# Horns or no horns?!



## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

What are everyone's thoughts on disbudding?? And does anyone have any great tips for dehorning properly?! I have alpines.
1 doe is polled
1 doe is disbudded
1 doe has horns
2 wethers have horns
And unfortunately Stinky Pete(my buck) has some nasty scurs! His previous owners attempted to disbud him but I guess it wasn't done properly... I personally am a huge fan of hornless but I'm weary of disbudding improperly!


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

This is Stinky Pete, his right horn has to be trimmed quite often to keep it from growing into the back if his head...


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## KarmakeeFarm (Jun 3, 2012)

I dont like horns on my does-and i think Lamachas look funny with horn-JMHO


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## GTAllen (Jul 22, 2012)

I like horns on boer goats. But, any scur or deformed horn is removed. Can you band the horn that keeps trying to grow into his skull?


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

How do I band it? Like where exactly do I put the band? I am will to try almost anything because the veins in his horns are getting longer and we are only able to take off smaller prices everytime we trim!!


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## GTAllen (Jul 22, 2012)

There are some post on how to do. As far as I understand, you want to get the band to roll over the bump next to the skull where band restricts the blood flow. This is supposed to stop active growth and will fall off or get knocked off eventually.


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## Dani-1995 (Mar 11, 2011)

I have boers and I like them to have horns. I show wethers and really don't have a preference as long as its not scurs... they are such a problem! I personally think dairy goats look funny with horns but maybe thats because I'm used to seeing them without.


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## peggy (Aug 11, 2010)

Hi there. I prefer goats without horns also. I am always afraid that they will hurt another goat or get stuck in the fence or poke an eye out when I am handling them, So I disbud. I will say though that if you decided to disbud to either get someone to do it foe you who knows how to do it right or learn to do it right yourself. It is easier to do it right the first time than to deal with horns or scurs later. I sent you a PM.


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

I love a beautiful set of horns! But I also like cute hornless goats. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE polled goats because they will never ever have to be disbudded! 
My wether has horns, and he's pretty smart about not getting caught. He never has intentionally hurt anyone, but sometimes he'll accidentally bump his horns into us, and then it hurts!


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

I love my polled gal too!! Half her babies should be polled... So I am hoping that by breeding her to a non polled buck from great milking lines I will hopefully end up with a nice little herd of polled does for milking!! This is a picture of penny my polled girl!


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

She's beautiful!
ETA - here's a link to a pic of my polled doeling, Annie Oakley! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aOeG55m-r4zJQlh7sWBFyWwkuLbQYVMwiM-zspmjIkM?feat=directlink


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

milkmaid said:


> She's beautiful!
> ETA - here's a link to a pic of my polled doeling, Annie Oakley! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/aOeG55m-r4zJQlh7sWBFyWwkuLbQYVMwiM-zspmjIkM?feat=directlink


OMG she is too cute!! I think it is safe to say I love my goats as much if not more than my dogs!! Mind you my dogs love my goats too haha


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## romanad (Sep 22, 2012)

I prefer dehorned, but that's because I had a nasty run in with a mean, horned buck when I was a child


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Are you going to keep the kids or sell or maybe both? If your going to sell I have noticed that most people are either ok with horns or dislike them and with no horns either love them or think they not having horns are ok. So if your going to sell or maybe sell them I would disbud them. Thats what Im going to do with all my kids then if later on I keep one or two or more lol, I really dont care if they have horns or not but when I sell them I will also have the 'anti horns' looking to buy them. Now if your going to keep them go with what ever you would want them to have. As for disbudding tips, i have never tryed it but will here soon lol


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## neubunny (Nov 7, 2012)

We had (sold) an angora 'wether' (long story, now awaiting nigora kids) named Darby who had horns. Twice he got caught in fences and had to be rescued (had to literally take the fence apart to get him free). He also used those horns on the other wethers. Fortunately, they curled enough that no one was ever caught on the tips. I liked the horns for handling him (literally, if you grabbed the horns he was immediately docile and you could use them to lead/steer him) and I really like the looks of horns on goats - but not worth the other trouble.


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

Yeah my horned alpine doe is a heifer and she has been caught hitting my little fainter wether on more than one occasion... Her horns stick up and it's very dangerous so I put her in my homemade goat stand and cut the tips of her horns off and filed them down! But she is still rough with my poor little wether, who literally freezes up under pressure and then has no way of escaping because the poor little bugger is stiff as a board! He now roams around the yard and sleeps in the heated dog house with my dogs! They are WAY nicer to him! 
What kind of disbudding iron would you guys suggest for future kids?! I am willing to spend the money if it is good quality and burns evenly, I don't want to have to do it more than once! Thanks for all the advice it has been super helpful!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I have the X30 and did my first kids this morning!!! She says with the 30 it takes longer to heat up but by the time I took the finished kid out of the box put her back in my car and got the next one the iron was ready to go. It seemed to work well but I have nothing to compare to lol. But with your doe, when you trimmed her horns did you hit blood. I had one mean doe that I tiped her horns, I ended up hitting a little blood and it kept her in check for a few weeks, I WAS going to jusk keep taking a little off at a time but the day she went at my son was the day she found a new home so couldnt tell you if my master plan worked or not.


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## fezz09 (Oct 30, 2012)

I used my hoof nippers to trim a little horn at a time so I didn't hit and blood! Then I used a rasp and rounded them nice and dull lol! She has always been great with people, and I think the only reason she is so hard on my poor little fainter is because she is kind of the underdog with the big goats, not only is joe way smaller than her but once she hits him the poor little bugger just goes belly up!! I saw a couple irons at peavey Mary and co-op. I was thinking of getting one of those!


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

I'm not going to sell any kids with horns because I don't want them to have problems later in life if they do end up bullying people or goats with them: such as getting their horns banded (which sounds terribly painful), or being avoided and neglected. But I do love my horned wether, and I don't think we'll ever part with him.


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