How to Get Rid of Your Dairy Goat Bucks

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Keeping a buck or two in your goat herd may work well, but you may want to consider methods of eliminating extra males from the herd. Spectrum Photofile

If you raise dairy goats, it’s bound to happen. You will find yourself with too many dairy goat bucks and no desire to keep them. With owners citing foul odors, high cost of feed, and a buck’s uncanny ability to escape and mate with the does, many of these unlucky males find themselves going off to freezer camp, slaughtered to sustain the farm family through the winter. 

The coping mechanism works for a while. After all, there are many tasty ways to prepare goat, and it is low in fat making it a healthful choice – curried goat, goat stew, goat chops, goat tenderloin, barbecued cabrito, mshikaki, chivo picante, kaldaretta and spicy leg of goat, to name a few. Once you exhaust your personal repertoire of recipes though, your family might grow weary of eating goat in its many varied forms. 

All is not lost, however. As exhibited by the diverse names of the dishes listed, many recipes arrive as people immigrate to the United States. As a matter of fact, goat meat is the single most popular meat in the world; a bit of trivia that is not widely known, and most Americans are usually surprised when they hear it. 

Armed with this tidbit of information, it is possible to create some farm income by selling your excess bucks to ethnic populations, usually found in urban centers. People from the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia and Southern Europe number among your potential customers. 

In 1993, the first Boer goats were imported into the United States. Primarily raised as a meat variety, their popularity has increased exponentially with demand. However, herd growth has not been able to keep up with the demand. According to the American Boer Goat Association, as much as $30 million worth of goat meat is imported to the United States each year. There is still such a shortage of the meat in the United States that many consumers are forced to substitute more widely available lamb in traditional recipes.