I read the great post on butchering, and shooting the goat was recommended. However, does anyone here have experience with using a knife to the throat? cutting the carotid? I am talking little kids here, so not as difficult as a full-grown goat. Thanks, Mountainaire-Vikkie
yep my boys hang them by the back legs and then slit the throat but make sure you have a very sharp knife.
Yes, and I always get blasted for this My BIL kills and butchers for me, he does the best job I have ever seen. And yes he hangs the goats by their rear legs and then cuts their throats while talking to them, they slowly bleed out and he keeps the blood, he adds it to sausage he makes with the head. I don't' watch this part unless I am happy the goat is being dispatched Once dead I do help. I think the most gruesome part of butchering isn't that, but when he skins the head...now I can just barely watch that. Vicki
Vicki M, I am assuming you were still talking about little kids there. How about doing eight month old bucklings with just a knife? My brother, who slaughters pigs, says the most humane way is a very sharp knife opening he corotid. Minimal restraints, no stunning blows. Does anyone do full grown goats with just a knife? Do you still use the string them up by the hind legs method? I was wondering if there wasn't a better way with a grown goat.
I don't butcher kids, he butchers older animals we are putting down. He has butchered a 10 year old buck and several 12 year old does, a 5 year old doe who came to me with mastitis and then I foundered her....they make wonderful sausage. When my husband butchers young stock for the dogs, (doeling last year who just wasn't growing, buckling this year who had one testicle not growing) he simply lops their head off with a machette. My BIL thinks it's wasteful, my husband thinks BIL way of doing it is inhumane and time consuming Vicki
We butchered a Boer buck ( a friend not my husband he is the softy :sigh )that became mean Shooting to stun him and then cut the carotid I think is best on a big goat. I did put down two buck kids with just cutting it is one of the hard es thing I have done in a long time. :sniffle Fran
Sorry but I just couldn't do it the way Vicki's BIL does.... I can't stand to hear them scream and if they do... well I just quit.... that's all there is to it. I secure the goat and put a 22 bullet behind the ear into the brain. They drop immediately and while the heart is still beating, I cut the jugular. I slice a hole in each hock and hang him up immediately. For me, I want no part of the sausage made from the head and the blood and "as long as this fat boy is fat, I ain't eating that!"
Your just whimps Head cheese and blood sausage were really good, now chitlans or when he cleans out the intestines for his sausage....a job best left for outside! Vicki
My great grandmother would make head cheese. She would buy the hog heads from the butcher and then boil it at home. My mom said it was very digusting to watch (she never ate it). Silvia
:ick Now barbacoa I can do.. I don't know if I spelled it right, but it's a Mexican dish where they BBQ the head and serve the meat shredded, usually with eggs at breakfast with lots of pico. y.u.m...
Maybe I am a wimp, but I just wouldn't want to slaughter a goat with a knife or machete. The way I've seen them done is with a 22 to the brain stem followed by slitting the throat to bleed them out for better quality meat. I'm not afraid to eat head cheese. We had to try all sorts of "unusual" meats when I went to school for food service management. It's just not something I'd take the time to make with my goat meat. Kathie
If you slit there throat correctly they do not make a sound :lol Hubby has done adult goats & sheep this way. Its done fast . I do not know if I could do it . I also am not there when he does it either. Patty
It might sound cruel but it is quick and is the same basic way it has been done in slaughter houses across the country for ever. I through a little grain on the ground, When he puts his head down to eat it I hit him in the back of the head with a 18 lb sledge then cut his throat and hang him to bleed. Clay
I like the gun better. I dont mind the butchering- its the act of killing I dont care for. I dont trust myself to use the hammer or knife quickly or correctly, theres a flinch factor involved for me- that last second "Oh, no" thing. With the .22 to the brainstem its too fast for me to pull back or wimp out.
Now barbacoa I can do.. I don't know if I spelled it right, but it's a Mexican dish where they BBQ the head and serve the meat shredded, usually with eggs at breakfast with lots of pico. ................. We have several taco type stands that sell this. We also have a small fresh air resturant the sells goat tacos! Gosh so much of what we do is tedious, but dang have you ever had home made tamales? It takes about a week just to get the meat for our fajitas onto the fire it has to be marinated just so (or we buy it in bulk from a Mexican suppermarket already done vicki
All I am going to say is this, I have butchered many an animal for myself, or friends/family. I was a little nervous with my first caprine and wanted to make sure that my goatie didnt suffer and died immediately. So my advise to you that want to dispatch initially with a gun, you need not use any caliber bigger than a .22.... :blush
how can you hang the goat without stunning it first? Do you still cut the hocks to hang it? I think it would be dangerous with lots of kicking. A friend helped us slaughter one goat so far. He had it eat grain then hit it in the back of the head with a hammer, then bled it out and hung it after it stopped kicking.