# How do you butcher your goats?



## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

The lady who still has my goats talked to me yesterday. She is concerned about my whether breeding her does. Hubby banded for the first time months ago, when the bucklings were 7 weeks old. I think he may have missed or only got part of one teste on my buckling. There is a ball of sorts down there. I think the buckling is sterile but this lady thinks the band may have broke and that he will be able to breed. The only way she knows this is that little bulb and the fact that he is growing a beard. They are Sannens and his mom has a bread so I really don't know. Either way she is freaking out and would like us to take him soon as her doe can come into season as early as late Aug. This would be his aunt. SO...we decided to go ahead and butcher him now instead of in Sept/Oct like we planned.

So, we plan on bring him home and doing it here. My question is how you, that do your own goats, or have someone come to your house, do the killing. Do you shoot or knock out then slit thier throat? I have a guy who knows how to butcher deer, so that is not a problem. It is the actual killing that I am concerned with. As it is I will have to tell my two neighbors that this is going to happen so they are prepared for noise, if there is any. I do have another guy who does his own goats, but he is out of town at the moment.

Also,what do you do with the blood? I do not want to attract any coyotes as I do have outdoor barn cats and so far the coyotes stay out of town, but they are close by and would smell blood I am sure. I also plan on maybe hanging the carcass in the shower stalll in the basement. It stays cool down there and of course there is a drain for any blood. How long should he hang before cutting up?

Please excuse my wording as I do not know how esle to word this! Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!


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## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

I have not butchered my own goats as of yet - but the next one, I will be doing the kill myself. 

My butcher slits the throat. When i did do sheep in Turkey - we would dig a hole, put the neck over the hole, slit the throat, let them bleed out in the hole and then cover the hole.


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## mistyblue (Nov 13, 2008)

We do butcher our own and we always use a .22, right after we shoot them, then we slit the throat to let them bleed out. We hang them in a tree just like you would a deer, but we do put a wheelbarrol under them to catch all the blood and nasties.

We start cutting them as soon as we get them hung in the tree, by that time they have usually bled out.


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

OH my Oh my.

I never and would never butcher a goat. 

I am not at all saying anything about those of you who do, I just could not ever do it.


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## mrs. lam (Apr 20, 2010)

Tractor Supply had a book on butchering the last time I was in there. I flipped through it and it had drawings of how to cut into meat and some drawings of how to dispatch the different types of animals. (cow, lamb, rabbit etc..) 
I have to get feed today, I'll check what the name of it is. If you don't want to buy it, you can go and thumb through it while you shop. I don't butcher, but I was curious about it so I looked through it. I'm not curious anymore. :shocked: My gang better be glad I don't like sheep or goat meat. :laugh: 
I wondered though...since you let them bleed out, could you inject pen into a vein to dispatch them? Has anyone done this by accident or used it to put down a sick goat? Just wondering. If one of mine got real sick and I couldn't get him to the vet would this be quick and painless?

Gina


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Thank you all. 

Hubby says the carcass has to hang for a bit to season. I know when we sent a gaot to the butcher, we didn't get it back for like two weeks. I hung in is cold storage for a bit before he butcherd it up in to cuts. Anyone know why this is done?


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## Lawanda (Jun 11, 2009)

I don't know a lot about it, but we butcher our own pigs. My dad always says they need to hang to "age" the meat. I guess it makes it more tender?? I am not sure, but I always found that interesting too. Daddy and Kevin always do the slaughtering, and then I help them cut the meat. I could not do the killing. I always help cut up deer too, but am never there for the killing! I like to eat meat, but I am pretty wimpy


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

we have a butcher come out and humanly kills the goat and handles all the bad stuff.............. that way... I don't have to be around to watch.....As I don't have the heart to do the killing myself.....  :wink:


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## Polarhug (Jul 1, 2010)

Hanging is usually done between 32-40 degrees. for 3-5 Days, no longer than that. The natural enzymes start to break down the meat. Basically it starts to decompose. A younger animal its not necessary to age.


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Thank you for the info.

So, if this guy is 4 mos old, I do not need to hang him? He was born on MArch 31st. I am wondering if I should go ahead and take my doe and him and let him grow some more. All I have here right now is hay and some grass.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I saw something somewhere, where you can give a goat some alcohol <yes alcohol as in the drink>, not sure what kind, but give them enough that it gets them 'drunk.' And then when they are totally relaxed, you slit their throat. They are too relaxed to care. I think my husband said he watched a video on youtube for this, and there is a video that shows how to butcher, maybe the same video I am not sure?

i also wouldn't have the heart to butcher one. I am still upset with my husband and his uncle for the way they butchered a sheep on our property a few weeks ago! 
His uncle slit the sheeps neck, and I recall I heard no screaming, nothing...don't think she even realized what was going on, and just passed out from the blood loss. I was out in the woods with my goats while they browsed, and not too far away, so if she were making a fuss, i would have heard her.

I'd think slitting the throat would be a good way to go, especially if your not used to using a gun <like me and hubby>. If you miss..... well you get my point.

I'd actually like to look into this method I mentioned about getting them drunk....


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

I am sure that hubby and friend will shoot it. The one guy is an excellent shooter and it would be the easest fastest way.

Now, Since I will have to bring this whether home to do the deed, isn't this going to stress him and make the meat taste bad? I mean, here comes this person he doesn't know, this person sticks him in a truck and hauls him away from his momma and herd. That certainly would stress me! So, now I am thinking about maybe doing the actual shooting at the place he is at. Still will be stressful but less so. What do you think? 

I thot about just bring the doe and him here, but I really am not set up for them. I mean, I could set up a temp place but why, when I will have a permanant one at my property? This is becoming stressfull for me!


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## bheila (Jan 10, 2009)

I could shoot them but not slit their neck. The meat is hung so the meat has time to age/relax. It's like letting chickens rest for 24 hours before you cook them. Their body has to go through rigor. 

When we butcher our steers we make sure not to feed them in the morning that way by the afternoon their ready to run you down for their hay and the butcher can shoot them right by his truck. We had to cull 2 goats this year. I gave hubby a bowl of grain, he walked them out to the woods, put the grain down then shot them in the back of the head while they were eating. They never knew it was coming.


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## Trace (Dec 29, 2008)

Oh boy - I think that I will go down to the supermarket and get a package of hamburger.

Don;t get me wrong - I am totally for eating meat.


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## bheila (Jan 10, 2009)

...And we're total opposite. We can't eat any meat from the supermarket. It's so flavorless. You really don't know what you're missing out on until you raise your own meat.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Very interesting stuff! At this point I'm not hungry enough to eat one of _my_ goats but there is one here that has been tempting me!

We all raise our critters for whatever they are bred to provide for us...Mine are here for my sanity as pets first, milk second but if it ever came down to it and I had a "problem" goat(meaning just downright ornery) I'd rather it go in the freezer than to make it someone elses problem or let it suffer to abuse because it becomes someone elses problem :shrug:


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## Epona142 (May 26, 2008)

Now that I have a few Nubians and the big pasture is underway, I look forward to holding back wethers for the dinner plate. 

Good luck!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

When everyone talks about letting the meat hang, how long exactly and how do you do it when you are butchering yourself? Especially if you do it out in the woods!


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

I am not totally sure, but I think you hang them for a week.


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## mistyblue (Nov 13, 2008)

You do not have to hang goat at all, especially if you bleed them out right away. Also the younger they are the more tender.

But if you want to hang them, then you can hang it for 4 to up to 10 days.

A little tidbit I took from a article:

Since goat meat is better for you than other forms of meat -- the fat content is 50%-65% lower than similarly prepared beef while the protein content is roughly equal -- someone should be promoting the Goat Diet.


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## Lawanda (Jun 11, 2009)

I have heard that goat meat is similar to deer. And it is very lean too.


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## Polarhug (Jul 1, 2010)

My grandma always told me she wouldn't eat deer because it tastes like goat.... so i'm like... I'm gonna get me some goats! omg I love venison  

Then we had some ground goat meat from a friend to sample and it was great!. Wonderful in spicy dishes like tacos.

The butcher told me to make sure NO goat fat remains on the meat. Thats where the off flavor can come from. Goat meat doesn't marble like beef, all the fat is on the outside. Mix it with beef fat if you have to.... and cook low and slow if roasting. Pretty much treat like any other wild game.


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Once I get more into this, it will be fun to try all the recipes!


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## mistyblue (Nov 13, 2008)

We treat the goat just like we would a deer.

One of the best things we ever did was have some goat made into Summer sausage w/cheese and jalapenos added. OMG was that stuff ever good, we handed out alot for others to try and they loved it as well.

One of Wallace's favorite things to do was take that Summer sausage, cut it up into little pieces, and make scrambled eggs with it, then put it in a tortilla or make a sandwich out of it. Mmmmm....


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Now that sounds like something my hubby would love!


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

Like someone else said, if you are going to hang the goat once it is dead you need to have an area where it is 32 to 40 degrees to do so. If you don't have any place like that don't hang it more than a few hours... just long enough for it to get through rigor and be flexible again (you don't even really need to do that much with a young goat, from what i have heard). Hanging takes place after all the guts are removed but before you cut the animal into pieces.

WARNING!!! GRAPHIC BUTCHERING PICTURE IN THIS LINK!!!!

The following link is the one I will be using when we process our first one. 
VERY GRAPHIC!

I can not say this enough, this link actually shows a goat being butchered!

It also shows how and where to shoot the goat to kill it (VERY important if you want to be as humane as possible, Shooting it wrong could end up not killing it and allowing it to suffer).

(If this link is not acceptable let me know and i will remove it and if anyone wants it they can PM me for it)

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showth ... p?t=112807


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## Itchysmom (Apr 3, 2010)

Thanks for the link WP!

It is good to know how to do this properly. I do know that I have two friends that will help the first time. One who owns goats and does this yearly, and one who goes deer hunting every year. 

If I can get my goats here this weekend, I will wait to butcher the whether until the weather cools off. If I can't get them here then he will just be put in the ground and slow cooked...after he is dead of course!


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## Epona142 (May 26, 2008)

Yup I have that link bookmarked for future use.  It's a good one


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## hphorses (Feb 16, 2010)

I bookmarked it too!! Thanks a bunch!!


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## Jackman (Nov 22, 2012)

*Goat hanging question*



Polarhug said:


> Hanging is usually done between 32-40 degrees. for 3-5 Days, no longer than that. The natural enzymes start to break down the meat. Basically it starts to decompose. A younger animal its not necessary to age.


Thanks for your reply, can you please tell me if the goat can be hung under 3 days, I am really susceptible to bacteria, and do not want to hang it for to long, how old should the age of the kid be with minimal hanging, and what is the minimal hanging time for a younger animal! Thanks

Jackman


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## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

We hang ours overnight, we kill in the evening, strung up in the tree, skin and gut it, cover with a sheet and leave till morning (this is providing it is cool weather and no flies). In the morning take it down and cut up. 

Hanging is done to age the meat which is basically the start of the breakdown/decomposing process. If you have a cool room you can hang it for several days up to a week. But we dont have a cool room so we just leave em overnight. Its more of an issue with beef really, compared to goats/sheep which are fine even if you dont age them. If we do one in summer we kill, cut up and straight in the fridge. 

My personal belief is that a goat should always be stunned before its throat is cut. Two reasons - firstly, you have to be VERY skilled to properly cut a throat so the animal is dead in less than 1 minute (which is world animal welfare standard) and not many people who are not professionals can achieve that. Secondly, goats have a secondary blood supply to the brain which is in the vertebrae up the neck (cattle have it too) unlike sheep who only have the jugular/carotid supply to the brain. So when you cut a goats throat, even if you sever both carotid and jugular, there is still the extra blood supply to the brain which delays death. So I personally will not cut the throat of a goat that has not been stunned either by gunshot or captive bolt. 

To the person who said to cut all the fat off ... that is wrong. If you do that, the meat will be dry and tough. The fat is there to prevent the meat drying out. Yes fat carries flavour but as long as the goat isnt too old nor an intact smelly buck, the meat will not taste "off"


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## fd123 (May 29, 2012)

Ive never butchered a goat before.. but ive done a many of deer. Ive started quartering them up and putting in ice chests, packed in ice for 8 - 10 days pouring offblood/water everyday and adding ice as needed.. Before i started doing this ..id cut them up right after the kill and put straight in the freezer.. And ive gotta tell you that the taste of the meat is night and day different to me, and my family! The wife, and kids wouldnt touch it before i started doing the 8-10 day thing ( because of the gamey taste of the meat).. With the 8-10 day process that i do now they love it!! Ive even caught them talking about how good it is amongst each other a, and their friends!


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

Blast from the past here, I was taken aback to see my old post on the thread, hehe! I've now butchered a goat and did use the instructions in the link I provided before. Went very smoothly, just like the link.... though getting the hide off was harder than I expected. We didn't hang it, in fact it was on a spit over an open fire within two hours. It was an 8 month old wether and was delicious.


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## animalfamily (Nov 23, 2012)

We've never butchered our own goats, mostly because we don't want to draw in coyotes etc. We have always taken to the butcher. His prices are very reasonable, as we usually just have the goat quartered and cut it up ourselves. They do let it hang in a cooler for awhile to age.

I must say though I find this thread very interesting in the event we do decide to butcher ourselves! [That didn't sound right ] I mean: do the butchering ourselves!!


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## Crowbar032 (Dec 6, 2011)

I've never butchered a goat, but I've done lots of deer. It's best if they can hang at least a couple of days, the meat is much better and loses some of the gamey smell/taste. In my opinion, cold meat works up better too. We de-bone all of our meat and make sure the silverskin on the top of the muscle is removed. Loin and hams are butterflied into steaks, neck and shoulders and various trimmings are ground. I dearly love lamb (<1 year old), but not mutton (<1 year old). When I get a little billy, I will stick to the same ages as sheep. 

The last few deer seasons has been very warm (this past week was 60 degrees). To allow the meat to hang in warm weather, my neighbor built a cooler on the cheap. It's hillbilly fabulous and completely awesome. His garage floor is concrete. In the corner, he built what looks like a closet and insulated it really well. He got an upright freezer and removed the door. He cut a hole in the cooler to match the size of the freezer and caulked around it. Open the door to the cooler and you can still use the shelves in the freezer to cool stuff, and a rod from one side to the other allows you to hang carcasses on hooks. He uses a small fan infront of the freezer air ducts to circulate the cold air. We easily stored three deer in it and the temperature stayed in the low 30's. For a reference on size, we had 3 deer (6 halves) and could have easily gotten another two whole deer in the cooler. We skinned and halved the deer before putting them in the cooler.


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

Crowbar032 said:


> I've never butchered a goat, but I've done lots of deer. It's best if they can hang at least a couple of days, the meat is much better and loses some of the gamey smell/taste. In my opinion, cold meat works up better too. We de-bone all of our meat and make sure the silverskin on the top of the muscle is removed. Loin and hams are butterflied into steaks, neck and shoulders and various trimmings are ground. I dearly love lamb (<1 year old), but not mutton (<1 year old). When I get a little billy, I will stick to the same ages as sheep.
> 
> The last few deer seasons has been very warm (this past week was 60 degrees). To allow the meat to hang in warm weather, my neighbor built a cooler on the cheap. It's hillbilly fabulous and completely awesome. His garage floor is concrete. In the corner, he built what looks like a closet and insulated it really well. He got an upright freezer and removed the door. He cut a hole in the cooler to match the size of the freezer and caulked around it. Open the door to the cooler and you can still use the shelves in the freezer to cool stuff, and a rod from one side to the other allows you to hang carcasses on hooks. He uses a small fan infront of the freezer air ducts to circulate the cold air. We easily stored three deer in it and the temperature stayed in the low 30's. For a reference on size, we had 3 deer (6 halves) and could have easily gotten another two whole deer in the cooler. We skinned and halved the deer before putting them in the cooler.


What a neat idea for a home made cooler!!!! Thanks for sharing!!


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## Crowbar032 (Dec 6, 2011)

WarPony said:


> What a neat idea for a home made cooler!!!! Thanks for sharing!!


I wish I could claim credit for the idea, but the genius belongs to my neighbor Rick. When he first told me what he was doing, I didn't think it would work. I'm glad I was wrong. It's by far cheaper than any cooler you can buy and it works surprisingly well. The key is good insulation and a tight seal around the hole the freezer slides into. He doesn't run it continuously, usually a couple weeks at time during deer season. I'll see if I can get some pics the next time I'm up there.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

Well.. first of all.. I don't butcher them.. my husband and brother do or a friend does. I only do the wrapping part. If you have never done this... I do recommend getting someone who will help you with this. Someone who does it right. Things can go very wrong. (Wrong as ... the goat doesnt die instantly.) When my husband takes the goat out ... it is so fast.. there is a small pop sound from the gun - instantly the goat is down. He shoots it in the soft part of head just behind the skull in the back of the head. Do not hit a goat in the forehead with the bullet- very dangerous.
Get your goat to come to some feed ... get him all relaxed and away from the others.. put a tarp down before the deed. 
We always use a tarp to collect the blood and mess. Wrap all the extras up in this tarp and bag it to go to the dump.
Please do get someone to help you on this. There are some who will tie the legs up and then slit the throat.. and welll..... that isnt the best way to have an animal go out. The .22 pop in the back of the head is the most humane way.. while little goat is eating. (Please get someone to help you with this.. as there are all sorts of issues that can happen with bullets hitting the wrong spot in or on the skull.) Oh.. and if you have a dog.. do not have it present .. it is a confusion for a dog to see this.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

Our dog loves our goats. She is their friend and protector. I just gave her breakfast. (a bit of thawed goat scrap meat with her dog food) I told her it was squirrel meat and honestly.. I think she believed me.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

No need to let it hang for more than two days. this is an itty bitty thing. You don't want it decomposing too much.


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## GTAllen (Jul 22, 2012)

fd123 said:


> Ive never butchered a goat before.. but ive done a many of deer. Ive started quartering them up and putting in ice chests, packed in ice for 8 - 10 days pouring offblood/water everyday and adding ice as needed.. Before i started doing this ..id cut them up right after the kill and put straight in the freezer.. And ive gotta tell you that the taste of the meat is night and day different to me, and my family! The wife, and kids wouldnt touch it before i started doing the 8-10 day thing ( because of the gamey taste of the meat).. With the 8-10 day process that i do now they love it!! Ive even caught them talking about how good it is amongst each other a, and their friends!


I have a deer in one ice chest and a pig in another right now. I am not getting hardly any melt with the temp dropping below freezing at night and 5 day ice chest. Vacuum packing also helps to keep fresh longer.


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