Modern veal production.

I was watching a program last night about modern Veal production. I have always been put off by the traditional process but, keeping a calf suckling as well as grazing for 6/9 months before slaughter is an improvement IMHO. The smallholder in question took milk for his own use before allowing the calf to suckle. Opinions?

When we rear the goats for the table we have to have them slaughtered by 12 months, so that's not much longer but we try to give them a natural life, as in running with the herd. We also separate the kids over night after 3 weeks and milk the does before letting them all back in together. I guess this is not much different but as you say a much better way than how it used to be done.

Hi Deryn. So you keep your kids up to 12 months old. I think you have Boars, so what kind of weights do you get from these? We kept our Nubian crosses to about 9 months old and got a reasonable weight. I would think that your Goats would be quite a size at 12 months.

Hi Wayland we haven't sent any pure Boers on yet they have all been crosses mainly dams of Saanen/Nubians with the Boer Buck. We had a job to find any when we started so made do with what we could find. We are slowly building up the stock now. The only advantage is we can milk the dams as Boers don't produce enough milk to warrant milking.
We now have 5 Boer Does so should find out in the next year or 2 the weight. They are supposed to weigh around 30kg

I would think that you would at least get 30 kgs. Especially at 12 months. Our last batch got to 30/40 kgs which were Nub/Sann. We did feed them on a fair amount of meal though. The slaughter man said the hind legs were like hams, which definitely was an exaggeration. Feeding alot of meal does put on a good deal of fat though. Did you watch "Country file" last Sunday?. There was a peace on a young couple rearing Boars commercially in Pembrokeshire (New moat Goats). Nice set up. Good luck.

We don't have a telly but would have enjoyed seeing it.
Beginning to wonder if its possible to raise them and make any money not sure where we are going wrong. Not a good year this year, only 4 kids out of 6 dams. Lets hope next year is better. To top it off the ones I was milking haven't kidded so no milk either. Rant over

We tried to make a few bob on selling goat meat. I paid 30 euro for the kids that were weaned. Grew them on to 9 months and them paid another 30 euro to have them slaughtered, butchered and frozen. Plus the cost of meal. We were able to sell some individual cuts but all in all we could not get enough from the sales to break even. We did get a few inquiries from an ethnic community in Dublin but they practically wanted them for nothing. To lower our production costs we got some new born males for free. With the cost of expensive "Lamb Lac" they cost us even more to produce than the weaned kids. I would think that Dublin would be the place to sell them. It would seem to me that there are far better prices to be got in the UK than Ireland. We shall keep them again I have no doubt but it will be for our own use. I have always fancied the dairy side of goat keeping. Something up till now we have not done. The big problem I have with keeping goats here is we only have grass. As you know, a few acres of poor scrub is what is best for them.

I have had goats in the past, but I don't think I will again. Absolutely delightful creatures - interesting, entertaining and very productive. They will eat practically anything, but what they really delight in is the bark and twigs of prized apple trees. And, for a special treat, if you can just take your eye off them for one second so they can jump the fence into the vegetable garden, they will have a high old time and really enjoy themselves.

Sean, the answer is electric fencing.
Not sure where we go next with the goats but will always have some for ourselves. We think its the best tasting meat you can get and we only started because we couldn't find any to buy. The milk is a big plus too

I think the meat is excellent and I luv warm goat cheese with me salad or on toast. So worth keeping plus they are just fun critters to have around. True they need to be well incarcerated (no exaggeration) They will also eat your washing off the line etc etc. Deryn do you find the Pucks a bit of a job to live with? I am not allowed in the house unless I remove my scruff and leave it in the shed. I remember as a young feller in Norfolk being paid pocket money to walk some goats up the lane each night for a feed on the hedgerows. This I would do again if it was not for the neighbors unruly dogs.

I agree about the meat - very tasty. And I drank a lot of goat's milk when I had 'em, but goat's cheese leaves me cold.

Wayland the only trouble we have had with pucks was the first one we bought in Ireland, he was nasty because he had been neglected. The one we had in UK was very quiet a bit smelly at that time of year but not too bad. The ones we have now were kids we bred and are very docile. It could well be the Boer breed. the 2 we have now are still quite young, ones 2 and ones 1, time will tell how smelly they will get.
I agree with you Sean, goats cheese is unpleasant but I have a friend who makes her own and that tasted really good, so I may have to change my mind about it. not shop brought though.
I make yoghurt but cheese seems to complicated to try.

I found this on the net re the sale of goat meat.
https://www.thesun.ie/living/637709/irish-farmer-tells-how-goat-meat-is-the-next-big-thing-as-he-is-inundated-with-people-looking-for-it-since-launching-business-last-year/
The price of goat meat when you buy it in the butcher is steep enough ! Seems to me that the producer is really losing out -again !- in favour of the middle man