# putting an older goat into the freezer



## shdybrady (Aug 26, 2011)

We have a billy goat that sure has become a trouble maker. He has always been a difficult one. He doesnt do well with medicine, he doesnt like to be corraled u. Oh and god forbid i seperate hime from the his does because he will scale every one of our fences. Well that straw has been stacked and now he jumps over the fence to get to the "greenier grass on the other side". I am going to try to trade him but really him being such a pain I dont want to pawn him on someone else. 

So a well placed bullet might be in order. Even though he is a named goat and his intention was to be a pet, I think i can get over that and make room in my ice chest. But he is a fully matured goat and was never neutered. I would estimate he is around 4. I know with mature deer bucks there is way to take the gamey-ness out of the meat. By letting it bleed out for a few days, or before preparing the milk you soak it in mustard or butter milk. Would I be wrong by assuming the same thing would apply here?


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I would assume at that age & an intact male the meat is not going to be the same as a younger goat. When you butcher him if you get the male parts off right away & wash him out good I've heard that helps with the taste of the bucky meat.
You could also castrate him & wait a couple weeks, he may calm down but if not the meat has got to taste better.
I still would probably just use it for ground meat at that age.

I'm the kind of person that doesn't like to sell someone else my problem so but if he's a nice buck he may do well at another farm with a different fencing & different set up, I'm just not sure.


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## shdybrady (Aug 26, 2011)

and he very well might. I have a two acre pasture that him and some of the other goats are in. If someone else had a nice 10 acre pasture he might not ever jump out. My only worry is that our pasture extends towards the road and the end of the pasture is about 75 feet from the road. If he gets hit and I get sued. I could swallow him alot easier then a lawsuit lol


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

I'd just grind him up. He'll be tasty, I'm sure.


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

Yeah I'd castrate him and wait a while before butchering. We process young bulls sometimes and you wouldn't know they were intact but they aren't nasty like bucks. 

You could do ground meat and/or jerky. Goat jerky is good.

Unfortunately a goat that knows how to go over fences will more than likely be a problem wherever he is.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Cliff, you know that NOT ALL bucks are "nasty" - and some smell no worse than the average doe. For instance, Mac is quite pleasant to be around... but he's not in rut.

ANYhow, I don't know that I'd necessarily choose to put a meat animal under the stress of castration a couple of weeks before I killed him. Unless the boy is in the full stinkiness of full blown rut, I really don't think the meat will be adversely affected - and he'll go to freezer camp a calm animal.


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

We put an almost 2yr old buck in rut in the freezer. Testicles were removed properly before skinning, the meat was delicious!
We had him ground in case it wasnt. 
I agree with Pony, why put him through the stress. 
To me it's a waste of perfectly good meat to have to bury. And if you dont care for the taste use him for dog food.


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## shdybrady (Aug 26, 2011)

Im going to try to trade him but I think honestly we will put him in the freezer. I have never had the chance to eat goat. But honestly I hunt deer and have had meat from many of deer that were shot in rut. I cant see the goat meat being worst then that. I figured if you let it bleed out for a day or two in cold water and prepare it properly before eating it, you wont have much of a buck taste to it


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## CaliannG (Apr 29, 2005)

You prepare buck goat the same way you prepare buck deer. It works just as well. 

I wouldn't wether him if you are just going to eat him. And actually, at his age, I wouldn't wether him at all. Full grown bucks tend to not forget that they were once bucks even when their testicles are gone, and tend to continue to act like bucks. I've had some REALLY stinky, bucky wethers that were castrated late.


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## punchiepal (Oct 11, 2008)

Please reconsider and put him in the freezer. I have been on the receiving end of someone getting rid of a fence jumper that wasn't disclosed prior to sale. 

Ours, thankfully, has been retrained b/c we have taller cattle panel fences verses his prior barbed wire and low field fencing/crop fencing. If he didn't respect cattle panels, he would be in the freezer first thing. Not safe for him, my does, or my insurance.


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

Pony said:


> Cliff, you know that NOT ALL bucks are "nasty" - and some smell no worse than the average doe. For instance, Mac is quite pleasant to be around... but he's not in rut.
> 
> ANYhow, I don't know that I'd necessarily choose to put a meat animal under the stress of castration a couple of weeks before I killed him. Unless the boy is in the full stinkiness of full blown rut, I really don't think the meat will be adversely affected - and he'll go to freezer camp a calm animal.


Yeah I know. I just hate that bucky thing. Hate it when deer meat gets even one musky hair on it lol. It's my super duper crazy sense of smell and taste. I wasn't the one that said wait a couple weeks before butchering though, I said I'd do it and wait a while.


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## FrogTacos (Oct 25, 2011)

While I haven't done a goat - I have processed all of our deer for a few years - and do each and every one the same. It gets shot in the morning, its only hung long enough to gut and skin. Buck, doe, it don't matter - never had one taste 'bad' nor gamey. If it gets shot in the evening, it hangs until sunup. Never hung one longer than over night.


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## chewie (Jun 9, 2008)

if you can, have a locker make summer sausage of him. the spices will help mask flavors you dont' like, and you'll have a really wonderful product. good for you to not pawn him on anyone else, and still considering his wellbeing, (not getting hit on the road).


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## TroutRiver (Nov 26, 2010)

I agree I would not castrate him at this age. 

I butchered my buck a few weeks ago, and I was VERY skeptical about the taste of the meat. Despite my best effort to keep everything as clean as possible, a few hairs got on the meat, and I could still smell "buck" after the hide was off (although I might have just been smelling my shirt after moving and skinning him). Actually, I was so skeptical, that I cut off a little bite-sized piece of leg, and went to the kitchen and fried it up with some salt and pepper (I wasn't about to break down the carcass into cuts and bag them if the meat wasn't even edible). It was delicious! That answered that, and I proceeded  

Tricks I have learned about butchering bucks: DO NOT butcher them in rut, EVER. Remove testicals immediately and be VERY careful while skinning to keep the hair off of the meat. Rinse the meat after gutting and skinning. Make sure they are not stressed when they are killed, if their adrenaline is pumping the meat will taste like buck.


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

Hot Italian sausage! Brats!! We had one guy half brats & half sausage. Found out later the processer had about 10 different brat recipes.


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