how to finish a meat goat

1146 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by GTAllen, Dec 19, 2013

mlktrkdrvr

Discussion Starter · Dec 18, 2013

Hubby came home and said he wanted to get a few meat goats this spring (we have 7 Nubian does (3 milking now, 4 dry) and 4 buck kids right now). More goats??! :hi5: OK!! But I have no idea how to get them to gain. My milking does get a good quantity of their grain ration while they are lactating. My buck kids and 4 dry does get to share 2 gallons of feed once a day. I lost one of my first kids to over eating and don't ever want to do that again.

So could someone give me a crash course on feeding meat goats? They will be on browse, grass hay and also a concentrate yet to be determined... thanks

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Wild Hearts Ranch

· #2 · Dec 18, 2013

I prefer a straight grass finish. The one I just butchered was on nothing but browse all summer and grass hay after that died back, and I got a decent amount of meat off of him (I didn't weigh him though.) If I wanted more weight I would give alfalfa but not grain to keep the meat lean and flavorful. That's me though

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Tenacross

· #3 · Dec 19, 2013

In cattle "finish" is when the steer or heifer is mostly done growing frame wise and then puts marbling (fat) into the meat. I think. Does that sound right? Anyway, Goats don't do that. Goat is a lean meat. The highest prices per pound paid for goats at the big markets is for kids that weigh 40-70 pounds. I would say that means some people think that size of kid is the best eating. I'd probably wait until they were 100 lbs myself, but the point is goats are different.

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GTAllen

· #4 · Dec 19, 2013

Browse, good hay, and minerals is all you need. I have ate goats from suckling kid size all the way up to a 180lb buck. It's all good.

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