Are there naturally "polled" breeds?

[Judith]

No laughing! I have never had a goat, but I know for a fact that I could not debud one. So.... I would then have horned critters which I defiantely do not want. in cattle there are polled breeds are there any goats similar?

[dosthouhavemilk]

There are polled lines in most breeds. I have a purebred, registered, polled Nubian buck.
The problem with goats and the polled gene is that it is linked to a sex gene. Breeding polled to polled runs the risk of a homozygous polled "female" who will generally be a hermaphrodite. Polled is dominant.
I'm quite pleased to have fewer goats to disbud. He's thrown quite a few polled daughters that will be bred to my disbudded buck. They still have the potential for polled offspring, but hermaprhodites ought not come of the breeding.

[Judith]

Thank you very much! It was the deciding factor on whether or not I got goats

[topside1]

Judith, I have two polled Boer/Nubian bucklings for sale if your interested....anyone else interested?? I'm in Tennessee.

[mygoat]

disbudding, I"m told, is not all that hard... and trust me, goats are definetely worth it. If you seriously can't stomach it, find a goat person in your neighborhood with a dehorner, and you can give them a couple bucks per kid dehorned. I couldn't live without my goats. It would annoy me not to have a dog and cat around at any time in my life, but I seriously think that it would physically harm me to not have a goat close at hand during any part of my life. Trust me, you WANT goats... well, maybe not... They're addicting.

[Kharisma]

Originally Posted by dosthouhavemilk

There are polled lines in most breeds. I have a purebred, registered, polled Nubian buck.
The problem with goats and the polled gene is that it is linked to a sex gene. Breeding polled to polled runs the risk of a homozygous polled "female" who will generally be a hermaphrodite. Polled is dominant.
I'm quite pleased to have fewer goats to disbud. He's thrown quite a few polled daughters that will be bred to my disbudded buck. They still have the potential for polled offspring, but hermaprhodites ought not come of the breeding.

I have been raising polled Nubians over 25 yrs. I have never had any genetic problems. I have never seen a hermaprhodite.

[mygoat]

Wow this is an old thread.

[Cannon_Farms]

that maybe my fault as I was showing folks the thread on our Pakastain farmer friend with his polled breedings
at least we know our search engine is working