Do you like your bucks with horns?

I really think this topic should be avoided on this forum. Neither side is every going to agree and every time it is brought up people end up fighting. Some prefer to dehorn, some do no,,,it's a personal preference, let's just leave it at that.

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Amy,
SAHM of 3, (7, 5, & 1)
wife of a crazy Poloc (Stanb999),
& adopted mother to goats, chickens, pigs, turkeys and ducks
farm pics: http://public.fotki.com/stanb888/

It's a topic that needs to be covered in my opinion.

Those new to goats ought to hear both sides of it to help them determine what is right for their set up. It does boil down to personal preference, but hearing first hand experience from those who have been there and been through it can help.

We argue about everything around here...lol
Well, except how cute kids are....

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Roseanna
Morning Mist Herd
Journey's End Jerseys
Jerseys, Jersey/Norwegian Reds, Beef, Boers, Nubians & crossbreeds

All my goats that should have horns, have horns. They need them for predator defense, and as others have said it makes it easier to grab onto them. I have seen a big doe fight off and drive away a bobcat that was after her kids, using her horns. I have only one goat, I think, that is naturally polled.

I understand removal of horns is intended to make the goats less apt to hurt each other in confined quarters, but mine are not confined all that much.

Disbudding is to a greater or lesser degree a painful thing, unless done under anesthasia. If done incorrectly, it leads to problems you otherwise would not have. I have dehorned cattle and disbudded kids before. I strongly dislike both, so when I had cows I went polled, and I let my goats' heads do what God intended for them. I can't understand breed associations that require disbudding. To me it makes no sense.

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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates

This was actually a fun thread to read..heh heh.

I disbud my goats....it is less painful than hanging in the fence for a few hours in the summer heat. A kid will holler before the iron is even applied. After the disbudding they are up running and playing immediately. Then the rest of their lives, no hanging in the fence (after all, they are no longer in a natural environment)...and no overly dominant goat in a pen of mixed horned and disbudded.

I actually in a weird way, love to disbud little goats. I do not find it icky or off-putting at all. I find satisfaction in it because of all the botched jobs i have seen vets do and because I have done far worse procedures on humans in the hospital setting.....don't ask.

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Diane Rhodes
Feral Nature Farm
LaManchas, MiniManchas and Boers
Member ADGA, MDGA

umm moving on!
We bred goats to be clam and not wild then we should do the right thing and disbud them. But if you don't agree then ok but I say from a dairy stand point that dairy goats if kept in a barn with goats with horn and others with out that is a very deadly thing!

You could probably still band his horns as long as you could get a band around them. I've banded goats as old as 4 and it worked great! I would suggest doing it before fly season though.

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"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand." † ~ St. Augustine