too old to disbud

[ugabulldog]

Baby billy is 2 weeks and three days old today (17 days) his buds are pretty tall and look like they are almost thru skin, is it too late to disbud? (I would of done sooner but did not have access to iron thru no fault of mine) he will be a pet by the way, thanks

[mygoat]

He's really likely to get scurs at this point. If he's not breeding quality I'd just leave 'em on him and just butcher him once he gets eating size. If he is breeding quality, I'd definitely make an attempt at disbudding. The horn buds are angled on buck goats, and you will need to do a figure 8 burn over the entirety of the bud. Shave the area well so you can tell what you're doing. Once you burn down really well, burn the center of the horn down as well... Do you have an x50 disbudding iron? If so, replace the 'kid tip' with a piece of copper pipe. It's better because it's fully hollow and deeper.

You may even have to go back and cut off horns and reburn at a later age as well... try to do a thorough job and be sure to allow the iron to reheat between buds and if you use it for an extended period of time.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I would go ahead.

[DairyGoatSlave]

I did mine about three weeks, it was okay(well i didnt do it...) Tony burned them a bit to warm/soften them up then took a pair of trimmers and trimmed off as much as he could then burrned again