Dairy goats for meat

[carterj1998]

Have any one ever eaten alpine goats? I'm thinking about raising my wethers up and slaughtering them for food. Any thoughts?

[Kristabelle]

Lots of people do that! Dairy goats aren't as meaty as meat breeds but they taste just as good. Not every buckling needs to carry on his legacy, so they get wethered as pets or meat.

[carterj1998]

Originally Posted by Kristabelle

Lots of people do that! Dairy goats aren't as meaty as meat breeds but they taste just as good. Not every buckling needs to carry on his legacy, so they get wethered as pets or meat.

Can you also tell me about testing an stuff?

[CraterCove]

There is a sticky here in the forum right here: CL/CAE - Before You Buy A Goat Info

It talks about testing. CL is Caseous Lymphadenitis this is an informative link about the disease in general: http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/circ...hadenitis.html

CAE is Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis: http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/gene...ephalitis.html

Other things people test for are Brucellosis: http://www.cdc.gov/brucellosis/

Tuberculosis: http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/gene...and_goats.html

and Johnes disease: http://www.johnes.org/goats/faqs.html

The testing people here usually do is done by blood draws at home or by a vet. When we do them ourselves we send them to a lab like this one: http://www.biotracking.com/goats

Hope that helps a bit!

[Alice In TX/MO]

Yes, we eat the bucklings. Excellent barbecue, also called cabrito in South Texas.

[motdaugrnds]

I've been raising dairy goats since 1996 and, what we don't sell, I put in the freezer. All I do is pen them up a couple of months, keep fresh water and a quality hay in that pen at all times and feed them a mixture of grain 2 times daily until I am sure they have started gaining weight. Slaughtering them at this time always assure a tender meat.

I always let the kids get at least 8 months old prior to penning them up for slaughtering. During that 8 months they have been free-ranging with the rest of the herd and I keep good watch to make sure entire herd is healthy. (Never pen up an unhealthy kid, get it healthy first.)