Big difference here and there in goat farming. A good goat here will cost you close to a 100 steem for one goat and they are butcher size from 6 to 12 months and that is just on pasture and hay. Very interesting the difference I am sure do to location and land type along with pasture quality. Will look forward to hearing more about goat farming where you are thanks for the post.
Where are you located @liberyworms?
Northern FL in the States. This is a sir we use. He was 2 years old in this picture. He is older now
This is his father at around 5 years.
Only our nannies in milk get small amounts of grain our males don't since with the rain and heat we get more problems feeding the grain then benefit. They get pasture and perennial peanut hay. We move them into smaller pens when the nannies birth so they don't want to fight and breed right away. Here is him in a cattle coral pen. They are kiko boer mixes and they get very large.
We sell the yearling males anywhere from 100 to 150 lbs at a year. Goat is not as popular here as a main meat source at beef and a lot of buyers don't want goats over a year. Many like to buy younger at 6 to 8 months around 80 lbs and the females seem to be more popular the then larger males. I imagine this is because of the difference in the meat from a younger female to an older larger male. I am interested in how it works where you are. What are the butcher weights and age and what is more popular? How much does it sell for there? A good pure breed goat here can run anywhere from $300 to $800 per head and a good registered sire male can run upward to $1200 depending on breed and pedigree. I think I misread where you said maturity as in your butcher age and not your breeding age.