Meat Goats

[gerr]

Is there any money in meat goats as I heard they are on the up but I haven't seen any figures to prove this. I wonder what a 35-40 kg kid is worth?

I know the billys smell a bit in the hot weather but so does my old man and I've got used to that. He doesn't pee on his beard, to be fair, but there's plenty dried down his trousers!

Go easy on the mickey taking and kidding about as he is quite sensitive!!

 

[spin cycle]

don't want to be a 'boer' but just buy some wilts...sorry

 

[JD-Kid]

i look at it this way sheep for wool and meat and if yer don't like wool run meat goats
returns higher than sheep meat not so much of a weight thing as lambs huge market healthy meat lean etc

can be softer than cheep in cold weather so like shelters need good eletrice fenceing to keep them in

breeding stock maybe high priced tho and i would not run them on areas with poor sheep health they would suit @exmoor dave down to the ground on that gorsey ground steep hills

they eat most things so watch posionus plants that other stock will leave alone

 

[Goatherderess]

I'm doing ok, organic kid goat meat sold direct. Bigger return but also they need more looking after: shelter available always as they aren't waterproof (I house mine Dec-April), understanding of their escaping abilities and how to keep them in a field (!), timewasting hours spent with rather cute kids at kidding...
I started with 3 in 2010 and now have 50 breeding does which are cashmere x Boer. The pure boers can be 100-300 to buy in depending if registered or not. There is a big breeding/genetics push on, have a look at the BBGS website/FB page http://britishboergoatsociety.co.uk.

 

[Nearly]

We finished up with 100 dairy and 1/2 Boer females selling store / fat kids to farm shop. A great way to meet the neighbours!
Then the farm shop sold their milk cows so we relieved them of a cheque........

Getting the stock and selling the meat are the difficult bits, watching the kids is the best bit!

 

[exmoor dave]

i look at it this way sheep for wool and meat and if yer don't like wool run meat goats
returns higher than sheep meat not so much of a weight thing as lambs huge market healthy meat lean etc

can be softer than cheep in cold weather so like shelters need good eletrice fenceing to keep them in

breeding stock maybe high priced tho and i would not run them on areas with poor sheep health they would suit @exmoor dave down to the ground on that gorsey ground steep hills

they eat most things so watch posionus plants that other stock will leave alone

Don't think I could handle the stink of the billies!

 

[JD-Kid]

Don't think I could handle the stink of the billies!

the smell of money over powers that
we had wild goats here 6-700 odd can't say they realy stunk that much but they wrecked some things and to breed up meat goats would be a 2 year job culling out any wild bucks

 

[Nithsdale]

Saw a few weeks ago (Countryfile??) some are pushing goats, the thinking is they can take a substantial slice of the sheep/lamb meat market in UK.

Thats all we bloody need...

 

[Goatherderess]

I don't believe we will take the lamb market, different buyers: the foodies and the middle eastern/Asian communities.

Billy eau-de-vie - the most godawful stink from Sept-Dec!

 

[exmoor dave]

Down the coast from me is the "valley of the rocks" , full of wild goats....... with EID tags
Drive through and you don't see the goats but you smell alright!

 

[JD-Kid]

Saw a few weeks ago (Countryfile??) some are pushing goats, the thinking is they can take a substantial slice of the sheep/lamb meat market in UK.

Thats all we bloody need...

there was a thing here a few years ago on goat meat if set up right would be quite a earner exporting in to some markets it would impact on lamb sales but due to higher returns there would be farmers changeing to goats dropping total lamb numbers

http://kikonui.com/caprinex/assets/pdf/secrets.pdf

http://www.taylorpreston.co.nz/schedules/
looking at that lamb and beef paying better than goat at the mo alot of the goats killed will be wild types farmed on a simple system of round up once a year and draft off 2 tooth weathers and cull does ..the ockers doing much the same thing round up cut all the bucks they get in take off last seasons weathers and maybe a % of does then let them mob go again just run in the scrub lands

 

[Nithsdale]

I don't believe we will take the lamb market, different buyers: the foodies and the middle eastern/Asian communities.

Billy eau-de-vie - the most godawful stink from Sept-Dec!

Iv remembered more about what it was they were on about:

It was the mutton market they are looking at... to put a value onto the milking goats at the end of their production life.

 

[Goatherderess]

It was the billy kid market. Quite a few buying up unwanted dairy male kids and rearing on. http://www.cabritogoatmeat.co.uk/ is the chap doing lots of promotion and very good at it! Different carcass type, leaner. Boer goats have been bred to give a carcass much like a good lamb.

 

[landslave the 2nd]

Cull boer X nanny's in Derby mkt at £90/hd last week

 

[kps]

Cull boer X nanny's in Derby mkt at £90/hd last week

We're some in kid? I saw them and wondered and another old boy was asking. I thought they might have been worth a punt but not at 90 quid!

 

[Nearly]

We're some in kid? I saw them and wondered and another old boy was asking. I thought they might have been worth a punt but not at 90 quid!

Can be lots of phantom pregnancies in goats, especially the dairy ones with artificial lighting.

 

[Big Al]

Down the coast from me is the "valley of the rocks" , full of wild goats....... with EID tags
Drive through and you don't see the goats but you smell alright!

I remember on countryfile a few years ago there was a piece on some wild goats, they gathered them all up to give them all a jab of antibiotic despite there being nothing wrong with them.
Is the smell worse than cade lambs inside on AdLib creep?

 

[Nearly]

Is the smell worse than cade lambs inside on AdLib creep?

Once smelt never forgotten. And once smelt never eat goat cheese again!

 

[verdifish]

Boer billies don't smell half as bad as dairy billies ,
We run over 240 nannies all dairy out to Boer billies ,mostly sannans. Average twins =over 500 kids let year .slaughtered between 4-8 months average dead weight 22kgs at £15-18 per kg on the bone ,all farm to fork ,local delis ,restaurants,farmers markets ,we stock at the same density as our hebrideans .so yes it works !!!

 

[Beef farmer]

Boer billies don't smell half as bad as dairy billies ,
We run over 240 nannies all dairy out to Boer billies ,mostly sannans. Average twins =over 500 kids let year .slaughtered between 4-8 months average dead weight 22kgs at £15-18 per kg on the bone ,all farm to fork ,local delis ,restaurants,farmers markets ,we stock at the same density as our hebrideans .so yes it works !!!

Was starting to lose interest in this thread, until you posted.