Fullhousefarm
True BYH Addict
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2012
- Messages
- 616
- Reaction score
- 886
- Points
- 203
We disbud. In fact this is our third year having babies born here and the first year I have done all the disbudding myself. It's not fun, but not as bad as I thought it would be.
Why?
-We show registered dairy goats. Goats with horns can't be shown.
-I milk twice a day. Getting clobbered by a goat is no laughing matter. I'd have had ER visits if all the goats had horns. Not because the goats are mean (well, one is evil...) but because it's close quarters.
-I have young kids. Accidents happen and I don't need another way for them to get hurt.
-Safety of the other goats. Accidents happen between goats too. I know of one who lost an eye because his brother poked it out with a horn.
We do have one unregistered Nigerian Dwarf with horns. (We have Nigerians and Lamanchas.) She was given to me with her naturally polled sister. She's generally not a problem has her horns point back and she isn't mean (or the boss).Because she's knew height the risk is less and she hasn't been a problem, In fact, she was nice enough to head but my buck enough when she was getting bred that it saved me having to cut off his scur. LOL. If her horns ever because a problem I'd sell her rather than have her dehorned since that's such a horrific procedure. All her kids get disbudded.
If I had a customer who wanted horns on their goat I'd happily sell them one. I'd just require pickup or a full deposit by 2 weeks (if I was willing to sell as a bottle baby- I'm not always willing) since my market wants all disbudded goats. If I had goats on acres and acres, and wasn't milking I'd be much more ambivalent about horns I'm sure.
Why?
-We show registered dairy goats. Goats with horns can't be shown.
-I milk twice a day. Getting clobbered by a goat is no laughing matter. I'd have had ER visits if all the goats had horns. Not because the goats are mean (well, one is evil...) but because it's close quarters.
-I have young kids. Accidents happen and I don't need another way for them to get hurt.
-Safety of the other goats. Accidents happen between goats too. I know of one who lost an eye because his brother poked it out with a horn.
We do have one unregistered Nigerian Dwarf with horns. (We have Nigerians and Lamanchas.) She was given to me with her naturally polled sister. She's generally not a problem has her horns point back and she isn't mean (or the boss).Because she's knew height the risk is less and she hasn't been a problem, In fact, she was nice enough to head but my buck enough when she was getting bred that it saved me having to cut off his scur. LOL. If her horns ever because a problem I'd sell her rather than have her dehorned since that's such a horrific procedure. All her kids get disbudded.
If I had a customer who wanted horns on their goat I'd happily sell them one. I'd just require pickup or a full deposit by 2 weeks (if I was willing to sell as a bottle baby- I'm not always willing) since my market wants all disbudded goats. If I had goats on acres and acres, and wasn't milking I'd be much more ambivalent about horns I'm sure.
