# Uncastrated bucks...meat good?



## littlemother (Dec 29, 2012)

We have a buck that needs to go. He is not nice and keeps knocking our children down. We were wondering if he would be good to eat still or will his meat taste like feta cheese like he smells?


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## Moboiku (Mar 7, 2014)

Ha - I have one that I threaten with the same fate everyday. My buck has never smelled bad to me, even in rut, so I'm not concerned about the meat flavor. However I've never butchered a mature buck so can't say for sure.

However I have butchered a mature ram and can say we couldn't tell the difference in flavor between him and younger wethers. In fact, for that reason we've stopped banding the ram lambs going to butcher. I figure why bother when we can't tell a difference in flavor anyway?

However I've seen several arguments on this and some will swear it tastes so bad they wouldn't even feed it to their dogs and others couldn't tell a difference in taste. I can't account the varying perspectives except to say that every individual is different. What they are fed and people's tastes will vary greatly.


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## punchiepal (Oct 11, 2008)

Much will depend on the care taken during the butcher process. We have Nigerians and have butchered a 4 yr old buck that had bred goats the month before. We made a couple of leg roasts and the rest was sausage or brats, I don't remember now. Yes the taste was stronger than yearlings but no different than a doe vs buck deer. BTW we home butcher and I remove as much fat as I can pre-freezing.


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## littlemother (Dec 29, 2012)

He won't be a year old until April. Well, I guess we'll just have to try and see. I don't think our dogs wouldn't eat him as they ate another, older buck that we had tethered and he got tangled up and fell over and bloated and died. We dragged him out into the backwoods and the dogs whittled away at him. 

Thanks for your thoughts! I can't wait to try a gyro out of him and know that my children won't be hurt by him.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Many people prefer the taste of an intact buck.
As long as it's not several years old you'll probably never notice any difference


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

If done properly intact buck is out of this world! Remove scrotum as soon as he is hung. Do not use same knife for skinning or cutting.
Rocky Mt oysters were quite tastless.
We had a two yr old in rut done & all ground, some Italian sausage & brats as well as straight ground.
Meat was not as mild as a doe or younger animal but oh so delicious!


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

In some cultures intact goats are strongly preferred and Does/Wethers are avoided as much as possible. Also those market goats (bucks) are butchered as young as one year. I personally don't find difference in smell or taste, but texture. But cannot explain 

Sorry if it is disgusting, but it is also common to even eat testes along with all other internal organs. It doesn't smell bad. Tastes ok. Mostly fed to young kids because it is easy to eat it.

I think the rut/smell factor is more about mixing up the bucks hide/fur with meat.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

I tried an older buck once, not a yearling. I really didn't like it and it even stank while cooking. Then I tried making him into jerky and seasoned ground burger - still yuck. No setup for sausage, but I'm not sure there would be enough spice in the world to make it taste good to me. I don't think my father was as bothered by the taste as much.

Prior to butchering him, he was in a summer coat and had been clipped earlier in the year, so was slick. Wasn't in a strong rut. I had butchered many goats prior and considered my butchering process to be pretty darn sanitary IMO. We didn't even bother feeding it to our dogs as they don't eat raw and I didn't want to smell it cooking. :/ 

Intact males do put on more lean meat as a general rule. This can alter the flavor and texture of the meat significantly, as fat is where the flavor is. Managing young bucklings is generally a management nightmare, there'd have to be a pretty significant price increase for me to consider it for a specialty market. I'd happily sell intact at weaning if they wanted to raise it out to a year to butcher. Generally older intact males are a bit tougher in texture too. I won't butcher one to eat again, I'll castrate it first and wait it out if need be. More likely I'll send it to auction and not have to deal with it at all, as there are always wethers to eat.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

There are so many occasions when my wife would not eat goat and chicken because it smells yuck while rest of us ate fine.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

mygoat said:


> Managing young bucklings is generally a management nightmare, there'd have to be a pretty significant price increase for me to consider it for a specialty market. I'd happily sell intact at weaning if they wanted to raise it out to a year to butcher.


Exactly same here


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## GreenMomma (Jun 3, 2008)

We butchered a goat last week that would be a year in the spring as well. Delicious. The carcass was on ice until yesterday, I cut and wrapped but went ahead and slow cooked the ribs. Not real big for a rack of ribs, but no off flavor at all. Go for it!


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

So intact bucks are good for butchering when they are less than a year old. Before they get strong rut.


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## cfuhrer (Jun 11, 2013)

If he is less than a year he probably won't smell or taste too bad.

One lesson we learned with sheep was to cook it in a manner that allowed as much of the fat to drip off as possible. Grilling, roasting on a rack, rotisserie, etc.

I'm going too echo goat servant's advice - get him hung and the scrotum pulled quickly and use a dedicated knife. As boerboy said get the hide off as cleanly as possible. And as punchie said, remove as much fat while cutting as you can.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I butcher intack bucks every single year and have done so since 1997. These bucks have been just under and/or just over a year old. I use the same process I use when butchering does in that the scrotum is removed immediately (along with the guts). The carcass is hung upside down with head off so any drainage can run out. The entire goat (inside and outside) is thoroughly washed and covered in netting to keep flies off until I have time to skin and cut the meat up. The knife I use for gutting is different from the one I use for skinning; and the one I use to cut up the meat is different still. (All knives are kept in clean water, washed with soap and rinsed in white vinegar before storing.) The packaging does not differenciate between buck and doe; and when I cook the goat meat I cannot tell whether I'm eating buck meat or doe meat.

My grown intack males that are not butchered never have what others call a buck smell. Maybe it is because they are large Nubians. Maybe it is because I often wash their chest and forelegs while they are in rut. Have no idea. However, neither the dairy milk nor the processed buck meat has ever had a bad smell.

One thing I have learned, to insure the meat will be tender (whatever the age of the goat), is to make sure the animal has started *gaining weight *just prior to butchering; then butcher in a humane manner while the animal is as calm as possible. (I suspect all this affects the meat.)


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