The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: IretonsFarm on January 26, 2016, 10:31:55 am
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Does anybody do this semi-commercially?
We have been approached by one of our customers (a local butcher) and asked if we could/would consider producing goat meat so basically just trying to find out what is involved to see if it is commercially viable?
Breed wise whats best for carcass weight & taste?
Are they easy to breed, what sort of numbers do you get? I'm assuming they will be akin to sheep?
What sort of age do you have to go to for meat?
Any idea what feed requirements would be from weaning to slaughter?
I hear they are escape artists so is standard stock net with two strands of barb at the top sufficient to keep them in?
Stocking densities?
Any other considerations? Vaccinations/ ticks etc??
All help and advice greatly appreciated
Dave
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Hi, check out the Boer Goat information on line. They are specifically bred for meat, people tend not to disbud ( remove horns) , as they live outside with shelter, goats hate rain and are not waterproof as only have hair. Injections ,usually 6 monthly lambivac, they don't need all the cover given in something like heptovac P, I think that johnes disease is the biggest no no but I don't know how prevalent it is in Boers. They're not cheap to buy but you should get a good carcase off them. If you Google them you will see they are short very stocky goats, should be ready to market in the same time as lambs, minus the fat. Good Luck, goats are great, friendly if handled well , and just wonderful creatures :wave: :excited:
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Please don't use barbed wire on your fences. Stock fencing plus either plain wire or electrified wire for a top strand keeps all of my goats in.
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we slaughter our billy kids for meat, sold to hotels. The herd is dairy (Saanen/GG etc) crossed with Boer. We had 8 kids this year (7 female/1Male) so it looks like a few of those females will have to go for meat this year.
We use stock fencing with electric top wires but I have one that could easy enter the Grand National ::)
They are more hands on than sheep, need shelter, feed, worming etc and easy to breed it just depends on how much time/effort you can put in to make it worth your while
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Feisty if you want to build the flock and not slaughter your girls you could get a shot of Andy the Randy one.
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Your initial setup costs will be high but we sell our meat for twice the price than we sell our hebridean hogget so long term very profitable.
Goat meat is Britain's fastest growing meat market and not just the ethnic trade.
Breeding has to be either pure boer or bore x any of the dairy breeds although sandals do have a tendency to have multiple kidds.
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don't tempt me verdifish ;D
sitting at 19 goats at the mo so building the herd even more would also involve building yet another shed and acquiring more grazing which isn't going to happen anytime soon :( I would keep them all if it was practical but need some return
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Your initial setup costs will be high but we sell our meat for twice the price than we sell our hebridean hogget so long term very profitable.
Goat meat is Britain's fastest growing meat market and not just the ethnic trade.
Breeding has to be either pure boer or bore x any of the dairy breeds although sandals do have a tendency to have multiple kidds.
Sandals? ???
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Your initial setup costs will be high but we sell our meat for twice the price than we sell our hebridean hogget so long term very profitable.
Goat meat is Britain's fastest growing meat market and not just the ethnic trade.
Breeding has to be either pure boer or bore x any of the dairy breeds although sandals do have a tendency to have multiple kidds.
Sandals? ???
Ah er Um maybe I meant saanens. my phone has turretes.
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Good you have a butcher and customers but research your area is there a slaughterhouse near that will take goats or do you have to travel 100 miles to one, also what are their charges -adds to cost.
Boer is the meat breed and dairy x boer preferred dam but also some people rear dairy or dairy x boer male kids for meat from dairy herds from a week or so old but obviously not such a good carcass as pure boer but lower cost than setting up breeding herd from scratch. That could be an option to start with milk replacer creep, hay browsing, grazing, to try it out before committing to breeding herd.
As others have said goats need access to shed all year round and hay /straw as if raining not eating. Higher vaccination / wormer costs as have different dosages to sheep often double dose for some. Electric fencing is a must. Most goats usually have twins quite common to have have triplets / quads -especially AN. They will de bark trees!
I read an article -boer goat breeder selling carcass straight from slaughterhouse for £6 per kg. (south England) I know a breeder who markets meat direct to public averages £10 per kilo.
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Good you have a butcher and customers but research your area is there a slaughterhouse near that will take goats or do you have to travel 100 miles to one, also what are their charges -adds to cost.
Boer is the meat breed and dairy x boer preferred dam but also some people rear dairy or dairy x boer male kids for meat from dairy herds from a week or so old but obviously not such a good carcass as pure boer but lower cost than setting up breeding herd from scratch. That could be an option to start with milk replacer creep, hay browsing, grazing, to try it out before committing to breeding herd.
As others have said goats need access to shed all year round and hay /straw as if raining not eating. Higher vaccination / wormer costs as have different dosages to sheep often double dose for some. Electric fencing is a must. Most goats usually have twins quite common to have have triplets / quads -especially AN. They will de bark trees!
I read an article -boer goat breeder selling carcass straight from slaughterhouse for £6 per kg. (south England) I know a breeder who markets meat direct to public averages £10 per kilo.
And there was me thinking ???? males for meat were worthless???
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I read an article -boer goat breeder selling carcass straight from slaughterhouse for £6 per kg. (south England) I know a breeder who markets meat direct to public averages £10 per kilo.
Sounds like a good price but what sort of dead weight do you get out of a Boer goat?
What is the issue with barb are they likely to try and jump it or is it personal preference as obviously electric is an added expense / maintenance.
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It's worth noting often dairy males are culled at birth. Price & costs will depend where u are what kind of stock you have and what your butcher is willing to pay. The potential for those prices quoted are there but not available to everyone. Boer goat society has lot's info.
Goats are capable of jumping and as goats like standing on fences with front feet the barb could damage them, with a normal stock fence electric wire across should stop any problems and reduce tag loss.
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ID Birth Weight Live Weight Prior to slaughter Dead Weight Kill Out Ratio Age (weeks) Weekly Weight Gain (kg) DLWG (kg)
1 3.45 47.73 25.6 0.54 38 1.165 0.166
2 3.44 43.18 22 0.51 35 1.135 0.149
The above is 2 goats we reared last year - kill out ratio was 54% and 51%. We aim for at least 40kg carcass. They are 100% uncastrated Boers. Working this year on improving the birth weights as were low last year and not sure why.
PM me if you want more information
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Cuckoo, that looks a good weight. Our 100% castrated Boers were on average 26kg at 9 months. We will not castrate this year to improve carcass weight. Our birth weights varied for singles between 8 and 12 lbs.
Wrt to jumping fences ours have not. We have a plain wire at 3" at the base then standard stock fencing then 2 strands of plain wire. The top wire at approx 5 feet. We also have put an electric fence wire above than but not ever needed to switch it on. One problem with sheep stock fencing is that horned kids will get their heads stuck.
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It's worth noting often dairy males are culled at birth.
Is it possible to take in these male dairy goats and rear on to fatten them for meat? It would be a pain to bottle feed them I know...
Also - with Boer goats do they have a problem with their feet? I've had pygmies and angoras, both had terrible problems with scald - the angoras especially.
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There are a few goatkeepers (including me ) that rear their (castrated) dairy males for meat - if you have the milk spare (or in my case no time to make cheese in the spring/summer) then these are reared together with the females, all are bottle fed. It is however not a commercial solution, as a) goat kids won't reach slaughter weight on grass and milk alone (unlike sheep) and will need a good concentrate ration and b) dairy male carcasses have more bone (same as dairy cattle vs beef cattle). So most of us do it for ethical reasons as well as being a fantastic meat that I couldn't buy locally. No idea what it costs though, and all of ours is for private consumption only.
I would have though you would struggle to do it as a business, unless you had a guaranteed outlet. One hears of a few people trying it and losing out by either buyers dropping out or worse - not paying...
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Cuckoo, that looks a good weight. Our 100% castrated Boers were on average 26kg at 9 months. We will not castrate this year to improve carcass weight. Our birth weights varied for singles between 8 and 12 lbs.
Wrt to jumping fences ours have not. We have a plain wire at 3" at the base then standard stock fencing then 2 strands of plain wire. The top wire at approx 5 feet. We also have put an electric fence wire above than but not ever needed to switch it on. One problem with sheep stock fencing is that horned kids will get their heads stuck.
I would recommend keeping intact - they convert feed to weight better.
Your birth weights are better than ours.
Look at your breeding stock - there are plenty of 100% boer goats out there but that doesn't make them a good meat goat. There are also plenty of graded / % goats out there which are a lot better. Invest in a good male - he will be worth it.
We feed ad lib creep from 3 weeks old. GLW goat grower and finisher. Once they reached a good size and weight the creep was stopped and were trough fed once a day (cant remember the amounts)
We also have a strict plan for cocci / worming / vaccinations / vit B12 injections / treatments
We rotate grazing
Ours don't tend to jump fences - we find a normal stock fence with a strand of electric on top and another half way up attached with long isolators is sufficient to keep them in and to stocp them putting their forelgs on the fence. I was paid £2.50 per kg lifeweight for the two males above - they went to the winter fair at Stafford and I was very pleased with that amount. That is what a commercial person supplying to the south east will pay so I think £2.50 live weight is fair. I did pay for killing of that though as had already paid for them to be entered into the competition
We feed
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It's worth noting often dairy males are culled at birth.
Is it possible to take in these male dairy goats and rear on to fatten them for meat? It would be a pain to bottle feed them I know...
Also - with Boer goats do they have a problem with their feet? I've had pygmies and angoras, both had terrible problems with scald - the angoras especially.
Yes you can take in male dairy goats for meat. However, I have heard of them being anything from £15 to £25 at a few hours to a week old. That with a sack of milk powder £30 doesn't make for much margin when you add other costs on to it. However, if getting a guaranteed price then you can cost it out.
Re feet - we have boers and have had angoras. Never had a massive issue with either breeds feet. Perhaps the issue is more to do with where the animal has been ie has it been infected by previous contact with infected sheep?
Old Shep - I note you are in North Yorks - We are near Goole - if you are ever passing feel free to pm me to come and visit - there will be 15 - 20 kids running around at the beginning of april
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Thanks cuckoo
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This is something I'm researching at the moment with a few to doing it on a larger scale..
what milk powder are they fed on? Only ever seem lamb, calf or the expensive multimilk?
are there actually goat weaning/finishing rations available? Would you finish them on adlib corn as well as grass/hay or even silage/haylage?
How do you go about getting regular buyers for the meat? We are not massively far from Birmingham , I wonder if I rang round a few butchers there I could get some interest... :thinking:
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Not an easy business to get into, as most meat buyers are after a bargain or two.... so unless you have a regular buyer who pays promptly, quite risky. Careful planning needed IMO.
Most people do it using lamlac for a few weeks, but making it up thinner for goats than for sheep and I wouldn't wean them quite as early as lambs. Then feeding on cattle rations - look into feeding guidelines for Boer goats, should get some info on there... goat kids mainly kept inside - so problems are cocci and other "indoor" issues.
We rear out boys for our own consumption only, as I would not be able to make money on them, but the meat is out of this world.
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They would be housed over winter and have access to a field in the summer. Wormed and cocci' as needed.
Thinking about butchers, restaurants and meat boxes.....still all in the early stages at the moment, loads of research to do.
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There are no licensed wormers for goats that actually work, therefore no proper withdrawal times for meat consumption available. Not sure if this is a problem if you want to sell the meat at some point. Same for flukicides...
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Milk fed goat in the supermarket at 72€. Sorry but I did not check out their weight. But the label said milk fed kid.
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There are no licensed wormers for goats that actually work, therefore no proper withdrawal times for meat consumption available. Not sure if this is a problem if you want to sell the meat at some point. Same for flukicides...
Hence the reason for plenty of research!
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Where no withdrawal is listed for a species, standard withdrawal is 28 days . If the meat withdrawal for the listed species on the bottle or datasheet is longr, common sense would suggest using that. No reason you shouldn't be able to put the meat into the food chain if taking precautions to ensure sufficient time passes to allow residues to leave the body.
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This is something I'm researching at the moment with a few to doing it on a larger scale..
what milk powder are they fed on? Only ever seem lamb, calf or the expensive multimilk?
Lamlac is fine - fed as per goat instructions or some people use calf with good results or so I understand.
are there actually goat weaning/finishing rations available?
Yes - for example GLW and BATA do goat grower / finisher - pellets as opposed to nuts so can be fed from start to finish. Others use forfarmers cattle grower I think and also I understand mole valley do a goat grower ration too
Would you finish them on adlib corn as well as grass/hay or even silage/haylage?
I would feed creep ad lib from a few weeks old til finishing. If grazing still offer hay adlib, I wouldn't used haylage or silage due to problems of listeria
How do you go about getting regular buyers for the meat? We are not massively far from Birmingham , I wonder if I rang round a few butchers there I could get some interest... :thinking:
Probably - if have 100% or very high grade boer goats I can put you in touch with someone who can sell them
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Thanks for that Cuckoo :)
I'm trying to arrange a visit to a local boer meat farm :fc:
I imagine it's an expensive venture to setup breeding boers from scratch which was why I was thinking dairy boys, as they are a bi-product like dairy bull calves. Will look into both set ups thoroughly :thinking:
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We rear out boys for our own consumption only, as I would not be able to make money on them, but the meat is out of this world.
Gave my OH braised chops for dinner yesterday. He said, "That was wonderful. Where did you get those lovely chops?"
"Out of the goat yard. They used to be Cassi."
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Cuckoo im in Owston ferry not too far from you.
I have a couple of golden Guernsey goats and am thinking about boers. Would it be possible for me to come over in April please? I would pm you first. Thanks in advance
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We rear out boys for our own consumption only, as I would not be able to make money on them, but the meat is out of this world.
Gave my OH braised chops for dinner yesterday. He said, "That was wonderful. Where did you get those lovely chops?"
"Out of the goat yard. They used to be Cassi."
Roasted leg of goat for Easter dinner tonight here...
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http://cotswoldkidmeat.com/ (http://cotswoldkidmeat.com/)
Heres a true life website of people actually raising dairy kids for meat - I would say that any enterprise needs a lot of skill marketing and building a customer base. We went to the smallholder show at Thainstone and listened to a couple in Aberdeenshire who raised goats for meat (amongst other things ie nothing was wasted)
Im not sure if they contribute on here but you can find them on fb - Elchies farm. They were very inspiring and were excellent business people.
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Cuckoo im in Owston ferry not too far from you.
I have a couple of golden Guernsey goats and am thinking about boers. Would it be possible for me to come over in April please? I would pm you first. Thanks in advance
I have pm'd my phone no - visits welcome - no obligations - happy to talk goat all day