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Kinder Goats for Meat
Selling, Butchering and Processing Your Goats
By Jean Jajan
With winter coming on, many goat breeders thoughts turn to what to do with those excess young males or cull kids. We don’t want the expense of wintering too many non productive animals. There are many options open for the breeder.
The first and most common is to advertise that you have goats for sale. This can be done in the paper, through a sign on the bulletin board at the feed store or an ad on Craig’s list. Also depending on the area you live in you might try to post a sign in the ethnic grocery stores. This way you can target the Hispanic population or the middle eastern population depending on your area. One thing to remember though is that usually the middle eastern population wants a completely intact male only. This would mean only buck kids that have not been castrated or disbudded. They do not take females. There is a member on the Oregon coast who sells her wethers to the Hispanic population for $100 a piece for the weaned kids and they go like hot cakes.
When I sell an animal for slaughter I do not allow it to be dispatched on my place and I know many other sellers that don’t either. This is a personal choice as I don’t know what technique they use and would rather not be present. While I hope all the animals I sell for meat are dispatched with a properly executed gunshot, I know that many have their throat slit and are bled out.
The second way to sell off those meat kids is to take them to a sales barn. Many rural areas have a livestock sales barn and you can consign them there. When I did this I dropped them off and preferred not to remain. They tend not to handle the animals the way we do and I prefer not to see it.
The third option is becoming a member of a meat goat association. These associations help members market their goats. The association I was a member of had a livestock buyer come to a central point and weigh and buy the goats. There was a pool coordinator whom the member would call and commit their kids to the pool. When there were enough committed to fill a truck the sellers met at a location with a scale and the buyer weighed and paid for the kids then and loaded them up and took them to the slaughter house.
There are also livestock buyers that have a schedule of coming every few weeks to a public livestock scale and buying livestock. Check with the local feed stores as they might know of one that does this. I take a lot of my kids there as I know I only have to wait a few weeks and I call him to find out what he is paying.
My favorite way of getting rid of my excess kids though is to put them in my freezer. Why not put your great hormone free, antibiotic free, low fat, low cholesterol meat on your own table. If you are a hunter you might want to dispatch the goat yourself and dress it out like you would a deer. The preferred way to dispatch a goat is to use a gun with a 22 long rifle hollow point bullet. The proper way is to place the barrel of the gun right behind the poll or horn area and angle it toward the front of the lower jaw. This will instantly kill the animal. A goat should not be shot through the front of the head as the skull is very hard and dense in that area.
There are several web sites that show how to butcher an animal. One that I find informative is http://www.ozarkjewels.net/homebutchering.htm.
For those of you who, like me, do not hunt or feel that they can’t dispatch one of their own goats here are a few good options. One is a full service butcher who runs a slaughter and will do the kill and cut, wrap, and freeze. All you have to do is drop the goat off the night before or early morning of the butchering and pick up a nice box of frozen goat meat ready to drop in your freezer a few days later. Check with feed stores and custom butchers. In our area it runs about $120 per goat.
The second is to contact a mobile farm butcher. Ours has his ad in the paper several times a week and is booked weeks in advance. A mobile butcher will come to your farm and slaughter the animal there. He will skin and dress the animal and take it to his butchering facility or possibly one you choose in his refrigerated truck. He cleans up and hoses the area down afterwards and leaves almost no trace. My farm kill truck charges $60 per goat for the kill and takes it to any of the several custom butcher shops in the area. The cut and wrap costs about another $60.
How you have your goat cut up is all a matter of preference. I like meat in something, so I generally do not have chops or steaks cut. They tend to be rather small and a bit dry. I will have one or both hind legs done in a boneless rolled roast. I have the loins and tenderloins taken out from the spine and packaged. The ribs I have cut from the spine and packaged. The rest of the meat I have half of it ground and half of it cubed. I have the butcher crack the neck bones and shanks and package them for soup stock.
If I have an older buck slaughtered I have him packaged separately and the packages marked. Some tend to be a bit tougher and a little gamey so I want to know which is which as I use a more tenderizing method of cooking and more seasoning.
As for how to prepare goat, I don’t feel there are any specific goat recipes. I use my favorite recipes for stews and casseroles. I use the loin meat for fajitas or something that I need the most tender cuts for. Braising with its lower temperature, moisture and covering during cooking is the secret to cooking with goat.
Preparing Your Does For Breeding
For many goat owners, fall is breeding season – a busy and exciting time around the farm!
If you are planning on breeding your does any time soon, they should be in top form. This means making sure they are in good weight (see previous article on body scoring your goats), free of heavy parasite loads and ready to start making strong, healthy babies. Below are some other things that should be considered before breeding…
Healthy goats start with healthy feet. Your goats should be on a regular trimming schedule, and making sure feet are regularly trimmed during pregnancy is more important than at any other time. Because Kinders often have multiple kids, they carry a large amount of weight throughout pregnancy. Leaving hooves untrimmed during this time can cause irreversible problems. Hooves often grow faster during pregnancy, so closely inspect your goats’ feet every week.
Goats should always have access to free choice minerals, but some areas are so deficient in certain minerals that they can not be completely replaced by free choice minerals. In those areas, extra supplements need to be given during pregnancy to avoid health problems with does and newborn kids. If you are not sure whether or not your area is deficient in anything, ask your local veterinarian.
Finally, stand back and look at your goats. Consider how they look and act – do you have nagging concerns about any of them? Does something seem a little bit off in a certain doe? Now is the time to treat any issues you think might be present, rather than risking the possibility that they worsen or become untreatable while your doe is pregnant. Cutting corners on herd health can cause major problems with your does, their births and their kids.
Preparing your goats for breeding season is easy, and the benefits are huge. By covering these few basic items, you will ensure a happier, healthier breeding season for your entire herd, and more time to enjoy those sweet little kids when they finally show up!
Would You Like to Sell Kinder® Products?
Do you have a great product idea that will highlight your Kinders? We love to spread the word about Kinder goats, and hope you will, too! Products with our sweet goats and the Kinder name on them promote our breed while making you money. They are conversation starters, too!
The name Kinder is a registered trademark. Because of this, there are certain rules and regulations that the association and anyone using the name in commerce must follow. If you are considering selling products with the Kinder name on them, here is what you need to know:
If you are interested in using the name on goods and products, you must first obtain a license from the KGBA. In the license grant procedure, you must complete a form with your contact details, and a description of the intended use of the Kinder trademark. All items bearing the Kinder name must also bear the trademark (circle r) symbol.
The fee for applying for a license is $25, and covers a portion of the cost incurred in processing the application. It may take a month or more for your application to be evaluated, and applications may be rejected for any reason (you may, however, reapply as often as you like). If your application is accepted, you will be granted a license to sell your product, with the provision that you agree to pay the KGBA a 5% royalty on the product you are selling. Applications for licenses can be found in the “forms” section of our website.
By imposing these simple rules, we aim to protect the Kinder name from misuse, and create a level playing field for everyone interested in using it in the marketplace.
Kinder Goat as a Meat Goat
There has been much more written regarding the milking ability of the Kinder goat than that of its ability to produce a good meat carcass. The Kinder goat is a very good meat animal as well as a milking animal. This makes it a dual purpose goat just as it is advertised to be.
Kinder goats will breed every month of the year sometimes being referred to as, “aseasonal breeders”. The Kinder is also known for their multiple births so these two factors can provide lots of meat for the freezer or added income from the sale of the animals to the meat markets or both. Always remember that those Kinder does will at the same time be providing milk and milk products for the table.
Unfortunately there have been no official studies done on Kinder goats as a meat animal. There are only the statements of breeders as to quantity and quality of the Kinder meat carcass. Breeders report that on average a Kinder kid will weigh between four to five pounds in a triplet or greater birth. It is reported that their average weight of gain each month is from seven to nine pounds in the first eight months of life. This of course depends greatly on the type of care received.
A few years ago at Lincoln University’s, Carver Farm, in Jefferson City, MO at a Goat Day put on by the Missouri Goat Producers there was an evaluation and judging of different breed carcass and the Kinder goat was part of this program. The two Kinder goat carcasses pictured are the first place winners. These carcasses are from a triplet birth. The animals were five months old; one weighed 16 pounds and the other 18 pounds dressed out as shown. The other picture is the other goat of the triplet set shown on foot at five months of age.
Those older does and bucks can also be utilized for their meat. Below are the figures that this writer has recorded of the meat production of some older does and one wether. These were does that could not be kept for one reason or another for breeding. These are the on foot weights, hanging weights and then the pounds of burger from each. 120# live weight; 59# hanging weight; 33# burger 140# live weight; 71# hanging weight; 41# burger 134# live weight; 62# hanging weight this was an old doe. 61 ½# live weight; 30# hanging weight this was a wether. There was over 50# of burger from these two animals.
As you can see the Kinder goat is truly a meat animal as well as a dairy animal. Best of both worlds!
Dehorning
Hoof Trimming
Disclaimer: The opinions, views, and thoughts expressed by newsletter and blog contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the Kinder® Goat Breeders Association. Goat husbandry advice found in the newsletter and blog is not meant to substitute a valid veterinary relationship. Please request permission to share or reprint newsletter and blog posts.