Dehorn or not?

I wouldn't dehorn a goat. But I won't have a goat with horns here. Not even a buck. 6 of us raise pygora goats and we use the same buck, none of us want a horned goat so we debud them young....James

Funny thing is we have only had that happen once. And it was a Sr. doe that did it. It wasn't even in the perimeter fence it was in the cattle panel I had set up to separate our a pig pen. lol
She bawled loud enough for us to hear and I went out to get her out. Her horns are very large though. Not so much long as they are big around. I had to cut through the cattle panel with bolt cutters to get her head out!
Not a single goat ever tried it again. LOL

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ANDI in MN
Frozen, but still kickin'

The polled ones are ones that by genetics are born hornless. Poll is a hornless gene that gets passed down. I am not sure how it is passed down, but there are so many others on here that do know. CallianG would know. She's good at that sciency, complicated stuff. Me, not so much.... lol
(I know that's a lame explanation but I teach children all day, what do you expect...lol)

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ANDI in MN
Frozen, but still kickin'

I had a doe like this. She was part pygmy and part milk goddess! She gave me more (and OMG, sweeter) milk than any goat I had then or have had since except my full size Togg. The problem was she was meaner than a rattlesnake and almost as fast. She actually killed our buckling we were raising up for a herd sire. She caught him in the ribs and threw him against a wall and broke his ribs. His side swelled from internal bleeding and he died the next day.
It was a tough decision, but she went away. Of course no one else was in milk at the time and her milk was our favorite, but we couldn't have her killing the other goats. And wrangling her to get her on the stand was like sumo wrestling. So out she went. We haven't had good goat milk since.

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ANDI in MN
Frozen, but still kickin'

Polled is a dominant trait. So you need a polled dam and/or sire to end up with a polled kid.
"Takes one to make one."
It is quite nice to have fewer kids to disbud.

We have/had a mixed herd. In the winter I had to pen the horned does up because they would pick up the other kids with their horns and fling them. Then there was that beautiful meat wether who hung himself in the hay feeder with his horns.
Due to our choice of management with our 100+ head of goats, we choose to go the no horns route. We have one doe left with a full set of horns, plus a unicorn plus one with serious hornlike scurs. I figure I'll deal with the unicorn this winter. The one doe with horns is older and does not generally get herself stuck. They can get along but a lot depends on personalities, as well as, how your pens are set up and space. Frankly, all the bruises and near misses when I handle horned goats does not make me want to leave horns on our goats. It has taken years to get to this point of hornlessness with our herd.
I am grateful to have had a Polled herdsire for 5 years. He hasn't been the only herdsire but he has left a mark as far as polled goes in the herd.
We banded...sorry, got the call that X85 had a bubble showing so I dashed off and thought I was done.
We banded Midge's horns last winter. It did not work as smoothly as we had hoped but she is now hornless and is not stuck every single day in this miserable weather in the hay feeder and then the grain feeders. We have a local large animal vet who numbs them up, sedates them and dehorns them for not that much of a cost. I may go that route with the unicorn doe. I haven't decided.
I do know that any route needs pain meds because it is not easy on the animal at all.

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

I wouldn't ever dehorn a goat once they have horns, but MY GOODNESS do I hate horns. I have three goats with horns, and have been phasing them out. Two of them are just old does that will be bred until they are unproductive, then they will die of old age in comfort here on the farm. The other is a buck who I bought when I couldn't find another mini buck - and he will be butchered after this year so I can keep disbudded bucklings on as breeders from this year.

Goats with horns DO know they have horns, and they WILL use them. Leading a goat by the collar who has horns that curve back WILL use the horn tips to dig into your hand to try to get you to let go. This may not be 'aggressive' behavior but it is still using them, IMO.

Goats with horns can do damage to lactating goats' udders. I've heard horror stories about a dairy doe getting her udder almost ripped off by another doe with horns.

Injuries are MUCH more likely as you get more goats. They need MUCH more room per goat if they have horns to prevent injuries as they compete for food/space. Multiple feeders and a big indoor area are musts. Goats with horns WILL use them on other goats.

USUALLY, good homes will want disbudded goats. I'm not saying all horned goat homes are bad homes - but generally, good homes want only disbudded goats. If you don't disbud, you're cutting out a lot of your sales from people who just don't want horned goats, 4-H, show etc.

And the biggest kicker - They get stuck in fences. After freeing my oldest mini doe from getting hung up in the fence several times (and almost loosing her after she stood in snow as deep as her for goodness knows how long while I was at school), I ordered a disbudding iron and haven't looked back.

Goats generally won't use their horns for defense effectively. Goats with horns get attacked and loose to coyotes, dogs, and any other predator just as often as disbudded goats. Goat horns were developed less for protection from predators and more for competition with thier own species.

The 'heat release' idea of horns may be true, but they aren't necessary as witnessed by may dairy herds that are disbudded in hot climates.

So, I'd say don't dehorn the adults. But, if you're going to raise goats, disbudding is the way to go, IMO.

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Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.

We have 2 horned boers in with our (all disbudded) LaManchas. The boers are very submissive, even to the younger, smaller girls and we have had no issues because of the horns. No probelms with heads stuck in fences (knock on wood) either. If it came down to it and did become an issue I would definately sell them before dehorning as adults.

When I had horned and not-horned, they were fine together in the pasture, but they had to be fed in separate coops. I expect the horned goats will be more dominant once they are settled in with the others. It normally doesn't take a horned animal very long to figure out those horns can be used.

My opinion would be that the horned animals must be in a separate pen from the others when they are in the barn, so that the others can eat, but also so that the horned animals do not become overly agressive and actually abort or otherwise hurt the non-horned.

Our solution was finally to sell the horned animals.

Last year I had a polled buckling born, with no other polled goats. Both parents were normal, dehorned Alpines. So surprises can happen.

I have had goats dehorned in February. The vet school does a dehorning clinic in Feb every year here. After 2 days, the goats didn't even seem to notice the difference. You actually are told to keep them separate so they don't head but until they are healed completely. They wouldn't be head butting if their heads hurt. I far prefer to disbud, but dehorning isn't that terrible, when its a choice between being a milker or being freezer bound.

Never had any for dairy, but I think the horns make really nice handles come moving day. I had a 275 lb Kiko buck with a 40" spread. Once you had both you ( i mean someone else) could do anything to him. He was a handful but would have been unmanageable without them.

If a goat had good enough udder/lines/conformation then I might consider trying to dehorn if it was an adult and I was attached to it. Otherwise I would just put it in the freezer. I won't have horned goats here.If adults, they have to come either polled like our herd queen or already hornless from disbudding or dehorning. All babies have to be disbudded before I will even consider buying them.

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My pygmies come and go under the fence as they please. I give up. But Smokie, he is such a doofus. In the woods, right next to the new pasture fencing, is one small section of fencing left over from like 50 years ago. And Smokie will get his head stuck in there. Repeatedly. It is like a three foot section, next to hundreds of acres of woods and weeds. I need to go tear it out, but it is all overgrown and messy...how HE keeps finding it is a mystery. His horns grow back over his head, so when he sticks his head in, he cannot get it back out. His sister's horns grow more straight, so I don't think she can fit through any fence holes, and she has no issue with ducking under the fence. No matter HOW many stakes I put in it. Then there is ------, a boer angora cross, but mostly I get get accidentally hooked on him, when he turns his head the right way as I am trying to get past him. I would never de-horn an adult, either.

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Becky

Our horned Niggie buck is no longer here. I was unable to handle him and he knew how to use his horns. My new buck was disbudded early and he is a sweetheart. At my age (67) horns can be problematic.

I had a downed goat, and we had to flip her from side to side, prop her up etc. and she had horns...the little love tried so hard but when you were positioning her she would turn her head and get you unintentionally. So I know those horns CAN hurt, can't they mabeane?? I always time going through the stable door to where ------ is in front of me so he doesn't hook me trying to pass me .

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Becky