My husband wants to have a goat roast for his 50th birthday. It's in July 2014. If I breed my now 6 month old doelings in April of next year (when they're 11 months), their kids will be 10 months old in July 2014. My questions are:
A. How much success have any of you had with breeding Nigerians in the spring?
B. I'm wondering about the pros/cons of wethering/not wethering the bucklings I want to use for meat. I wouldn't have wanted them to grow for 10 months, but I also don't want to risk having kids in real cold weather.
Non wethered kids grow so much more stocky, from what I've seen so far. The one buckling I wethered and sold this spring is much less stocky and is smaller than the bucklings I kept. But, will the meat have an off flavor from the buck stink? Or, maybe it's a difference in management that's made the sold wether so much smaller? The guy also bought a doeling from me, and she's smaller than any of my others as well.
On the other hand, if I wether them, they can stay with their moms and keep nursing. They wouldn't be stinky then, and would grow healthier and maybe faster, right?
I'd love to hear any thoughts on the subject! :)
Replies
Thank you, Melissa! I appreciate that.
I know, I don't want to see the goats first either, much less see them into the world and care for them for 8 or 10 months. :( I want no part of the process. I'm hoping to arrange to be far, far away that day. It's not at all the same as the chickens or rabbits to me. I've been party to that lots of times, but this is very different.
that does sound awesome! can I come to your house when your neighbor cooks goat? Only I dont want to see the goat first ;(
yes, it was BBQ sauce of some sort - but that might make it burn?? I bet it was heavily vinegared - I will ask my Mom. :)
I think next fall we'll try curried goat, Jamaican style. We have a neighbor from Jamaica who can't wait to get her hands on some goat meat. She says it's the BEST, and she craves it all the time. :) I'm going to ask her to show me how to do it right.
my uncle used to barbeque goat once a year - but pretty sure he used a girl goat, but they were standard sized goats. This was in the Southeast - bout November. He would dig a rectangle hole out back - tent it with army blankets (^^) and sit out there basting. Then he would pull the meat off the bone and shred it like pork.
That was the most delicious meat - we always looked forward to him visiting. :)
LOL! You are so fun, and funny! :) Thanks for the great goat meat info. I'm going to have to look into the actual "goat roast" process too. I'm not sure if I should be picturing the whole goat roasting on a spit over a bon fire? Or, maybe a goat BBQ? I'm not sure yet about that. I'll have to get some more info. out of hubby to see what he's picturing. I love the salt and ice idea! We've kept wild game, as well as rabbit and chicken in a large cooler with ice to age it before cutting it up, but never added the salt. I feel sure we'll be eating some goat earlier than the b-day, so I'll be experimenting with it beforehand. Thanks, Margaret!
Margaret Langley said:
Patty, we have never eaten a wether but we ate 2 bucks this year and I am convinced that if someone knows how to clean them right, avoiding contaminating the meat when removing the glands etc. that the meat is good. We have never ground any so I can't say about that part. Ours were delicious and they were cleaned at home also by hubby and the boys. The meat is kept for a few days in a cooler of ice with salt added for tenderizing and drained and refilled when needed. It works for us. We also use this process with deer which gets the wild taste under control.
BTW, I think it is super sweet to be planning this in advance for your hubby. He is one lucky man! I just realized he and my hubby are just a few months apart. Mine was 48 this month. (and yes, for those with great memories, who are thinking I thought she was a lot older shhh! 51 I was a cradle robber! Don't tell!)
That could be the difference much of the time, though not the last time I tried it. Last time, we processed it ourselves, trimming all the fat and not adding any other fat to it. I still had a hard time eating it though. Maybe I was looking too hard for the bad taste? :)
Glenna Rose said:
Regarding the wild meat, my family hunted and we had deer and elk (even bear occasionally). They always dressed everything out themselves. First the glands were removed and not allowed to touch anything at all. The other thing they did that I don't know of anyone else doing was to remove *all* fat from the meat before grinding into burger. They purchased beef tallow at the butcher to grind with the meat. There was never a wild or "off" taste to the meat - it was absolutely delicious. However, literally everyone I know who took their game to the butcher did have a problem with an "off" taste to their ground meat (some was downright horrid). I seriously doubt the butcher removed the fat and used beef tallow. Could that be the difference?
Thanks a lot Deborah. I'm glad for the input, and I think it will help me out. I don't know if this could help you or not, but my husband deer hunts. We have tried grinding some of the meat, and I don't like it at all! It has a flavor I don't like. However, I've never disliked the steaks, roasts, or stew meat. Now, I can everything that we would have used for ground meat. I love that too. So, in my opinion, the ground meat can taste different, at least in venison.
I'm glad to hear the spring breeding seems to work well for you. I'm not sure I want to make it a normal thing, since I really don't want to milk in December through February here in MN! For my hubby's 50th, I'll make an exception. :)
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
When bucks are wethered, they do grow slower, and there are charts in the textbooks that show how the growth curve slows down after castration, so it isn't just your observation. Of course, there are individual differences, and as you noted, a wether could stay with its mother and nurse longer.
As for taste, it doesn't seem very clear to me. We butchered some bucks earlier this year, and the leg roasts are delicious, but the ground meat has a taste that I don't like. The leg roasts are from a yearling buck, and I'm wondering if the ground included meat from the three year old? I wish I'd written down the instructions that I gave the locker! I thought I told them the three-year-old was supposed to be cut up for dog food, but I don't understand why the ground would taste different than the leg. Wish I could be more help!
Before we got our copper situation under control, I had a very hard time getting does pregnant in the spring, even though they'd come into heat. Over the last few years, I haven't had a problem with it though.