Feral goats in Australia: A study on the quality and nutritive value of their meat

The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of fresh and cooked meat, and the nutritive value of this meat from 62 male Australian feral goats. The goats were slaughtered at 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70kg liveweights. Half of the goats were castrated and half were left as intact animals. The quality profiles of meat (e.g. pH, colour, pigment concentrations, cooking loss, shear force value and eating quality of cooked meat) from both castrated and intact feral goats started to decrease when animals were slaughtered at heavier liveweights (e.g. above 40kg). The nutritive value of the meat (chemical compositions, fatty acids and total cholesterol concentrations) changed when animals were castrated and had heavier slaughter weights. Overall, we recommend that 40kg liveweight is the heaviest slaughter weight, since the quality characteristics of meat will be lower when feral goats were slaughtered above 40kg liveweight.