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Committees >
Marketing > Evaluating Easter or Hot House
Kids
Evaluating Meat
Goat Kids
It is important for
goat producers to be able to accurately evaluate their goat kids for
the Easter kid market and also as potential 4-H market goats.
Selling unacceptable animals to meat buyers or 4-H youth is not only
damaging to your customer but also to your reputation.
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The term Easter kid is
synonymous with hot house kid and refers to a milk fed
kid no older than 10 to 12 weeks of age with light
colored, succulent meat. Kids older than this or kids
that have been weaned prematurely will obtain
substantial portions of their diet from non-milk sources
resulting in darker colored meat and lower dressing
percentages. Different ethnic groups have a preference
for different weight kids. In the US, people of Italian
descent seek a suckling kid weighing 20 to 30 lb. live
while families of Greek descent prefer a suckling kid
weighing 25 to 40 lbs. live. Other ethnic groups may
prefer suckling kids up to about 55 lb. live weight.
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Not all suckling kids
in the proper age and weight range make prime Easter kids. Buyers
generally pay top dollars for suckling kids at Easter and Christmas
depending on the supply. They readily assume that this price will
correspond with top quality kids. It is important for producers to
be able to evaluate their kids critically when targeting the Easter
market.
What is a good
potential 4-H market kid?
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Children who buy goat kids
as potential 4-H market kid projects may not know much
about goats. They may be counting on you as a producer
to help them pick out a kid from your herd that will be
a prime meat animal in 3 to 4 months time. Unless the
child has a great deal of experience with goats and has
a cheap source of milk, you should only sell them a kid
that is ready to wean. This means the kid should be a
minimum of 10 to 12 weeks of age and weigh a minimum of
30 lbs. The kid should be healthy, have no significant
conformation faults and should exhibit a good meat
carcass. |
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Unacceptable goat kids for
both these markets include unhealthy kids with heavy
parasite loads, unthrifty coats, hunched backs,
prominent ribs, drooping tails or diarrhea. Here is one
example of an unacceptable kid. |
How do you tell a
really good kid from a mediocre one?
Mediocre versus prime
kids can sometimes be difficult for an inexperienced producer to
tell apart. The following photographs exhibit two kinds of kids that
producers commonly have trouble evaluating. They are the dairy
replacement kid and the so-called orphan or bottle kid.
Why do kids raised
as dairy replacements not always make good meat kids?
The goal in raising
an Easter kid or a 4-H market kid is not always compatible with
raising a kid to become a future dairy goat. The goal in raising a
doe kid at a goat dairy is to build lots of bone and develop a good
size rumen at an early age on an economical diet that allows much of
the dairy’s milk to be diverted to processing or direct sales. The
next set of photos show a pair of dairy doe kids of similar ages.
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The white
kid is a cull that has been left on her dam while the
Cou Blanc kid is being reared artificially as a dairy
replacement. Both kids are very healthy looking.
However, the little Cou Blanc, like many of her
contemporaries, is being raised on limited amounts of
milk supplemented with a high protein pelleted feed and
a highly palatable hay. Although she is very beautiful
and healthy, she has very little meat on her and is not
a prime Easter or 4-H market kid. Part of this is
because of the conformation she was born with and part
of this is because of the way she is being raised.
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As you
can see, she is shorter in both height and length than
the white kid. This means she will have less forearm,
thigh or loin area to build muscle and hence, meat on.
See how her belly has a wedge shape to it when viewed
from the top. An animal with a well developed rumen
generally has a poorer dressing percentage than a more
immature animal that is not consuming much roughage
(hay, grass, etc) yet. |
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If you
were to run your hands along her topline, barrel, hips
and thighs, you would find that her bone is closer to
the surface when compared to the white kid. She would
provide little actual meat for a consumer and her
absence of fat would lead to rapid carcass dehydration
and shrinkage. Although it is often difficult for dairy
producers to comprehend, this beautiful animal is not a
prime Easter kid. The feeding practices commonly used to
produce a dairy replacement kid are rarely suitable for
Easter kids. |
What can happen if
your kids are not getting very much milk from their dams?
A commercial meat
goat producer does not have to worry about kids that are purposely
raised on restricted milk diets. Rather, it is the inadvertent
drinking of too little milk because a kid is an orphan or from a
large litter or from a dam with insufficient milk that causes
problems for the meat goat producer. The following series of photos
contrasts a pair of Boer cross kids that are obtaining different
amounts of milk.
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The kid
shown on the right is an orphan being fed off a bottle
or from does with surplus milk on a catch as catch can
basis. She has a hay belly appearance demonstrated in
the following photo due to her early reliance on hay as
a major part of her diet. |
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See how
her belly looks narrow at the front when viewed at her
withers and front legs but wedges out sharply as you
follow it back to her back legs. A large part of her
weight would be a stomach full of hay. This is why her
dressing percentage would be lower than a kid drinking
lots of milk. Although she will probably mature into an
excellent brood doe, she is not a prime Easter kid. In
contrast, her male counterpart is a twin on a doe with
plenty of milk. |
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He
exhibits a broad chest floor and well muscled forearms
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He has
more muscling on his thighs and is an excellent example
of an Easter kid or future 4-H market kid
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In summary,
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Look for
a well muscled growthy kid with a wide chest floor and
gaining about 1/2 lb or more per day.
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The kid
should be broad over his withers and have a wide, long
back. |
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He should
be plump over his forearms and ribs, |
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and
exhibit muscling over his loin, stifle, and thigh areas. |
Happy Easter and
may all your Easter kids be terrific! |
