Hornless buck

tinker-girl · #1 04/10/05, 08:19 PM

I have a couple hornless does that came from a hornless buck. Now after 2 years one of the does had a hornless buck. I am wanting to breed it back to the hornless mother and the other hornless doe that I have, but was told that you have a real good chance of have a morphidite kid. Is that true or can I breed him to them to have more hornless goats in my herd? Also is it true that the hornless does that I have may have some kind of genetic problems too that run with why they are hornless? I know this may be stupid questions but I just dont know. Thank you for any answers.

mary,tx · #2 04/10/05, 08:28 PM

I have hesitated about breeding polled to polled because I, too, have read about potential problems. Others on the board have researched this issue better, though, and may give you better input on that.

I can tell you that polled is a dominant trait, which means your polled does likely carry one gene for polled(dominant),and one recessive gene for horned. By breeding your doe to a horned buck(carrying two recessive horned genes) you have a 50/50 chance with each kid of it being polled. If you are looking for this trait you are more likely to notice it. I have one polled doe that had kidded several times over a few years before I one day looked at one of her kid bucks and saw polled. It was not likely her first, but I hadn't realized she was polled, so had not looked for the trait in her kids. (I'm sure you've learned that it is recognized by straight hair where the horns would be instead of swirls.)

Breeding polled to polled is not actually going to increase your chances of polled offspring all that much. You would get a 75% chance on each kid of it being polled instead of a 50% chance.

mary

greenacres · #3 04/10/05, 10:58 PM

I don't know about polled to polled. I had a polled doe and nearly all her kids were polled. You have to be careful when inbreeding. You can pick up the good traits or pick up bad traits. Good luck.

TexCountryWoman · #4 04/11/05, 04:12 PM

Do not breed polled to polled in goats (okay in cattle). It causes genetic problems such as hermephredites and even death according to my research. I have had several wonderful polled does that threw many polled kids but I always used a horned (disbudded) buck. I love having polled animals in my herd because of less disbudding requirements. But the goat must be good in other areas too. A polled doe that doesn't milk well isn't worth a hoot unless you have a good understanding of genetics and plenty of time of your hands to develope your own polled milking line or meat line through heaving culling and good breeding practices.

Also, for any newbies out there (we all were newbies once!) a Polled goat or cow is one born naturally hornless. Many goats have no horns but they were removed or "disbudded" shortly after birth.

dosthouhavemilk · #5 04/11/05, 07:03 PM

I believe the hermaphroditism shows up when a polled buck (with both genes being polled) and a polled doe (with both genes being polled) are bred together. If I understand it correctly, as long as one of the parents carrys a horned gene, then the crossing is okay. If the doe has thrown horned offspring and has just now thrown a polled offspring then she most likely carrys both genes and breeding her to a polled buck would be safe. Breeding her to her own kid, well I would not do that as I am not skilled in goat genetics.

We had a polled buck and he threw less than 50% polled kids with our horned does.
We now have another polled buck and I am anxious to see what he will throw.

Ellie5 · #6 04/12/05, 11:47 AM

This may give you a better understanding. Go to this website:

http://faintinggoatheaven.com.hostin...breedings.html

TexCountryWoman · #7 04/12/05, 10:27 PM

Fascinating...thanks for the link.

tinker-girl · #8 04/13/05, 06:56 AM

Thank you all so much for the info, and thanks so much for the link. That was very interesting.

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #9 04/14/05, 02:53 PM

The information on the internet and in books is vastly different than the information you get when talking to folks actually breeding for polled genetics. There are no more and no less sterile/freemartins or hemaphrodites when breeding polled to polled or horned goats. In fact the hemaphrodites I have seen including my very first goat were all horned.

Breeding for polled genetics would be for me, way down on the genetics improveing page, perhaps after you have a good line of strong meat or milk goats, whichever you are wanting, then breeding for polled is fine...but I certainly would not inbreed for just polled goats without sound goats to begin with. Vicki