# Thoughts on Butchering



## afterwork (Jun 22, 2016)

Just curious has anyone else ever cried when a goat they raised goes to get butchered? Or better yet when they butchered them themselves?


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Sure. It gets easier as time goes on but you never feel good about it. I take mine to a processor. Also had to correct the spelling of butcher.


----------



## anawhitfield (Jun 9, 2013)

We butcher ours, but we don't eat the meat right away. We wait a couple of weeks. That way it doesn't seem so personal. 
And yes, we try not to cry when we butcher them.


----------



## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I haven't done a goat yet but yeah I bawl my eyes out when it's time for the steers because I'm usually the one that has to feed them. I usually stay in the house and cry while someone else does the deed then I'm good and can go down and help skin and do the dirty stuff. I do have a little wether that didn't get loaded up to sell and I'm not going to make a trip just to sell him so I'll be butchering him. I don't feel upset when I think about it with him but I also haven't spent any one on one time with him either feeding him extras and making sure he's big and fat........I'm actually going to butcher him because he's small and I figure a good one to try the meat with lol


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Years ago, I had a butcher come out and do it. I only did it once, was so hard on me. 
I can't do it again. I guess I have to big of a heart. 
So that is when I decided to go to more show quality. 
It is hard to do when you are there when they are born, to that moment of the kill.


----------



## arielmadison (Jul 25, 2016)

I haven't yet but my SO has plans to butcher someday. There's no way he would cry but I will probably be balling my eyes out. I think if I had alot of goats (20+) I could see myself getting detached easily. I had to put down a doe that got attacked by a dog and I regret not utilizing her somehow. It would have been the perfect butchering oppurtunity but I was so distraught I just moped around for the rest of the day (really the next week) plotting revenge on the mysterious dog.


----------



## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Doing the kill at home is the most humane way to utilize a meat animal and you should be proud that you are providing for your family in the most humane way possible. You are saving the animal the stress of separation from the herd, and travel to a processor, and the waiting time at the new strange scary place until the kill.

My husband and I have not brought ourselves to do kill and processing at home, and I always feel guilt that I am not doing it in the most humane manner possible by bringing them to the local butcher. (only 2 miles away, but still... stressful for the animal.) My meat animals are not friendly pets and I am not attached to them, they are dam-raised for the purpose and they don't like me at all (they associate me with food, but they do not want to be handled), but I still feel guilt for causing them this additional stress.


----------



## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

While I have never actually cried; I do get sad when certain ones have to go. And we do it ourselves. That is partly to save money but after quite a few years it really has become a circle of life. I am there when they are born and I raise friendly, happy goats. I work to save them if something goes wrong. But, as I told a friend of mine recently, if we did not eat most of our goats we would have over 100 of them on less than an acre.
The hardest had to be TwistedSister who was the runt of triplets. She could not stand nor regulate her temp and actually slept in my bed the night she was born. Even though she stayed undersized; I let her breed and she produced two darling, undersized does.
With a barnyard full of goats the decision had to be made. She had to go along with her girls who were young enough to get rennet for cheese making. This is a farm and there is not much market for pet goats around here.
I could never send them off to let strangers do it.


----------



## Bree_6293 (Aug 4, 2014)

Our rule is a kid has to be a freezer goat from the start so I can't get attached. They still get attention and care but I try not to get too personal with them. I go inside whilst my partner does all that. I can't see them again until they no longer look like a goat. 
The way I see it is I know they have never been mistreated and have been cared for the best we can. They don't have the stress of being travelled in a small crate with heaps of other and the stress of the slaughter house. Ours are done eating their favourite grain and it's instant.


----------



## Baphomet (Jun 15, 2013)

I butchered my kids last week. First time I'd done four in one day. I use a bolt stunner to euthanize them. I really hate it. This time I got upset. I don't mind the skinning and cutting up but I hate stunning them. But now my freezer is full of wonderful goat meat. It's hard because I only do this once a year


----------



## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I don't butcher my own, I can't do it. I do raise 2 at a time so they are taken to the slaughterhouse with another kid, usually their brother. 

The place I take them to takes care of them right away, so they don't have to hang around and stress. He has a very small business that really doesn't look like a slaughter house. They are kept in a stall in his barn until their time comes.


----------



## anndunning (May 11, 2017)

this year we will have several to take to butcher. Last year we sold our goats to them and then got some other persons meat. but it had a wilder taste. Based on knwoing what we give our goats and not knowing how the goats of others have been fed or treated we want to use our own meat this year. 
When is the best time weight wise to process goats that have been wethered, I want a decent amount of meat, but also want it not to have the wild taste, Any instructions to give butcher. Deer we have put in salt water brine a few days, I don't know if butchers do that.


----------



## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Our processer ages about four days. But many home done jobs do not age.
Like venison, I wonder if the wild taste is from trauma? I know what they eat also affects flavor. But a quick clean kill has a lot to do with it.


----------



## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

I find that when it is time, my emotions disconnect. I personally lay them down pet them. Then out go the lights. I also keep the hide, because i think they are so beautiful. I dont know if I could do a doe.


----------



## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

I am facing this very hard decision right now. We have gone back and forth on what to do. I think that we have come to the conclusion that what is best for us and her is to butcher her here at home. I sold off my other favorite and even though I am pretty sure she went to a good place; I wonder about her all the time. I want to know what happens to his one.
We are going to be gone the whole month of June and most of the rest of the summer. Then we are going to sell to do more travel so the goats have to go.
I am sure we will both cry over this one. Not only because we love her but due to knowing we will soon be totally goatless.


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

We had one born here about 4 years ago that we butchered. Honestly didn't bother us, my kids and I stayed in the house. I was sad, but no tears, he just wasn't a pet or breeding quality and the kids were even okay with him being 'dinner.' 
We've had a few years ago that were bought for meat and were wild.

The ones that hurt are the 4-H goats. A few years ago I took my daughters wether, and 2 other kids wethers to the butcher. It was all I could do to hold in the tears. Her wether trusted me, and even though he was terrified to go in the pen next to all those other animals in other pens... he still stayed right beside me. Breaks my heart all over thinking about it. I cried like a baby all the way home. Thankfully, the last couple of years we've met a parent or buyer and they've taken the animals where they need to go. A very hard part about showing.

This year my kids have 5 market wethers, and we are very, very attached to them. I don't know what we'll do, it's going to be so hard to part with them. The plan is, they each sell one at the 4-H auction, and the other 2 are supposed to be sold at state fair if we go. 
Last year my daughter put one on the truck at state fair that we bottle raised and that was so very hard, she handled it better than me, and she was crazy about that little goat.


----------



## teejae (Jan 21, 2013)

We always butcher our own,they aren't stressed and I give them a good childhood.We do them at about 8 months old. They are kept in a small yard and hand fed hay and grain. Cost wise it's not worth sending them to the meat works as they have to be health checked and ear tagged,our laws are very strick. My husband is very good which them and they are put down quickly and he skins and quarters then we hang /chill for 3 days then cut up. I hear people say how could you? I say well do you eat meat,beef,chicken,fish,lamb same thing really Yes? Well someone had to slaughter them,they just don't just come all neatly packaged from the butcher/supermarket. Goat meat is one of our favourite meats.The one thing I couldn't do is knock unwanted Buck kids at birth it is such a waste of good future meat, teejae


----------



## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

I totally agree with teejae. Once the lights are out, its all just a process to finish. Goat is the favorite meat for our family. I also like tanning the hide too.


----------



## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

>>>Her wether trusted me<<<
This was the hardest thing with the little one we did last weekend. She was the runt of triplets so I gave her two bottles a day. The boys were so mean hogging all of Mom's milk. She was undersized and would never make a milker so in view of our current plans; she needed to go. She followed me out of the barn like a puppy and I felt so guilty. I turned her over to my husband and walked to the house. As soon as I heard the shot I was okay; knowing that whatever fear or pain she had was over.
She was 4 months old and so small that all of her fit into one roasting pot.
Oh! She was delicious. I look on it as crossing the Rainbow 'Fridge.

>>>they just don't just come all neatly packaged from the butcher/supermarket<<<
How about that!!! I know people who manage to convince themselves of that. When I was younger most meat came with some sort of bone in it. Nowadays, though, almost everything is boneless and people manage to easily ignore that what they are eating was muscle that was attached to bones that enable an animal to move.


----------



## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

'Crossing the Rainbow Fridge." Luvmyherd that is classic!


----------



## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

I read these posts to my family. Great minds here.


----------



## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

>>>'Crossing the Rainbow Fridge." Luvmyherd that is classic!<<<

LOL nancy d
You* should *like it!!!!
_I_ did not make it up.

http://www.thegoatspot.net/forum/f185/andcuriouser-131131/


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

We have one that we bought as a buddy for my son's yearling buck. He's about 5mo, small buck, and fits his name lol (Fugly lol!!). He's getting ready to cross that 'Rainbow Fridge,' haha. 
I feel bad, because I am so ready for him to go. We want to move a couple of young bucks in with the yearling buck. I can't do it because Mr. Freezer Camp Fugly will hurt them. 
It won't be long.... I don't care for goat meat myself, but my husband and kids do.


----------



## catharina (Mar 17, 2016)

34 years ago I took the coward's way out & became a vegetarian. Never regretted it, ever.


----------



## wndngrvr (Dec 10, 2011)

I agree with "luvmyherd" - we would never let anyone else do the butchering here. My husband also never does it where the other animals can see it being done. We made the mistake once of putting down a wether in front of another wether that lives with our buck. It was several years ago and he is still afraid of my husband. I take the animals for a walk and the one to be done is in a pen - it is quickly done while they are busy eating a treat. I would rather give them a good life and a quick end than to sell to someone that won't take good care of them or to take them to a sale barn. I am really starting to think of that more lately as I have let my herd get too big. Also - the quality of our meat in the store is not so great so we should be producing our own. And yes, I cry easy. I love my animals.


----------



## Bree_6293 (Aug 4, 2014)

Yep my partner always does it and away from our other animals. We love and care for them and we take them for a walk out down food and they go on eating food when my partner does it. They have no idea it's coming and I know they have respect until the end


----------



## anndunning (May 11, 2017)

thank you all for your replies. We have taken them to slaugher house, they are supposed to be Animal Welfare Approved so thought they would do it humanely. Your responses have given me second thoughts about it, and I know if we do it , it will be done as humanely as possible, we love our goats individually and they are not just another potential carcuss. 
But still want to know what weight is the best weight to get good quality tasting meat, but worth the effort to process.


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

There are plenty of us who take them to a processor. We don't want to do it ourselves. There is nothing wrong with that. If full size goats, you would want them to be at least around 80 lbs.


----------



## Bree_6293 (Aug 4, 2014)

Yep I couldn't do it myself. If my partner couldn't do it we would use our local processor. We normally aim for about 40-50kg minimum


----------

