What age to butcher?

[mammabooh]

At what age do those of you who butcher dairy boys typically do it? Do you usually go by age or by weight? Is there typically an age at which they stop growing bone and focus on muscle, or an age at which growth starts to slow? If I remember correctly, you want to butchers steer when they are gaining, and I wondered if it was similar with goats.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I've done every age from nine weeks to over a year. Just depends on how much meat you want and how much feed you can afford.

[mammabooh]

One will be eight weeks old on Thursday and the other on Saturday. They are both still being dam-raised (just banded them last Saturday). I really don't need the milk they are taking because Snicket (no kids on her) is giving over a gallon a day and we only use about a quart of that for fresh drinking. So, I am planning to leave them on their dams until they get kicked off, or until it looks to me like the dams are tired of it. After that, they have a big pasture waiting for them to move into. They, along with Jim, the three-year-old wether, and Mordecai, the new buckling, will share the space. Right now, everyone is in the main pasture together.

So, I guess one of my questions is if they will continue to gain once taken off milk and then grazing/browsing full time. They will also have decent hay available to them at all times. In my mind, I had planned to wait until the vegetation starts dying off this fall to butcher. But, if the gains won't be consistenent once they are no longer nursing, I would rather do it sooner. Any advice?

Oh, one more question...what is the normal live weight/meat ratio for dairy goats?

[Cyngbaeld]

If the feed is 'free' and not needed for other animals, I'd let them grow till fall.