.

http://www.recipezaar.com/39069

[bgraham]

Now, on the other hand, any healthy butchered animal should be crock potted with this sauce and eaten.

DocM, . Thanks!

[Jim S.]

Buyers here want the testicles. They eat them as a delicacy.