processing?

[Reed77]

I have a 2-3 week old buckling (will be castrated soon!) that I plan on putting in the freezer. are there shots I should give before processing? what age is best for meat quality? I'm not after quantity. at what age is best to castrate? Is there a big meat quality difference if I don't castrate?

[Alice In TX/MO]

You do NOT want to give shots for a while before butchering. Read labels for wait times.

My Hispanic customers like them at weaning (approx 3 months) or before six months for tender meat.

I don't castrate.

[Backfourty,MI.]

I wouldn't give any shots if he's going to the freezer & I also wouldn't castrate him unless your going to wait until after 6 months of age to butcher. Any older than 6 months the meat might start getting a bucky smell/taste to it.

[Goat Servant]

We dont vac or worm anyone going for meat. Best age is anytime you're hungry.
We had a 2yr old buck done. He was all ground no bucky flavor at all. Not quite as mild as younger but very tasty!

[Reed77]

so, no shots or worming it's whole life or just before slaughter?

[Goat Servant]

Yeah it's whole life. We usually do them btween 3 & 6 mos. The buck I mentioned had regular vacs but we waited a good month or two before he was done.
There are withdrawl times on them but labled mostly for cattle; we go by that even though we all know that caprine metabolsim is a whole lot faster than bovine.

[LoneStrChic23]

Our kids went to freezer camp at 4 months & 5 1/2 months, so I didn't bother with castration or vaccines.

[Reed77]

what if I do decide to castrate him? would there be a growth or taste difference?

[Alice In TX/MO]

That's what we are telling you. If you are going to butcher by six months, don't bother. Not enough difference to matter.

[KSALguy]

if you want to keep him around long enough to fatten him up BIG (that depends on the breed) then yes you would castrate him, if your going to butcher before 6 months anyway dont castrate, you have already waited longer than i would reccomend on castrateing anyway, if you castrate now it will more than likely slow his growth down for a period of time and you will loose prime growing time you would need to make up,

if i am going to castrate a buckling i do it at two or three days old so they recover faster and still grow well,

there is absolutely no reason to medicate an animal going to freezer camp in the next few months,

[Reed77]

alright, thank you all for the info. I'm thinking between 6-8 months old will be good!

[Lada]

If he's running with your does, you will need to castrate him or he will breed them all back. We castrate at 8 weeks and they go to the freezer between 6-8 months.

[motdaugrnds]

Reed77, I can tell you what we have learned to do.

We butcher all goats not sold. We raise the large Nubians (a dairy breed). We never give meds/shots to any, though we do make sure they stay healthy. We always castrate the bucks not spoken for shortly after their birth simply because we let them run with the herd until pinning-up time. The trick to getting "tender" meat is "not" in the AGE of the animal. It is in the way its metabolism is working at the time of slaughter.

We choose the time to slaughter each year depending on what other things around the place need doing. We mostly do this in late fall. This means 2-3 months before we plan to slaughter, we put the ones going into the freezer into a separate "holding" pen they cannot get out of. It is 16' x 16' with a 3' wall half way down from one side. The end this wall comes from is the back of our chicken house. The other 3 sides are cow panels & field wire (totally enclosed top to bottom) with about 3' of wood up from ground on 2 of those sides and a 1-1/2 ft overhang (roofing rafters). It has 2 "hay" feeders in it and one 6 ft grain bin on the inside wall with a step permitting them to reach it. (This is the wall separating that holding pen from our wood shed.) The reason we prepared this holding pen is strictly for slaughtering purposes. We house the ones to be butchered in there until we can tell they're gaining weight. This is when we slaughter them. [When an animal is "gaining" weight, its meat will be tender. When it is either losing weight or staying the same, its meat tends to be tough. We learned this from many years of experience.]

It usually takes only a couple of months with the feeding schedule we establish for them. We "graduate" them to eating grain twice daily and "quality" hay free choice.

Hope this helps.

[mpete]

I butcher about 6 mos. of age, and I leave them intact. If slaughtered before they go into rutt, then there is no taste. I do use cocci preventative, and do fecals to insure they do not have a worm load. I have one that will be processed in Sept/Oct. I also do not dehorn the ones bound for freezer camp, because if I decide to market the goat, then there are some religions that like only "whole" meat.