Sad Day at High Antler

From KL.....

For those of you on our Yahoo group,
"Makeitwork" ...

Yesterday I told you a bit about a situation we were dealing with here at High Antler Farm. The gist of it:

One of our little bucklings, born the first week of June, had a serious injury. Ryan noticed this late Tuesday evening at feeding time, around 5 pm. The left horn was broken at the base, almost completely separated from his head, hanging by a small attached piece. A raw and open wound, but not bleeding profusely. Goat first aid is not goat Veterinary Science. We are skilled enough to give sub-Q injections, drench, assist in kidding if necessary, but goat surgery ? Naaaah, Naaaah, Naaaah.

Bill called the vet. We were told to bring the buckling in for removal of the horn and a round of antibiotics, total cost, $50- $75 or more, depending on unforeseen circumstances.

Less than 10 minutes after Bill rang off with the Vet, we had decided to just cull him. A possible infection in early winter, more vet bills and "unforeseen circumstances" made the decision easier.

I will let Bill pick it up from here...

Early next AM:

Goat removed from pen and taken out of sight from the other goats.

12 gauge #2 shot administered at point blank range behind and below the left ear in an oblique transverse shot that completely evacuated the cranial vault instantaneously. The goat's brain literally ceased to exist before the goat had a chance to feel pain.

It's a hard heart that kills.

Ryan raises and cares for the goats more than anyone. He has spent hours at a time reading novels to the goats. He took it hard when we made the decision to cull this one.

But, at Ryan's request, he assisted with the cleaning and butchery. We dug a hole for the burial of the offal and field dressed the goat on the ground, first removing the penis, testicles, and scent glands under the neck. My experience dressing deer is that this prevents an unpleasant strong taste in the meat.

We split the goats belly skin from the anal vent up to the base of the sternum, then split the sternum. We cut the connective tissues and dumped the contents of the abdominal and thoracic cavities into the hole.

We did not let the cleaned carcass hang for any period of time. I know there are people who swear by this and will tell you meat is not worth eating unless it has hung for X number of days. I can't argue. I just never have hung meat to age or drain, nor does my dad or brother. Yet we've eaten much fine venison.

The goat was only about 40 or 50 pounds live weight and I judged there was no real need to hang it in order to skin it. (As opposed to hanging a carcass to drain or age, I have hung many to facilitate skinning and quartering.) Instead we worked from a piece of plywood laid over a wheelbarrow. This was a mistake. The work surface was far too low, and I'm still feeling it in my lower back this morning. We should have set up a much higher work surface.

Skinning was easy - we just pulled the hide forward, cutting the subcutaneous fat as we worked forward. We then cut off the back and front quarters , which come apart fairly easy. The trick is to look at how the muscles fit together and cut in logical places. Then release the hip joint and cut away. (That's for the back legs. Goats, like deer, have no skeletal join at the shoulder. It's all muscle and connective tissue. Weird, huh?)

We then took the backstrap and both racks of ribs and buried the offal.

Total time was about an hour and a half. We ran a little long because it has been a while since I butchered an animal and our work surface was not well set up.

He dressed out to about 15 pounds, give or take.

KL: Cooking the meat was not difficult. Bill and I rinsed the pieces of meat under the faucet, placed them in a medium size rectangular Pyrex baking dish, two at a time.

Most cookbooks have instructions and recipes for roasting and preparing beef, poultry and sometimes mutton, but very few list goat/chevon. I decided to cook this like lamb.
I sprinkled a bit of dried rosemary on top, nothing else, roasted the meat at 450F for about 30 minutes, turned it down to 350F, and continued roasting about 2 hours. The meat fell right off the bones, was tender and juicy, minimal fat, meat thermometer 180F. It seemed a bit dry on the top side, and it might have been better to turn it over at least once during cooking, maybe add a bit of water.

Although none of the people actually ate the roasted meat (except Bill, who tasted it and pronounced it edible), the cats and dogs enjoyed it, and we know we can do this again, if the need arises. It smelled wonderful while cooking and the next time we prepare chevon, maybe I will experiment a bit more.

~~Bill & KL at High Antler Farm