Goat Butchering

[AZ Prepper]

Goat Butchering (a graphic photo documentary)
http://howlingduckranch.wordpress.co...o-documentary/


Warning: This post contains graphic photos of the butchering process. Do not read any further unless you are genuinely interested in learning how to butcher animals.



Leading Sundown to her meeting with her maker.

Well, I had thought I would have to wait until hunting season was over in order to muster the courage to do in one of my goats; but after butchering the rest of my ‘Jenny Craig’ Cornish Crosses (25) and all of my turkeys (32) this week, I found I was in the mood to keep going. My friend Clarence called last night to see if I wanted to go for breakfast this morning, “A pick up and delivery,” he said, letting me know he would do the driving. He took me for pancakes at the local diner, and over breakfast we talked about various things, the upcoming moose hunt being one. “You know, I saw a big bull moose on Wednesday on my way home from Williams Lake. He crossed the road in front of me right there at Louis Creek,” hands moving out in front of himself from left to right, “and he had your initials on his ear, my dear.”

While on the subject of meat, I asked him if he’d help me butcher one of my goats,”Why sure. Any time. When do you want to do it?” “Today, after breakfast.” He said he had a few things to attend to first but that he’d be back later in the afternoon. When he dropped me off he called out, “I’ll be back at 2pm to help you out, OK!”

When I asked him if he would mind helping, I imagined that he would do the actual killing part; after all, that was the part that I thought I would have the trouble with. However, when he arrived there was no discussion about whether or not I’d be doing the shooting. “OK my dear, place the bullet right here,” he gestured with his left finger-tip-less hand to her forehead. “You only need one cartridge to do it right and she’ll go down, just-like-that.”

I was surprised by my own matter-of-factness. After all, I’d named and tended to Sundown for nearly five years. But my only concern was that I shoot her well so she wouldn’t suffer–I certainly didn’t want to have to shoot her twice or, god forbid, a few times. She was pretty calm as I led her to the ‘gallows tree’ but every now and then kicked against the rope that held her. I was a bit concerned that she would kick up a fuss just as I was about to shoot so I got in close, took aim quickly and fired. She went down instantly, “That’s it. It’s all over.” Before I really registered that I’d done it, Clarence was already slitting her throat and she was bleeding out.

We went to work on skinning her front side before hanging her from the tree so we could spill the entrails. He talked me through most of the work–I like that about Clarence: he doesn’t take over and do the job for you. Rather, as a good teacher and mentor he’s happy to watch over his apprentice and even endure a few mistakes. “Oh my, she is fat… I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much fat on an animal I’ve butchered before!” he said, cutting through the beautiful white lard that was between her body and her skin. Indeed she was fat–too fat. I’d been feeding the nursing goats a lot more in order to keep their weight on, and the other goats were clearly taking advantage of the extra grains, hay and forage.

Once we had the goat butchered out, I sawed her in half and split her into two sides until she looked like two minuscule sides of beef. Clarence helped me rinse her off and bag her up, before he left. I then put her in the truck and drove her to the local butcher for hanging. On the way in to the store, I barely got a second look. On the way out, however, I stopped to talk to a friend then as I went to leave a stranger nodded politely at me. “After you,” he said gently motioning to the doorway, looking me up and down, “A bag of blood in your hand, and blood spatter on your pants… I’d hate to think what happened to the guy that cut you off!”

Step one: shoot the goat in the forehead. If you do not know how to do this, or do not have a good understanding of the animal’s anatomy, then get someone experienced to help you. This should be a clean kill so the animal does not suffer needlessly. Although this was my first time, I had Clarence watching over me as I did this. Also, I now have a lot of animal butchering experience and know exactly where to place the bullet.


Get close to the goat with the gun so you don't miss in the event she moves.

Step two: slit throat being sure to cut through both jugular veins so it bleeds well and completely.


Be sure to slice through both jugular veins on either side of the windpipe to get a good bleed.

Step three: slit skin from ankle to anus on either back leg and then slit the skin up the belly to the neck. Begin to skin the goat separating the skin from the meat.


Make a cut through the skin from the ankle to the anus on both hind legs.


Carefully separate the skin from the animal leaving the meat with the carcass.

Step four: When the skin is off the front of the body, make two cuts in the ankle between the tendon and the bone with your knife. These holes are for slipping a rope through in order to hang the goat. Hang the goat high enough to continue working comfortably.


Cut hole between the tendon and bone of each hind leg then slip a rope through for hanging.


Rope threaded through legs for hanging.

Step five: Finish skinning the goat completely and cut the head off the goat.


Once the skin is completely off the animal, you can sever the head away from the carcass.


With a knife or meat saw, remove the head once you get the animal completely skinned.

Step six: Cut the belly open carefully making sure not to cut the intestines. You want to just cut through the skin. When you get to the breast bone you will need a meat saw to finish cutting to the neck.


Carefully cut open the belly of the goat being diligent about not cutting any of the innards.

Step seven: Begin to let some of the contents fall out of your way. Take the meat saw and cut through the pelvis. Grab a hold of the rectum with one hand and cut the anus away from the inside of the goat. Do not cut the intestine or rectum! Let the contents spill out of the cavity.


Open the belly up completely being careful not to let the innards begin to fall as the rectum will rip and spill fecal contents throughout the belly cavity.


With a meat saw (or in my case my knife) cut through the breast bone right up to the neck.


Cut through the pubic bone and around the anus so it can come free as you pull out the rectum along with the innards.

Step eight: Save the heart and liver. Cut the heart open and bleed it. Wash the liver and heart well and put in cold water until you can refrigerate them.


Cut open the heart and rinse the blood out of it.

Step nine: Cut the esophagus and trachea away from the neck and throat area.

Esophagus and trachea removal.


Goat carcass cut into two sides. We are not cutting off the extra fat before taking the meat to the butcher for hanging.

Step ten: With the meat saw, cut the carcass in half from tail to tip. You now have two sides of goat ready for hanging in a meat cooler. Wash them with clean water and hang for several days to cure.

[Garnet]

This is a good article, with good pictures, but it contains a MAJOR MISTAKE! First, my experience. I've raised meat goats since 1999. I've had over 120 does in my herd (which means I sell about 300 kids a year from my herd) and I use to sell the kids of another goat farmer. He had over 300 does, and I sold all of his kids. ALL of the goats I sold were butchered right on my farm, under my watchful eye. At this point I have seen between 4-5 THOUSAND goats slaughtered on my farm. Needless to say, I know what I'm talking about, just with the amount of experience I've had.

NEVER, EVER SHOOT A GOAT IN THE FOREHEAD! Period, end of story. She's real lucky the goat went down nicely for her. Goats and sheep are designed to be able to take tremendous impacts to the forehead. When I first stated to have my goat butchered, it was professional butchers the first couple of years. I had three goats done the first time. All three were shot in the forehead. One dropped, two staggered, and bleated in tremendous pain. It took one more shot to kill one of them, and two more to kill the third. I was extremely disturbed by this, as one of the reasons I raise our own meat livestock is to give them the best life and ultimately death as humanely possible.

Goats foreheads are ment to withstand impacts and can even withstand a bullet. Stand behind the goat, and shoot it between the horns, at the back of the head. The muzzle of the gun should be angled the same as the goats lower jaw. The back of the goat's skull is not nearly as thick and protected as their forehead. I've always had the goats drop strait to the ground when shot properly from the back of their skull.

Everything else in this article is good information, but please do NOT shoot a goat, or sheep in the forehead!

~Garnet
Raising meat goats (and a few sheep) since 1999

[AZ Prepper]

Good to know. Thanks Garnet!