• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

What to do with my bucklings?

 
Posts: 50
5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My Nigerian dwarf goat that I bought as a companion goat ended up being pregnant and kidding yesterday. She had two cute little boys unassisted.
I wonder what other goat herders do with their bucklings. Grow out for meat, sell, band?
If they had been does we would have added them to make our small herd alittle bigger but we do not want to keep bucks.
 
gardener
Posts: 1487
569
12
homeschooling hugelkultur trees medical herbs sheep horse homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hello Tori!  
I raise up the young males and harvest them when they are big enough.   I do not castrate them.   I just separate them from the females so they are no trouble and cannot breed.
 
Tori Escobar
Posts: 50
5
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Samantha Lewis wrote:Hello Tori!  
I raise up the young males and harvest them when they are big enough.   I do not castrate them.   I just separate them from the females so they are no trouble and cannot breed.



Okay, thank you. I think we are considering that very thing. A couple questions for you though, is it pretty difficult to keep the bucks from the does?
I could potentially put up a make shift paddock pretty far from the does but we don’t have any permanent fencing and have our does trained to electric netting.
Also, when do you usually harvest them?
 
pollinator
Posts: 102
Location: PNW Steppe climate, not far from the big river.
57
2
homeschooling kids solar wood heat homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Tori,  
If you choose not to band, the meat quality is better with a somewhat earlier/younger kill, avoiding adolescence. If you think you might not get around to it before they go through adolescence, banding will buy you time. A wether goat (castrated buck) can also be used as a pack animal if trained to it, but while some friends of ours have gone this route, we have butchered the male kids. We have kept a buck for breeding in the past, but it's easier to cycle through different bucks to keep the bloodlines good. Letting one of our own bucklings mature would require new doe genetics, which is more of a hassle.

If you have really high quality bloodlines, though, keeping the best one as a sire-for-hire could be a path.

Congrats on the successful kidding, and good luck!
Mark
 
Tori Escobar
Posts: 50
5
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Mark Miner wrote:Hi Tori,  
If you choose not to band, the meat quality is better with a somewhat earlier/younger kill, avoiding adolescence. If you think you might not get around to it before they go through adolescence, banding will buy you time. A wether goat (castrated buck) can also be used as a pack animal if trained to it, but while some friends of ours have gone this route, we have butchered the male kids. We have kept a buck for breeding in the past, but it's easier to cycle through different bucks to keep the bloodlines good. Letting one of our own bucklings mature would require new doe genetics, which is more of a hassle.

If you have really high quality bloodlines, though, keeping the best one as a sire-for-hire could be a path.

Congrats on the successful kidding, and good luck!
Mark



Hey Mark. Thank you so much for your helpful input. I think we may give that a try. They are small goats but will most likely be hard to sell since they are a mix and nothing special in bloodlines. Growing them out and then butchering ourselves would be a really valuable experience.
This sure is an adventure!
Thanks again!
 
And then the flying monkeys attacked. My only defense was this tiny ad:
Heat your home with the twigs that naturally fall of the trees in your yard
http://woodheat.net
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic