Experience raising goats for meat?

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

I'm interested in raising goat meat for my family. I'm ordering Storey's Guide to Raising Meat Goats, out of curiosity. I'm not interested in breeding/wintering, rather growing some out for the freezer each year (like we do with pigs and cornish xs).

Does anyone here do this?

Pros, cons? Advice? Comments?

Thanks!

 

[()relics]

The ideal market weight for a wether, goat, is 65-80#, also the time that the animal is most expensive, target $1.25 per pound....This weight can be reached not long after weaning with not too much extra concentrate feed....So the value in goats is getting the animal as close to your target weight as can , limited by your breeding schedule and the condition of your doe, then weaning and finishing your wethers with the least input for the most profit.....Meaning the animal is the most valuable when it is at the desired markt weight and condition...that would be when you indicate you would buy them, just weaned...thats where producers make all the money, selling weaned wether kids for market. After they have reached this stage they decrease dramatically in efficiency as well as market price...I raise boer goats by 100 days all my kids are gone to market, except show prospects and replacement stock, there is no added value in keeping them longer....I owuld say if you want to appreciate a value you would have to have does that have kids for your family then feed them olut to whatever weight you like...Instead of taking a "big hit" when you try to buy them just weaned...jmo...I have a few left if you'd like to try some and are close to Indiana...for referrence I sold a wether kid yesterday that was just 90 days old, he was in the 55-60# range, just weaned and started on feed.

 

[la dee da]

I have no experience with goats but I don't believe the Storey's Guide to Meat Goats is going to help you. I don't own the book myself but I've read reviews that say it's basically a pet goat book, with no real useful meat goat info. The book I'd reccomend is Raising Meat Goats for Profit by Gail Bowman, though it's very biased toward Boar goats. The book does not have a section on butchering, so that may pose a problem if you want a book with that in it. Storey's Guide to Dairy Goats has a section on slaughtering and butchering, but the book itself is, of course, about dairy goats. I do know of a useful website I found that shows you how to slaughter and butcher a goat if you want me to post it.

Good luck!