Bye Bye Billy

We recently made the decision to butcher our male boer goat, Mr. Billy Goat, aka Billy or more recently, Butthead. 

Of the seven kids he sired, only one was male. The point of raising boer goats is to provide meat for our family and possibly sell some to our friends. We can only keep the male kids for meat purposes and have to sell off the females as we don't want any inbreeding going on. Or breeding when the girls are too young to take place. 

Maybe had Billy been willing to live in a pen with just his son, Pierce, things would be different, but that didn't work out so well. We tried, it lasted all of 12 hours before he jumped the fence to get back to the ladies. And recently several other reasons presented themselves as it was time to say good-bye and fill our freezer. 

1. Billy was getting Big and we no longer trusted him. He could be a bit of a butt and literally head butt you if you gave any one else attention outside of him. The girls weren't allowed in the goat pen at all after he tried to eat Sydney's hair, scaring her pretty good in the process. He'd even hooked me a couple of times after I had been giving him attention and then walked off. Those were some knarly bruises. To be honest, I no longer felt safe in the pen with him and tended to carry a club with me as protection the few times I did have to go in there without Cameron. 

2. After Murray's coyote attack, the rains finally showed up. We had to return Murray to join the rest of the herd because the crate was not rain proof. We had re-inforced and raised the fence line of part of the goat pen to put the goats up in at night for added protection particularly for Murray. Billy learned that he could head butt the door and let everyone out on his own thus nullifying the safety aspect for Murray. 

3. We got Moet, one of our new pigs. Billy liked to assert his dominance over her, head butting her and pushing her around. He especially did this during feedings or at 4:30 AM. Having a pig squealing at 4:30 AM tends to wake you up into a panic, especially after the Murray/Coyote encounter. Moet did get some payback on Billy though - she ripped half an ear off in the first day and a half of moving in and proceeded to eat it. 

4. Goat meat, while consumed by 70 percent of the world, is still too foreign to our friends and acquaintances to be interested in purchasing it. Which is why we are switching to pigs. Who can say no to bacon?!

6. The buyer for the last three remaining daughters fell through. So again, we didn't want to risk any inbreeding or early breeding taking place. 

5. I love Pierce, the only son he sired, and didn't want him to become food (at least any time too soon). Don't worry, he's wethered so he won't be siring any kids with his sister or half sisters. And by being wethered, he won't stink like Billy. As long as he doesn't get unruly like his dad, he gets to stay. 

Cameron ensured Billy had a quick, painless death. I'll admit it was still hard on me to some extent. At one time we both loved Billy. But while Cameron took care of Billy, I was able to cuddle with Pierce which I hadn't been able to do in quite some time. And in the days since Billy's disappearance, the whole herd seems a little more relaxed, especially Moet. So thank you Billy for the kids you sired and the meat you will provide us. 

This kind of life definitely isn't for every one, and I am sure some will be harder than others, but I'm proud of the way we are raising our girls to understand where their food comes from.