Scurs vs Horns

[stgagnon]

Hi y'all.

I have two saanen does, 1 boer wether (with horns), and I'm about to get 4 more boer does (horns).

Right now the saanens are separated from the wether, but my plan is to put them all together.

I realize that doing this will result in some head banging until the pecking order is established. Not looking forward to that, really.

Here's my Q. One of the saanens has horn scurs. I'm wondering if a head bash against somebody with horns is going to get somebody hurt. The scurs are pointy!!

Should I worry about this? Should I try to trim the scurs?

What would you do?

Thanks,
Suz.

[RiverPines]

Any dangerous horns like ones that stick straight up, I cover with hoses and duct tape. Works for me as I wont disbud and I have polled with horned.

[sgian]

I'd be more concerned about the scurs breaking off, I've had that happen once. From what I've seen, not having horns puts the goat at a disadvantage against another goat of similar size. My dehorned goat only gets to pick on goats much thinner than herself.

[goatkid]

If there's any way you can have two goat pens, I'd keep your Saanen does in one pen and the horned Boers and wether in another. I'm not a fan of horns. I used to have Boers as well as dairy goats. All of my Boers were disbudded with the exception of Peaches. Peaches was a pretty mellow doe, but liked to use her horns to harass my dairy goats. She put a large welt in the side of one of my Nubians right before a show. She scooped up one of my older Nuibian does with her horns. I sold her to a Boer ranch.
Then, there is the issue of nutrition. Saanens are a heavy milking breed. They need grain and alfalfa when they are in milk and late pregnancy. Feeding Boers and wethers the same diet makes them fat. Boers do better on pasture supplemented with alfalfa pellets or hay when raising kids and pasture and grass hay when they are dry. I tried raising my hornless Boers in the same pen with my dairy goats and they became blimps. Since I didn't want to deal with separate pens, I sold the Boers.