Anyone raise goats for the Meat?

[RSN92]

Hello everybody! Wondering if anybody on here raises goats for meat? I have friends that own a farm down the road who keep around 12-15 goats for milking. They have babies in the spring, and in the fall they sell the babies. what they cant sell they send to the butcher. Im wondering if anybody else does the same. I have eaten goat meat before and it tastes great. If anybody does this strictly for meat, what is the cost of raising a single goat? Is it worth it in the end?

 

[Godsgrl]

Take your questions over to Backyardherds.com. It's a sister site to BYC, and they have a lot of knowledgeable people who raise goats and sheep for food, wool, showing, etc.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Definitely try backyard herds! I know around here yearling bucks/whethers get sold for dirt cheap during the fall and going into winter. It probably would be cheaper to buy a few at the end of the season and send them to butcher than it would cost to feed one until it was big enough!

If you do raise goats for meat, you would most likely have to get two. Goats do best in herd type settings, so having one, even if just for a short time, would be tough for the goat. Lonely goats can drive their people mad! (Constant baaa-ing!)

In the end, it probably would not be too difficult or expensive to raise a goat to slaughter, though if you get to talking to people you may find someone who you can just buy them off of closer to slaughter age (I admit I don't know a ton about what age you slaughter goats. I'm going off my knowledge on lamb!)

Good luck though! If you have husbandry questions feel free to ask. There are quite a few knowledgeable members on here! I'm more familiar with husbandry type issues as well.

 

[RSN92]

ok thanks guys. i never heard of the other site and i know sometimes people talk more then chickens on here so i tried but thank you for the info.