# Buck meat



## cjean (May 1, 2007)

How would the meat from a three-year old boer buck taste? Like he smells?


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

Good question, hope you get it ansered as we have not done that age buck.


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## HollyBearFarm (May 25, 2008)

Our butcher says that you never, ever want to eat an unaltered male animal. All male animals that will be used for meat should be castrated. The meat from an intact male will taste game-y (and in the case of a goat) really bucky.

I don't know, however, if you could castrate him now and butcher him. The USDA book about goats says to castrate at 7-8 months (to maximize growth) and butcher at 9 months.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

We butcher our own goats, including bucks.

A lot depends on the breed because of rut.

A buck thats been out of rut for at least 30 days is fine. The longer since a rut period, the better.
Some of our bucks that were 3-4 years old were the same as a doe getting them in the middle of the low hormone season.

A buck in rut or close to it, before or after, is bucky, musky tasting, and smelly.
In fact, if the buck was in rut, the meats steam will burn your nose the musk can be so strong when its cooking. And it can take awhile for the smell to get out of your nose! Its nothing like the live animal odor. Its 100 times worse.

Young bucks that haven't gone into rut yet are fine too.

Its not the pee that causes bucky meat. Its the hormones in the animals enitre body. Cook buck meat from a buck that was if full rut and you will know some strong nasty meat.

Pygmies and other year round breeders are in rut almost all the time, so the adult bucks are always bucky to some degree, sometimes mild, sometimes strong. 

The strength of the buckyness in the meat varies by the goats particular hormone levels at the time of slaughter.

Here, if its to bucky, the dogs get it.

This is our experience with butchering many goats of several breeds and ages and both sexes.

Oh...when we have a buck to butcher, like one thats no longer going to be used for breeding, we isolate him from all other goats on the opposite side of our property. We isolate him when he goes out of rut. If he is near another goat theres is always the chance his hormones will still be too high for good tasting meat, even if he is with a wether. We found 30 days in a pen far enough away so he can not smell or see the other goats, leaves them tasting like a wether.

I know 30 days alone is lousy for the goat, but its better than wasting the meat.


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## cjean (May 1, 2007)

> Oh...when we have a buck to butcher, like one thats no longer going to be used for breeding, we isolate him from all other goats on the opposite side of our property. We isolate him when he goes out of rut. If he is near another goat theres is always the chance his hormones will still be too high for good tasting meat, even if he is with a wether. We found 30 days in a pen far enough away so he can not smell or see the other goats, leaves them tasting like a wether.


That sounds like sound advice, thanks RiverPines. I appreciate all the info. 



> Our butcher says that you never, ever want to eat an unaltered male animal. All male animals that will be used for meat should be castrated. The meat from an intact male will taste game-y (and in the case of a goat) really bucky.


This is not totally true in every case, though. We raise hair sheep, and never castrate the rams before butchering. The meat is awesome, and we have people knocking down the door for it. (But I still appreciate your response )


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

So you are saying that their musk they carry in rut is so potent that it permeates into the hide and then into the meat? I think not.

The quality of meat you get from any butchering relies on the quality of butcher you use and how clean he is. In 22 years of goats only 2 does have ever been buried, all old does and bucks are butchered...really old and they are sausage and 3 isn't old.

Seasonal breeders I would be butchering in the spring when they are out of rut. Vicki


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## HollyBearFarm (May 25, 2008)

This is great information! Like I said before, I am just repeating what our butcher has told us. We've never had goats before, but he does our hogs and last summer we had him butcher an intact llama. That was when he told us that an intact male animal would taste bad. And taste bad that llama did.

We gave him to the pigs this year. They didn't mind intact male llama so much.


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## Blue Oak Ranch (Aug 23, 2005)

I haven't had nearly as much butchering experience with goats, but I've found that giving them a bath before the big event is a huge help. I didn't want to be handling the hair and hide of a hugely stinky buck in rut and then touching the meat or my knives. Ick. Some of my bucklings I'll keep for only one breeding season, so as soon as the pregnancies are confirmed, off they go to freezer camp. 

I give 'em a bath on the stand in the early morning, scrubbing really with a good high fat/oil soap, towel them off, then let 'em dry while doing the rest of the chores and setting up the butchering area. If I halter or clip them to the fence with their heads up, they can't roll in the dust, and they have a much harder time peeing on themselves. I also make sure when handling him before killing and after that I don't touch the musk glands on his head. 

I've done bucks in rut, and out of rut - in rut with a bath was less stinky than unbathed out of rut! The last buck in rut I did was super mild in flavor. I can't eat storebought lamb because it's too gamy for me. I like my meat to not taste like the outside of the animal (grin). 

I've also found that you need to trim the fat carefully off the meat, too - seems to hold the bucky flavor when the meat is frozen. 

Cheers!

Katherine


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## lyceum (Oct 20, 2006)

All we eat are bucks. We haven't butchered anything over 2 years old though and never in full rut. They taste just fine to me. I have had someone say that the wethers don't have enough flavor, that they prefer bucks.

We never castrate our bull calves. We butcher bulls only and have for going on 9 years now and have never had a problem. The meat is fabulous. The only thing that I would castrate is pigs. Meat from boars tastes horrible and smells the same when it is being cooked. Our neighbor accidently had a boar with 1 testicle and the butcher sent home some meat for them to fry up before he finished cutting. Stunk the whole house up.

Carisa


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

My neighber butchered a 5 year old boer (don't know time of year) and gave me some of the posole she made with it. Ohmygosh it was delicious. NO bucky flavor whatsoever.


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

What is poshole??


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## hoofinitnorth (Oct 18, 2006)

We eat natural game that is not castrated all the time and as long as the meat is well-handled, it tastes fabulous. Wild dahl sheep, mountain goat, moose, elk, caribou, and deer included. Small game like birds & hares too. The most frequent issues come from poorly handled meat, freezerburn, or meat taken from animals in heavy rut (more rare that we have an issue with this, though, even with hunting season usually running through rut).

One thing we've learned is to not let the hide touch the meat. The hair can impart a nasty urine flavor to the meat if you do not keep it separate, especially in wild goat.


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## Goatsandsheep (Jun 7, 2006)

> What is poshole??


Posole is a traditional Mexican soup. Usually made with pork and hominy. I use corn because my family doesn't like hominy. G&S


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

Goat Servant said:


> What is poshole??


POSOLE is a Mexican hominy stew that is really good; my neighbor made it with chunks of goat meat and holy buckets it was great!


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

thanks! so would it be pronouced "poss-OH lee? 
Sounds fantastic!


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Po-SOH-lee


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