Meat Goat Blog

How to Cook Goat Meat

Guest post

Goat meat is quickly on the rise and the demand for it is ever-growing both in the United Stated and the UK.  It is a leaner meat than most and is almost 50% less fatty than beef.  It is lower in fat, cholesterol, and calories making it the healthier option of meat to consume, lowering your chances of developing health problems.  The meat itself is very versatile and easy enough to cook. Due to its low fat content the meat does need to be cooked slower and at lower temperatures but done correctly the meat tastes great and is as juicy and moist as any other meat. Below are a number of ways in which you can cook your goat meat. 

Goat Burgers:

Everybody loves a good burger and goat meat is as good as any to make a decent one.  Due to the goat’s low levels of fat the burgers should be grilled slowly. They are an extremely healthy option and can be served medium rare if desired. 

Goat Sausages:

Goat sausages are a great alternative to pork or venison. They too are very healthy and will need to be grilled to ensure maximum taste. Goat sausages have a gamier flavour and work well with fry-ups, mash or in a sandwich. 

Goat Fillet:

This is the most succulent cut of the goat. It oozes flavour yet has a lot less fat in it than lamb does.  This cut of meat should be pan fried to ensure you get the best from it. 

Diced Goat:

Diced goat can come served on or off the bone. It works brilliantly for putting into curries and casseroles for a great tasting dish.  When using diced goat you should firstly marinate the meat so that it tenderises. The meat can then be cooked until golden brown in a pan with a little oil and then transferred into a pot with water and stock for up to 4 hours. This will ensure that the meat doesn’t dry out or become tough.  Ensure that you cook the meat slowly and at a low temperature. 

Goat Chops:

Chops are small but tasty cuts of meat and it’s no exception when it comes to goat meat. The best way to cook these is to marinade them in garlic and olive and choose from pan frying, grilling, barbecuing or oven cooking. The choice is yours.

Author Bio:

Emma is a keen writer with an interest in goat meat. She loves to write goat recipes and find out new ways of cooking the meat. 

Determining the Parasite Levels in Your Herd - Quick Tips

If you'd like to have an numeric method for determining the parasites in your goats, you might consider using a fecal egg count. Although Famacha eye scores are more convenient for on-ranch observation, by sending a few manure samples to your local veterinarian, you can get a more precise understanding of the parasite load on your pasture and your herd.

Keep Goat Horns Out of Fence - Quick Tips

Ever looked out your back door to see a bunch of weanling kids with their heads stuck in the fence like they've been sentenced to the stocks? Next time you find a goat in the fence, duct tape a light stick to its horns. The duct tape will wear off in a couple months after their horns grow longer. Meanwhile, you won't have to unstick their head from the fence every day!

Wire Fencing on Inside of Post - Quick Tips

If you're building non-electric goat fencing, place the panels/wire-mesh on the same side of the post as your goats. When the goats rub against the fence, the post will oppose the pressure. Otherwise the wire clips might not support the weight of all your goats at once. There's nothing worse than chasing a herd of escaped goats across the countryside!

The Benefits of Eating Goat Meat

Guest post

Goat meat is the world’s most popular meat with 75% of the world’s population consuming it. Here in the UK however the likes of beef, pork, lamb and chicken are most commonly eaten and goat is rarely thought of. Times are changing though and goat is on the rise both in the UK and in the United States. The health benefits of eating the meat are higher than those associated with eating others and therefore a demand for goat has risen quite dramatically.

The Health Benefits:

Goat meat is a lean meat that is extremely healthy to eat.  It is low in cholesterol, fat, saturated fat, and calories making it a great choice for those conscious about their health. It is in fact at least 50% lower in fat than beef and 40% lower in saturated fat than chicken. Despite this meat being lean and clean goat is in fact great tasting and full of flavour. 

Goat meat’s low levels of fat and high levels of unsaturated fat make it a very good meat for keeping the heart healthy.  It can in fact reduce your chances of getting cardiovascular disease and other chronic problems as less fat and cholesterol is consumed that can cause the bodies arteries to become blocked.  As well as being beneficial to the heart it helps benefit good blood cholesterol levels which can help to reduce and relieve inflammation problems.

Pregnant women can benefit quite significantly from eating goat meat. It can help to prevent women and their babies from becoming anaemic by increasing the amount of haemoglobin the mother gets and enhancing the blood supply to the baby. It is also rumoured that the meat can help to prevent birth defects and neural tube defects. 

Goat meat is filled with proteins that are important for helping the body to repair and replenish itself. The proteins found in goat meat are part of the eight amino acids that cannot be produced by the body itself. Eating goat is therefore extremely beneficial to the health of your body making sure that you get all you need to remain fit and healthy.  

Cooking Goat Meat:

Because goat meat has a much lower fat content than other meats it can be more difficult to cook.  Often the fat of a meat helps to cook it making sure that it remains juicy and moist.  To prevent goat meat from becoming dry and tough you will need to make sure that it is cooked slowly and at a low temperature.  For best results either braise or roast your meat. 

Author Bio:

Emma is a keen writer with an interest in goat meat. She often writes goat recipes giving information on how to cook the meat properly. 

Sell No Goat Before It’s Time

Guest post by Greg Christiansen

"When should I sell my meat kids," is a question I am often asked.  My answer is always January, February, or March.  

My kids are born in April, raised on pasture, and supplemented as needed after the forage has been depleted in the winter months, usually by December or January. My aim is to get my kids to 70 – 75 lbs. by January. Last January the group of kids averaging 70 lbs. went through the sale ring and brought $2.20 / lb., that is $154 / hd.  A lighter weight group averaged 55 lbs. and brought $2.45 / lb. that is $134 / hd.  

It seems that 75 lbs. is the breaking point of diminishing returns, meaning that after the meat goat reaches that weight the price per lb. goes down rapidly, taking away the profitability of the added lbs.  

Now this only works in January, February, or March.  If you sell in October, November, or December, the price of the 55 lb. meat goat is usually less, maybe $1.75 / lb. putting $96 in your pocket, and the breaking point of diminishing returns may be about 65 lbs. Meaning that the 65 lb. goat may only bring $1.50 or about the same dollars as the 55 lb. goat. This is simply due to supply and demand in the goat market.  

Now if your goats are weighing 65 lbs. and it is August or just about any other month except Jan., Feb., or March, you need to sell them before they get any heavier. Usually after Easter the market price paid for goats will cycle down and then work its way back up through the fall and winter, and peak sometime in late winter.  

You can see how the market doesn’t pay you for creep feeding or spending any extra money to grow your kids faster. It doesn’t pay you to have them born earlier in the year and have them reach market weight before the peak market.  For most commercial goat producers it is going to be less labor intensive to have them born in April after most of the winter weather is over and grow them on minimal inputs until January.

You can find more fencing ideas and other help in raising pasture meat goats in Greg's book, Raising Meat Goats In A Commercial Operation available on his website, in The Goat Rancher Magazine , and on Amazon.

Two Kids are Better Than One

I think, as humans, we have a pretty good grasp on the concept that more is better than less. But when it comes to goats, we often turn a blind eye to this logic on the grounds that "this single is a lot bigger than either of those twins." But think about it this way.

As meat goat producers, our primary objective is to sell as much meat as we can each year to get more money and make more profit. That being said, which is better: one 40 pound buckling or two 30 pound bucklings? The answer is simple. Two is better than one!

This is why it is so important that does birth and raise twins or more every year. If they're not, then you aren't getting the maximum revenue per head to make make that money! So next time you're struggling between a pretty single or two average twins, go with your gut - more is better than less.

Guardian Pups Chase Kids - Quick Tips

If you get a new livestock guardian pup around kidding season, be careful to tag the kids when the pup isn't looking. Puppies like to play - no matter their breed. If they see you chasing the baby goats to put tags in their ears, they will likely start to help. Well intentioned as the pup may be, baby goats make expensive play toys!

How to Turn a Cow Fence into a Goat Fence

Guest post by Greg Christiansen

One of the obstacles to enlarging your goat herd and increasing your goat acres, is the cost and labor involved with fencing large acreages for pasturing goats.

By utilizing even an old broken down cow fence that hasn’t kept cattle in for years, and a couple electric wires placed 6 to 12 inches in front of it, you can do as I have done and successfully keep hundreds of goats in the pastures where they belong.  It is rare that I get the dreaded phone call from one of my neighbors, or worse, the sheriff, that my goats are out.

This is not only economical, about $.08/ft., for your post and wire, but also the least labor intensive method I’ve found to fence goats.  That’s a win, win.

There are a few things I’ve learned in stringing electric wire over the years that make it easier to build and more efficient to maintain.

I always use 12.5 gauge hi-tensile wire.  It carries electricity better than smaller wire and is much tougher and longer lasting than cheaper wire.

I used to attach the electric wire to the same post the barbwire is fastened to.  That seemed to result in the electric wire getting snagged into the barbwire and shorting out the fence on a regular basis.  Now I use a separate post, usually a 3/8 fiberglass, placed 6-12 inches in front of the barbwire fence.  This cost is less than putting “stand off” type insulators on your T – post and is much more trouble free.

When we run our wires to a corner and begin to turn the corner to go another direction, we start with another corner insulator and begin our wire again instead of keeping it in one piece and running it around the corner and on to the next leg of fence.  Keep the tail of wire long enough to reach the next run of fence. Put some bends or coils in the wire to make it more like a spring and slide an insultube on it for a handle, put a hook in the wire and use this as a jumper wire between the two runs of fence line hooking it across the corner. If there is a problem with the fence I can go to any corner and unhook the jumper and work on that leg of the fence without worrying about getting shocked. I can also disconnect the power to any pasture that we are not using at the time and direct our energy to another pasture.

You will definitely want to get a good fence compass so you’ll be able to quickly hunt down faults in miles of fence, when they occur.

You can find more fencing ideas and other help in raising pasture meat goats in Greg's book, Raising Meat Goats In A Commercial Operation available on his website, in The Goat Rancher Magazine , and on Amazon.

Round Bales Fall on Goats - Quick Tips

In the cold part of winter, many ranchers supplement their waning pasture with a few round bales. But be sure to watch that hay. Since goats usually eat from the middle of the bale outwards, the bale can become top-heavy and fall on your goats. If the bale looks precarious, it may be best to push it over - even if it wastes a little hay.