Young buck kids...

CAjerseychick · #1 01/27/14, 07:59 PM

we will have medium size bucklings (sire is a Nigerian dwarf)-- what is the earliest age to butcher? Mothers are about 80- 100lbs (they are nigerian - standard cross breeds).... what would be some things to think about in terms of when to butcher ( we want some meat, like comparable to a turkey, we are big eaters) and what we have to work with is a hammer or small sledge hammer.....

Not sure how many confirmed pregnancies, but we have 4 does.....

punchiepal · #2 01/27/14, 10:33 PM

I have often read that when raising dairy breeds for meat the feed/meat/gain ratio stops about 16 weeks. From what we have seen it does seem to be around then that the amount of feed going in does not increase the meat as much as it did before then.

We had a huge amount of bucks last year, some made it to 16 weeks and some did not. The "veal" ones were the best.

Frosted Mini's · #3 01/27/14, 10:58 PM

Is the hammer meant for putting them down? I would recommend buying a small pistol for this purpose. I butchered a 5 month old mini alpine wether that had full-time nursing rights on a gallon a day milker until just a bit before he was done. He weighed almost 70 lbs! Lots of good meat there.