# Breeding Polled Goats



## Happy Hobby Farmer (May 16, 2011)

Alright, I've never owned a polled goat before.....
I'm buying a polled doe. She is from a set of twins, and both were polled.
Her sire is horned (all generations, horned), and her dam is polled (I don't know her background). I will be breeding her to a horned buck this fall. What are the chances that the kids will be polled?

I do know that I can't breed polled to polled, so how do I keep the polled line going? Its seems to me like I would eventually breed it out (if I keep her polled daughters and breed them horned, and so on).

I'm not going to lie, this whole thing confuses the heck out of me :ROFL: .


----------



## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

chances of polled kids are 50/50 chance PER KID so you could end up with a whole littler of polled or all horned.

I bred my polled doe this year and she gave me 1 polled and two horned. Im breeding both my polled does and hoping for more polled kids this year.

breeding polled to polled isnt all bad. Ive seen people do it with good results. 

Next spring Im going to be looking for a polled buck to add to my herd.


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I have a polled doe and twice she was bred to a horned buck and had horned kids...she was bred with a polled buck and gave me 2 polled boys and 1 horned girl.
I'll be repeating the same breeding this year if my buck doesn't sell.

Polled to polled is not "bad"....myfainters(Jess) breeds polledxpolled and has no issues.


----------



## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

Me being one that owns a hermaprhodite, I'm a little worrisome on polledxpolled breedings. But I am not against it. I would love to NEVER disbud! LOL

I'm not trying to steal this topic, but it kind of goes along with the question.
We have a polled doe, who has kidded twice that we know of. Both times bred to horned bucks. She has given 3 polled kids, no horned kids.
We are wondering if she may have been a polledxpolled breeding. Would it make her dominant for the gene? Also, she has a crooked face (has never passed to kids and she eats, drinks just fine) Could that have something to do with it also? Her being a polledxpolled made her have a crooked face? It is bone structure, after all, and so are horns... Just wondering.


----------



## Happy Hobby Farmer (May 16, 2011)

So say I breed polled to polled, and the kids come out polled and are not sterile, could they still carry the genes for intersex and pass it onto their kids?


----------



## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

I did a polledxpolled - blue eyed x blue eyed breeding this year just to "see" on my meat breeds - I received 1 polled blue eyed, 1 polled brown eyed HERMAPHRODITE, and a brown eyed horned!


----------



## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

onder: Wonder about the croked face? Not sure but interesting thought. I had a croked face boy that I decided to wether at 1 yr and sell as a pet just for the worry that it may have been something genetic. He was not from polled goats unless they were incorrectly disbuded.


----------



## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

The crooked face is called "Wry Face" it can be genetic or an environmental birth defect. If you really crunch the numbers, there are just as many hermies from horned animals as polled.


----------



## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

From the AGS website...

PP: This animal is polled, and does not carry the gene for horns. 
Pp: This animal would be polled, and carry a recessive gene for horns. 
pp: This animal has horns. An animal must carry two genes for horns to have horns. 

Here are the various breeding scenarios with the resulting offspring:

Horned (pp) X Horned (pp) = 100% horned (pp) offspring.
Polled (Pp) X Horned (pp) = 50% polled (Pp), 50% horned (pp) offspring.
Polled (Pp) X Polled (Pp) = 25% polled (PP), 50% polled (Pp), 25% horned (pp) offspring
Homozygous polled (PP) X Horned (pp) = All polled (Pp) offspring.
Homozygous polled (PP) X Homozygous Polled (PP) = All homozygous polled (PP) offspring. 

I personally don't believe breeding polled x polled will give you a greater chance of hermaphrodites. There are people who've been breeding polled goats with polled goats for years and never had hermaphrodites.


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I refer to that listing of explanation on polled genetics quite often...thanks Kylee for listing it here.

AFTER a whole lot of digging on genetics with my doe and buck....my doe has a polled dam and a horned sire...my buck also has a polled dam and horned sire...since I have not gotten ANY polled kids from my doe when bred to a horned buck I think it's safe to assume that she has the Pp gene.... And since my buck has thrown 50/50 polled/horned when bred to horned does, I can assume that he too is a "Pp". He was bred to my horned doe and gave horned twin doelings, bred to my polled doe he gave 1 horned doeling and 2 polled bucklings.


----------



## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

liz said:


> I refer to that listing of explanation on polled genetics quite often...thanks Kylee for listing it here.


No problem. :wink: :thumb:


----------



## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

Heres a photo of the doe with the crooked or wry face. It does look like it was naturally occuring (born that way) because you can see that one of her eyes is a little more bulged the the other. I think. I'm not sure. :laugh:


----------



## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

I will look for a photo of my guy that had it. It wasn't that noticeable. Kinda had to look hard to see it or it was easy to feel. At first we thought he may have been kicked as a kid at his breeders house. Then we started thinking genetic and decided to wether.


----------



## Happy Hobby Farmer (May 16, 2011)

Thank you everyone for the great info! I feel better about adding her to my herd, I wasn't quite sure it was something I wanted to deal with.

That doe is pretty, too bad about her face! 

I've seen one born with a crooked face (not from polled parents), and the vet said it was due to the antibiotics the dam had very early in pregnancy (they didn't know she was bred), they caused a problem with the bone growth. It too had a bulgy eye on one side.


----------



## Happy Hobby Farmer (May 16, 2011)

I looked at the doe I was supposed to be getting, and I didn't like her at all.
So I brought a new polled doeling home this morning instead, she is 4 months old.

I have another question. What does a polled goats head feel like?? I can feel two big nubs where her horns should be, they feel like buds before they "rupture" (I hope that make sense). Raised, but wide and flat. 

Should it be like this or have I been had???


----------



## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Congrats on the new girl! I am still learning about polled so can't answer if that is how it is supposed to feel.


----------



## Dunfactor (Dec 10, 2009)

Happy Hobby Farmer,

Yep, the bumps are normal for a polled goat.  The bumps are more prominant in the buck and bucklings then in the doelings but they all have the "giraffe bumps" where their horns would have been. 

Enjoy your new doeling! I  polled goats. 

Tracy


----------



## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Happy Hobby Farmer said:


> I looked at the doe I was supposed to be getting, and I didn't like her at all.
> So I brought a new polled doeling home this morning instead, she is 4 months old.
> 
> I have another question. What does a polled goats head feel like?? I can feel two big nubs where her horns should be, they feel like buds before they "rupture" (I hope that make sense). Raised, but wide and flat.
> ...


Totally normal and the way a polled goats head looks/feels.....as she gets older, and her head grows, the bumps won't be as prominent.


----------



## Happy Hobby Farmer (May 16, 2011)

Thank you all for the replies!! :leap: I was worried that her horns had just not come through yet for some reason.


----------



## jodief100 (Jan 15, 2011)

I was discussing polled and hermaphordite goats with Dr Andries at KSY recently. He says the hermaphrodite gene is very close to the polled gene on the locus. So it does tend to be passed with the polled gene. It doesn't always and it can be there in a horned goat as well. The hermaphrodite gene is recessive so you need to get two copies of the gene for the goat to be a hemaphrodite. That is why polled to polled breedings have a higher risk of producing a hemaphrodite goat. There is a higher liklyhood of the gene being present in a polled goat. If someone has bred polled to polled with no hemaphrodites regularly, then thier polled goats probably do not carry the hemaphrodite gene.


----------



## Happy Hobby Farmer (May 16, 2011)

Great info jodief100, thanks for sharing!


----------



## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

Some numbs grow more prominent and others are less prominent but totally normal as mentioned.

I appreciate the info as well on the hermaphrodite issue


----------

