- Aug 8, 2011
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really depends on your intended management, and your tollerance for vet bills.
we have full size LaMancha dairy goats, and will be adding a large boer buck as a terminal sire. we disbud all the dairy doelings because they will be handled daily for milking and getting horns in the milking stantions requires a different kind of stantion. in addition, it's just safer and easier to handle them without the horns.
we disbud bucklings we intend to sell to breed specific or pet homes... it's harder to sell bucks and wethers with horns. if you're breeding registered stock, you do need to know if the registry has rules regarding horns (can or can't show with them, can or can't register if disbudded).
we do not disbud bucks and wethers we intend to sell in the meat market - no need to do so as long as long as the horns are correctly made and not a hazard to the animal. in addition, some market segments (like middle eastern) want an animal that is in it's natural state (not disbudded, wethered, ear tagged or tattooed) and will pay more for it.
in our sheep, we disbud everything that grows scurr horns or white horns (because our experience is that the white horns break a lot more often). if they're growing nicely shaped black horns, we leave them.
we do not disbud any bucklings we are retaining for our own breeding line - because I like bucks with horns and am willing to take on the risks and potential expenses that go with it.
over the years, we have had bucks get caught in the fence. two years ago we lost a nice yearling ram (sheep) to a broken neck from getting a horn caught in a fence and flipping. our neighbors lost a couple of young goat wethers we sold them because they were gored by their nasty boer nanny with horns. last year I nearly lost a 6-month ram to blood loss from a horn knocked off in a sparing match with his papa (spent half an hour holding pressure on a baddly bleeding horn base and torn growth ring). he recovered fine, but had I not been there at the right time he likely would have bled to death. this summer we had to cull a friend's ram because he had one horn that curled down and wanted to grow through his eye.
personally I HATE the disbudding process, but we disbud more than not, exceptions as noted above. on goats, we can do the disbudding ourselves up until the tiny horn attaches to the skull (it free-floats at first). after the horn attaches, usually a week or sometimes two, it's a vet call to disbud. we could probably still do the 2-week olds but I prefer not to, so the vet gets that duty. mostly we try to make the decision if a kid or lamb needs disbudding before then. sometimes it's later on the sheep as they dont all exhibit horn growth in the first two weeks.
we have full size LaMancha dairy goats, and will be adding a large boer buck as a terminal sire. we disbud all the dairy doelings because they will be handled daily for milking and getting horns in the milking stantions requires a different kind of stantion. in addition, it's just safer and easier to handle them without the horns.
we disbud bucklings we intend to sell to breed specific or pet homes... it's harder to sell bucks and wethers with horns. if you're breeding registered stock, you do need to know if the registry has rules regarding horns (can or can't show with them, can or can't register if disbudded).
we do not disbud bucks and wethers we intend to sell in the meat market - no need to do so as long as long as the horns are correctly made and not a hazard to the animal. in addition, some market segments (like middle eastern) want an animal that is in it's natural state (not disbudded, wethered, ear tagged or tattooed) and will pay more for it.
in our sheep, we disbud everything that grows scurr horns or white horns (because our experience is that the white horns break a lot more often). if they're growing nicely shaped black horns, we leave them.
we do not disbud any bucklings we are retaining for our own breeding line - because I like bucks with horns and am willing to take on the risks and potential expenses that go with it.
over the years, we have had bucks get caught in the fence. two years ago we lost a nice yearling ram (sheep) to a broken neck from getting a horn caught in a fence and flipping. our neighbors lost a couple of young goat wethers we sold them because they were gored by their nasty boer nanny with horns. last year I nearly lost a 6-month ram to blood loss from a horn knocked off in a sparing match with his papa (spent half an hour holding pressure on a baddly bleeding horn base and torn growth ring). he recovered fine, but had I not been there at the right time he likely would have bled to death. this summer we had to cull a friend's ram because he had one horn that curled down and wanted to grow through his eye.
personally I HATE the disbudding process, but we disbud more than not, exceptions as noted above. on goats, we can do the disbudding ourselves up until the tiny horn attaches to the skull (it free-floats at first). after the horn attaches, usually a week or sometimes two, it's a vet call to disbud. we could probably still do the 2-week olds but I prefer not to, so the vet gets that duty. mostly we try to make the decision if a kid or lamb needs disbudding before then. sometimes it's later on the sheep as they dont all exhibit horn growth in the first two weeks.
