When A Goat Gets Your Goat

We had a whither (altered male) goat that was getting to be a nuisance. He would butt every body and even take on the humans with a challenging stance and try to head butt them. He wouldn't let the female goats eat in peace he would run from one dish to the other chasing the other goats away. His most despicable behavior was to the goat kids he would butt them and harass them so they were constantly running away from him. We tried to isolate him, but he would always figure a way to get out. We tried tethering him which improved the situation somewhat but he still was not controlled enough to stop some of his aggressive behavior. So we changed his name from Justin to Stew and took him to the Butcher.

Tuesday morning we took Stew to the Butcher. This is the first time I have taken any animal to the Butcher. Did I feel bad, sad, guilty? NO, I did not feel anything as he got put into the holding pen. Stew got slaughtered that day and was hung in the cooler for a few days. We picked him up on Saturday and brought the meat home and put it in the freezer. Sunday for lunch we had Goat Steak. So what does male goat steak taste like? Actually not a strong flavor at all, there was a slight flavor that reminded me of Lamb, but much milder, luckily I like the flavor of Lamb. The flavor wasn't strong, nothing like I expected. So later he will be tacos and burritos :) That little mean so and so is going to make some nice meals. Out of that little pygmy goat we got 25 lbs of meat.

After this experience I am thinking that having a goat butchered once a year would not be a big a deal or maybe raising a Lamb for slaughter instead, I like Lamb more than Goat, either one would do.