breeding for meat markets

[mygoat]

When is the demand for meat kids the greatest? How do you breed to meet demand? I'm used to the dairy aspect of kidding seasons.

What age are kids normally sold for 'meat' - at butchering age, or at weaning? What age is a kid most in demand for immediate butcher? We just tend to do them when it's convenient and when we're sick of feeding them.

Thanks!

[Alice In TX/MO]

Do a google search for holiday demand for goat meat.

Here's one article that explains when and what type of goat for each holiday. I've seen it in a chart, too, but I don't have time to do the search right now.

http://www.goatexpert.com/0203gr.html

Needs new dates:
http://sheepgoatmarketing.info/PageL...icholidays.htm

[RW kansas hogs]

Alice, Good article from Double M Boers, I will have finish reading it when im done building our goat shelter. And thanks for sharing it for the rest of us

[billygoatridge]

At the graded goat sales they tend to bring the highest during the late fall/winter months on thru Easter. Generally the 50-60 pounders seem to bring the most /# at auction but we have one meat buyer in the area that prefers 70-100 # goats. It varies some by area.

[Cheribelle]

I was told by an old-timer at the sale barn that the buyers want them at least 40 lbs. Doesn't seem to matter here if they are wethered, bucks bring good money.

[dosthouhavemilk]

We prefer to ship a 60-80 pound kid though we have shipped smaller (and bigger). They are usually force weaned at that stage. Usually anywhere from 6-12 months old. Since we don't creep feed and use pasture as much as possible for feed, they grow a bit slower, but with fewer inputs. We have found that the Boers tend to start losing condition when weaned and do not really gain much by overwintering or even having time post weaning, so we aim to pull them from their dams the day they are shipped. Our Nubians, on the other hand, while being set back slightly by weaning, will gain nicely over a winter.
We don't ship them all at once and we follow our local market, as well as, the Texas markets.
We usually start shipping around September/October and continue through until the following Spring usually since we have had long kidding season the past two years. We will ship our first sometime next month since pasture is getting short. That and we have kids ready to go.
We ship ours into PA where there is a solid market. We did quite well on most of the kids and does we shipped last year, but we always have the few that just aren't worth much.
We don't try too hard to hit holiday markets, but we do keep them in mind. We castrate and disbud everything so there are some holidays we can't fullfill.

[mekasmom]

Originally Posted by mygoat

When is the demand for meat kids the greatest? How do you breed to meet demand? I'm used to the dairy aspect of kidding seasons.

Thanks!

Just pre-easter is the best time to sell kids for profit. I never scheduled anything in breeding for that time, but rather saved kids to sell at that time. Fall is the worst time to sell kids because the market is full of them.

[FunnyRiverFarm]

mygoat, we take our dairy boys to Dearborn when they are 3-4 months old...have no trouble getting around 3 dollars/lb live weight. The time our boys are ready will correspond nicely with Ramadan this year so we may be able to get even more money for them. They are preferred to be left intact (balls and horns) but will sell either way.

[dosthouhavemilk]

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/lswtxsheepgoatsum.pdf

A link that we use to follow prices in Texas.

[mygoat]

FunnyRiverFarm, You're my neighbor! I'm in Brooklyn!

I've heard they prefer them intact, but I like to leave my doelings on their dams as long as possible, so I think I'd prefer to at least band them so I don't have the young ones breeding.