Unable to catch buck - any suggestions

GoatsRus · #1 09/24/10, 01:28 PM

I'm about ready to "off" him. He's a Kiko buck and a good breeder.

We've had him from the time he was a few months old and he will be 3 in January. I walked him on a leash when he was small and then my DH started taking up time with him everyday. He has "never" been real friendly (the buck not DH... LOL). We got him to load in the trailer using a doe in heat, he bred all the girls and now I want to move him back to him pen. No such luck. He won't get in the trailer and he won't let us close enough to catch him. Even if we did, he's probably 250 LBS and strong as a small bull. We don't have a cattle catch pen.

We probably should get rid of him, but we're on the downside of our goat raising days and I really don't want to go through getting another buck. Plus I'd have to catch him first !!! Any suggestions?

fishhead · #2 09/24/10, 01:51 PM

Will he come for grain? Mine jump in the back of my truck for a few kernals of corn.

pygmybabies · #3 09/24/10, 02:08 PM

oh my...i hope you catch him, can you corner him, somehow? With a truck or something

mothernature · #4 09/24/10, 02:16 PM

How are your roping abilities? I'm not really for roping because they never trust you the same again. I would rope him to catch him if you are selling him though!

Goat Servant · #5 09/24/10, 02:25 PM

When moving does out of buck pen I use large sheet of plywood with a handle on it between him & them so he doesnt go rushing out.
Also if you can get close enough to him to grab his beard to restrain while getting lead on?

GoatsRus · #6 09/24/10, 02:31 PM

Oh he's wiley enough.

Fishhead - We tried to bait him with fruit, grain, bread, watermelon and vegetables. All the girls went right into the trailer and ate hig on the hog, but he would only put one foot in and then jump back.

GS - We can't even get close enough to grab his horns and he has those big mountain goat horns!

Mothernature - my next thought is to rope his horns. If it slips around his neck and he knocks himself out so be it. the only problem with roping is his strength. We'll need to do it near a tree or post or he will drag us all over.

We never had this problem with our Boer buck. Hell, he'd walk along side of us from the back of the pasture up to the barn.

prairiedog · #7 09/24/10, 03:52 PM

My daughter an I caught one that was wild a march hare by slowly backing him in a corner of the pasture with a spare cattle panel

Alice In TX/MO · #8 09/24/10, 04:13 PM

How quickly does it need to be done? Build a small catch pen in the corner and feed him there only for a week or so.

Backfourty,MI. · #9 09/24/10, 09:37 PM

I think after this breeding season if I still wanted to breed my girls next year I'd get a new buck & sell that one.
I sure hope you can catch him to get him back to his pen, be careful like you said they are really strong & I'm sure he could hurt you if he felt too threatened.

motdaugrnds · #10 09/24/10, 10:05 PM

Can you put one of those does back in the trailer; then once he's in, take her out?

chamoisee · #11 09/30/10, 10:26 PM

Wow, he's big. I don't see why there is a rush to sell him or to assume he is mean. If the next one doesn't get worked with, he will be just as wild.

My advice is to quit chasing him and make every interaction he has with you a positive one. Goats are smart. They remember stuff like being bribed with food and then having someone leap out at them to grab a limb, and then they get wary.

It doesn't seem like there is a hurry to catch him; even if he has bred them all, one or two might come back into heat. For such a large, powerful buck, I would spend an awful lot of time trying to tame him.

Has he had negative experiences (for example, kids with sticks, yelling, etc) that would make him shy?

MissyMoo · #12 10/01/10, 12:38 AM

You could get a couple two or three men and have them rope him and hang on the end for dear life (LOL) and drag him or pick him up and take him to his pen. OR you could tranquilize him if you had some Ace injectable....once they got him down on the ground.

I had a huge buck like that long ago and I had one short but muscular man friend who roped him and then reeled him closer and grabbed his horns plus the rope and dragged his butt straight out of my pen. he had the deed accomplished in about 5 mins...then again he wasnt in a pasture.

maybe Rope the horns or rope a leg....at least until you can rope the horns or neck?

right now I have similar situation....yet again. I have a HUGE pygmy buck that has a WIDE chest and HUGE horns very thick and long rack of horns......probably the most impressive I have ever seen on a goat anywhere near where I live anyway.
He will eat out of my hands, yet he has such a breeding drive that he is completely nuts. I managed to get him seperated from my does to put him in a pen beside the does, by himself, cause he even beat up on them when he wasnt breeding them. He tried to get me a few times during and I am lucky to say that I got the job done and neither of us got hurt....however, once he was in his own pen, he got extremely angry about that and slammed his head against the fence panels and they look like a truck smashed into them. one of my steel hog/livestock panels is caved outwards like a truck smashed into it and then backed up and left. he managed to do that damage in just a few head butts. I stood next to front of his pen and much to my surprise he turned around and head butted ME through the cyclone fence piece. now it looks like a pretzel and I have sore legs to show for it.

I had thoughts of ending his life functions until i realized he is too stinky and mean to taste any good, HAHAHA!!

The man I once knew.....I dont know anymore, so now I am gonna sell this gorgeous but psycho goat.....its either that or I have to invest in full body armor for me and my goats, HAHA!! (not to mention foot thick metal sheets to pen him in with - maybe that he couldnt damage). it sucks cause I find the buck goats that are huge, older, and long haired and have big racks of horns - the most beautiful of all goats, but they are downright dangerous sometimes.

good luck with your goat adventure.

Laverne · #13 10/01/10, 03:07 AM

I can't catch my buck so I feed him through a cattle panel and snare him with a noose when he sticks his head through to eat when I need to snare him.
Maybe start feeding your guy through a milk stand type head holder with the wood bar that swings shut. Installing this on some type of manger. Tie a long rope on it and when he comes to feed pull it shut.

Cannon_Farms · #14 10/01/10, 04:56 AM

I agree with cornering him with a cattle pannle in a fence corner, i have the pannle flat against the fence standing up so it doesnt look any different (securing one end to the fence), feed in the very corner and give him a moment to relax then close in in a hurry make sure you have some one else there or two to serve as a block.

Spinner · #15 10/01/10, 05:31 AM

As big and dangerous as he sounds, I would invest in building a catch pen. He could do you some damage if you try to handle him.

I had a buck that was gentle as an angel, but when he was in rut, his halo turned into horns real fast. I learned to be very cautious around a buck in rut. They can be sweet angels one minute, and wild devils the next.

mekasmom · #16 10/01/10, 06:06 AM

People usually get new bucks every couple of years if they choose to keep their doelings. That way, you are not constantly line breeding. Unless your little guy is a champion that is superb in every aspect, I would just sell him or butcher him and get a new one for next season. It's just the way most people do with their bucks because you keep the does for milking year after year, and some extra doelings that are born, but you have to replace the buck.

motdaugrnds · #17 10/02/10, 11:36 PM

Goodness, both our bucks weigh over 250 lbs and are as gentle as lambs, even in rut (as long as they are not around each other). I can walk among either one of our bucks and "his" does even when he is chasing them and never get hurt. (I bottle fed both from birth and taught both to "heal" and even help me some uphill; so maybe this makes a difference.)

That said, I would never be so foolish as to walk among the bucks when they "accidentally" get together during breeding season.

**mygoat** · #18 10/03/10, 11:16 AM

If I were you, I'd hand breed your girls from now on and keep the buck in a smaller pen elsewhere on the farm. That way you only have to move the doe.

Kshobbit · #19 10/03/10, 02:14 PM

This is what we did with a very shy ie, hard to catch, Boer Buck about the same size. My adult son who is the goat catcher in the family and I chased him around the smallish pasture until he couldn't run any more. Then, my son would throw him on the ground and hang on while I trimmed his hooves and wormed him. It took two men to drag him out of the pasture and into the trailer and that was after we ran him into the ground. He went to a huge farm with many does to breed so there was a happy ending.