Disbudding - why?

We have wire fences and have never had troubles with horned goats. I spend a lot of time with mine so they are so friendly that they never use their horns for anything. They like wattles are what somebody called "goat jewelry". And it doesn't have to hurt people if they are handled and trained right. I am keeping horns on all my goats. I only have 1 unhorned goat that someone gave me as a present. And I am about tired of the look of SHE'S GOT HORNS!(like you need to disbud oh I can't believe this.) I simply say yes. Anyway besides all that. I think it's cruel. If you had horns imagine getting them burned out of your head! OUCH! I know I stand pretty much alone on this but oh well this is just my opinion! They say it doesn't last long again think if it were you. I don't even want temporary pain. So my vote is for horned goats obviously.

Agree!

Oh and I have a almost 2 year old brother that I would trust any day with my horned goats even in the pen!

Lotsa ways to raise goats.

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Alice
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I only have nubians.. show requirements, fences and such all play a big part in our decision to disbud all kids.. BUT..for us, the style stanchion I use, no way could I put a horned doe's head in there to milk...the biggest reason aside from safety issues??? I disbud because it makes the kids so much more appealing to the types folks that I sell to.. I've never had anyone want me to leave the buds on a kid they are buying...
susie, mo ozarks

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My farm is free of horns. I dont like horns. Bad experince when I was younger. Also I think the goat looks better without horns. And I believe that fence with horn dont mix right. It seem like a hassle.. I disbud my baby goats when they are young and it is qiuck and get over with it.. They move on and they are fine. That what I like about..

I myself wouldn't buy a goat without horns. I feel they need their horns. years ago my fav. goat was ripped to shreds by a wolf hybrid that got in to the electric fence. The owners wouldn't put him down and since no one had actually seen him do it (though later it was proven) we couldn't do anything about it. We replaced the fence charger with a much stronger one and got a milk goat with horns. 4 month after that the wolf hybrid was cornered in the goat pen by that horned doe with wolf fur in a crack in her horn. I had to shot the wolf hybrid
If you young adult horned goat get stuck in the fance you can take a lightweight board and drill two holes that will fit on the upper part of the horns but not all the way down the horn. The board should stick out on both sides so the goat can't put it's head through the fance thus not getting stuck and will after a while learn not to. They do look a little funny but you can paint them with stars and since and make them look colorful

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I am not big fan of horns, I always worry about them getting caught in the fence. Our two pygmy bucks of horns and they worry me. We have thought about doing the notching and banding to remove the horns, but I'm not sure how successful that is.

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I heard this guy yesterday... assumed it was with the other goats (my cousins goats)... I would have checked on it, but I was making a perimeter sweep, seeing where fences had been washed away. This afternoon, drove by... it'd been there at least 24 hours...

Poster child for disbudding. It's a wonder the coyotes didn't have a snack.

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I have seen more than one goat die from being stuck in fences. So I disbud everything. Male or female. Dairy goats horns seem to act like fishhooks when they are near wire fences. I have also seen improvements in milk production when adult goats were dehorned. I know that cows are always dehorned and that the dairy industry says that cows with horns are not able to produce as much milk. Don't know if this is constant in the goat world, but it works for us.

I've never had a goat deliberately use it's horns on me, but I've had a few bruises and a close call with my eye from accidental encounters. I've also had two sheep gored by horned goats. They also would get stuck in the fence on a regular basis, and a mature set of horns won't fit in my milking stand or in my feeders. So my goats are all disbudded. Now, if we lived differently, where we didn't have fences and feeders and milking stands to worry about, then I would probably leave the horns on -- they look nice, and they do serve several functions (they may be part of the goat's cooling system; they offer some protection -- although not much; and they are handy for scratching itches on the goat's back). But as things stand, no, I don't want horns.

Kathleen

Its a no brainer for me - mesh fencing and the possiblity of injury to one of my children or another goat. I think once you start with disbudded, you should continue with the same to keep a level play field in the herd.

The only advantage I know of to leaving the horns on is to allow self-defense against predators. Even in that case, the goat is likely to lose against a pack of coyotes or a single cougar anyway. Better to have a LGD and goats sans horns, IMO.

Well horns and that type of fence don't mix. I have 2x4 square and electric. Never a problem.

I do not disbud because we have to have them for shows, not like the dairy and the Boar, goats. If a cashmere goat does not have them they can die from being over heated. There are time I would LOVE to rip them off because they do get stuck in the fence like the picture, but all I do is I tape a piece of PVC pipe on them across the horns so they can NOT get them in the fence, tat says on until the horns are large enough that they will not get in the wire.
I do not know if I could do the burning, it just kills me to see it after it is done on goats, and BOY do I hear the horrors stories about the brain swelling and seeing them ooze all over. I do know that does not happen a lot but OH, it looks painful.

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Lori

All of my goats are disubbed. Horns are dangerous to not only people but other goats as well. Goats that have horns know that they do, and they know what they can do with them if they want to. Of course, not all goats are aggressive but a goat dosn't have to be aggressive to hurt you with horns. Just a playfull swing of the head at the wrong time can lead to a injury that could have been prevented by just having the goat go through a 10 second or less process when it was a very young kid.

The first time I disbudded goat kids I did two that were 2 weeks old. They of course screamed and fought me the whole way and the experience was one I would like to forget. The next year I had kids disbudded I had the vet do it and she "knocked out" the kids for the process. It went well, but some developed scurs. It was also pricey. This year I got to thinking that maybe I should try again and disubd them myself. I called the vet to find out that they want $13 dollars an animal to disbud them. That helped make my decesion much easier. To make my self less stressfull about the situation, I called up a fellow goat owner who just had kids. They were 3 days old. She let me come over and disbud her kids for her. I used to work on a diary farm and have dehorned hundreds of calves so I know the procedure. The kids actually cried more when I was clipping their hair then they did during the actual buring. The process went very well, I took breaks between horn buds and kids, and it make me confident that I can do the job effectively on my own kids that are coming this weekend.

I guess like I said earlier I would rather have my goats go through a 10 second painfull event that they soon forget happened (and I mean they seem to forget in 5 minutes) then have a person or another animal hurt just because they had horns.

I have a mixed opinion, I guess. All mine are disbudded, becasue they either came that way, or we had the babies done, since my daughter shows in 4H. I think they should have horns, but they would get stuck in my fence. I wonder though, about the people here who've said they have been rammed by their own goats.
My herd queen was de-horned by her previous owner as an adult, and she's fine. I have never had one of my goats ram me. Ive been side bumped by their hips, and Ive had them put their heads against me gently, and then they just hold them there until they are scratched and petted.
I would never tolerate a goat that rammed me. I would start with an open handed slap, then..sell, or freezer.

my 2cents.

In the case of my buck, I was walking past him and he threw his head back at me to nail me with his swept back horns (Boer cross buck). He had only been here about four months and he was trying to establish his dominance with me...not a smart move on his part. After that take down he didn't even come near me for quite some time and the relationship was a better one between the two of us.
Beyond that, our goats are not aggressive with me at all. Now, bring a dog near the place? They get incredibly upset and you can bet the one leading the way is the big old brat Giselle, who has horns and does use them on other goats. She is also an incredibly diligent mother. If she weren't here there would be another doe in front of the pack.

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I like not having horns because of the worry of getting stuck in fences and inadvertantly getting injured. I bought a buck that was horned, and he has bands on them right now. He will use them on the other goats, and was quickly becoming dominant, even though he's smaller. He accidently got me on the cheekbone once and purposefully got me in the rear (didn't hurt too bad, he was just nudging me for attention) I'm very hands on with my animals, and in handling them, horns just get way to close to eyeballs sometimes. Ouch. It's not like teeth on a dog, because a dog can't just turn a certain way and have his teeth accidently fly up and get you lol.

I do think they probably use the horns for cooling purposes. But the fact that some goats are naturally polled, tell you it's not SO unnatural for them to not have them.

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I've got 7 kids that need to have their horns removed. Mostly they are all about a month old. Is it too late to have it done? I personally don't care for horns, but didn't get to purchase a dehorning iron this year.