Raising Goats Naturally

by Deborah Niemann

  “I have had many people over the years tell me it is cruel and painful to disbud the babies, but I’ll tell you, I can listen to them scream for that few seconds much easier than my daughter for that two hours of sewing up,” Carol says.

  Disbudding

  Disbudding goats is best done with a disbudding iron, which burns the horn buds and stops them from growing. For best results, bucks should be disbudded within the first week after birth and does by two weeks. The longer you wait, the larger the horn bud grows and the longer you will have to burn to remove it. This is not fun, and procrastinating will make it worse.

  You really should see an experienced person disbud goats before trying it yourself. Some breeders are willing to let a new goat owner watch them disbud kids. If you don’t have a breeder near you, large animal vets can also disbud kids, although be sure they have experience with goats. Disbudding cattle is far more forgiving because cows have much thicker skulls.

  There is a multitude of online videos showing disbudding, but not all of them offer good information, in particular with respect to the depth of the burn. It is possible to burn through the skull, which will result in death, of course. The successful burn is not deep, but it is wide enough to cover the full horn base. Scurs, which are tiny bits of horn growth, may grow in places that were not burned. Doelings tend to have small horn bases, making it easy to burn everything. Bucklings, however, have wider horn buds, which means it is easier to miss a part.

  When disbudding, you can use a special kid holding box, someone can hold the kid for you, or you can hold the kid on your leg as shown in this photo, a technique we learned from Ellen Dorsey, whose husband disbuds Alpine, Nubian, and Nigerian kids holding them like this.

  There are disbudding irons with interchangeable tips and with a nonremovable tip. I prefer to use an iron with a nonremovable tip because this type of iron will get hotter than the type with interchangeable tips. Regardless of the size of goats you have, the tip for the standard goat works best. The tip for dwarf or pygmy goats is not large enough to do a good job on smaller goats. Irons vary with respect to preheating times and how hot they get. Some irons get much hotter than others, and some take so long to get hot that users don’t wait long enough for the iron to get hot enough to do a good job. Anytime strict times are suggested for preheating and for burning, make sure you know the make of the iron being used.

  Although there are other ways to disbud horned cattle, for example using caustic paste or a “scoop,” they are not recommended for goats. Caustic paste takes at least half an hour to work, so instead of a kid screaming for a few seconds, it will scream for much longer as the chemical slowly burns the horn bud. There are also stories of kids rubbing their head against something and smearing the paste into their eyes, causing blindness. Scooping out the horn bud on goats is not recommended because the skull of a goat is much thinner than that of a cow, so the risk of death is greater.

  Injecting clove oil into the horn bud is a third option that popped up in a study in 2015 in Veterinary Research Forum. After reading about the experiences of many people trying this, including some vets, I can’t bring myself to subject my goats to it. The process is simply too new and has not been studied enough to provide specific instructions. When people on social media argue about their success and failures, those for whom the procedure worked will nitpick the procedure followed by those whose efforts failed. Was the essential oil injected into the horn bud or under it? At what angle? How deep? Yet, the original study simply says, “0.2 mL of clove essence.” It is important to note that failure does not simply mean that horns grew. In some cases, it means that a kid died. If something as minuscule as depth or angle of injection can mean the difference between success and death, this is not a technique I want to try.

  Step-by-Step Disbudding

  1. Find the horn buds. Although you can’t usually see the horn buds through the kid’s hair, you can feel them. They are simply a pointy, raised part of the skull. If you shave the hair from the kid’s head, you will be able to see the horn bud somewhat. Shaving the hair off using dog clippers with a #10 blade before disbudding is a good idea because it makes the horn bud easier to see, and burning hair is smoky and smells terrible.

  2. The disbudding iron should be heated up until it is literally red hot. The hotter it is, the more quickly you will be able to do the job. An iron that is not hot enough will require more contact time on the kid’s skull, increasing the risk of overheating the brain.

  3. The disbudding iron is placed over the horn bud for a few seconds at a time until you see a copper ring where the iron was in contact with the head. Some sources on the internet suggest counting to ten, but we never burn for more than three to five seconds at a time. You can always burn a second, third, or fourth time if you don’t see a copper ring, but if you burn through a kid’s skull, you don’t get a second chance. It is also possible for a kid to develop a form of encephalopathy if its brain overheats during the disbudding process.

  4. Once you see a copper ring, the skin in the center will start to separate. Use the edge of the disbudding iron to flick the skin off the horn bud, which some people call the cap.

  5. After removing the cap, turn the disbudding iron to the side and burn the middle of the horn base until it is also copper colored. You may or may not see a small amount of blood. If you do see blood, use the iron to burn the spot to cauterize it and stop the bleeding.

  6. If kids are dam raised, you should immediately stick the disbudded kid under its mom to nurse. You will notice that she will sniff under the tail to make sure it’s hers. Although does and kids recognize each other’s voices, smell is the litmus test, and if a kid doesn’t smell right, some does will reject it. After disbudding, the sooner you put the kids back with mom, the lower the risk for rejection. Although it is usually temporary, it is worrisome when a doe won’t let her kid nurse. This is more likely to happen with a first freshener.

  People will also argue about the purity of the essential oils used, yet all brands have had their successes and failures. People will then argue that a failure with a “good” oil involved a mistake in technique. Since most companies in this country don’t share their analysis of active ingredient reports, it is likely that strength of active ingredients varies from one batch to another, even within the same company. After all, no one is marketing their oil as a disbudding oil.

  It is worth noting that in the original study, which was done in Iran, the researchers purchased cloves at the local market and distilled their own clove oil, which was then tested to determine the strength of the active ingredients. Since the researchers had one hundred percent success in stopping horn growth with clove oil, and they did not offer any specifics about injecting technique, angle, depth, and so on, the strength of their oil was probably stronger than what is typically available in this country.

  As you can see, the horns are actually part of the skull. Dehorning, which entails cutting off a horn that has already developed, is more dangerous than disbudding because the horn is hollow. The risk of infection is high, and there will be a hole in the skull where each horn was removed.

  Scurs

  If you miss part of the horn bud when disbudding, the kid will grow a scur. It is part of the horn, and unless a large portion of the horn bud was missed, scurs are usually small. Because bucks have a wider horn base, they are more likely to have scurs, and because intact bucks have testosterone, their scurs tend to grow longer than those of wethers. Unless you use a disbudding iron that is too small or malfunctioning, it is unlikely that you will have scurs on does.

  Scurs are usually nothing more serious than a cosmetic issue. The tip of a pointy scur can be rounded off using hoof trimmers so that the scur doesn’t hurt you if the goat rubs its head against your leg. Scurs usually have a small blood supply and might bleed if you cut too close to the base. When goats butt heads, they can knock off a scur, which will also cause bleeding, which usually looks worse than it is. You can clean i
t with hydrogen peroxide, but the goat won’t be happy about it, so you’ll need someone to help you. Be careful not to get the hydrogen peroxide in the goat’s eyes. “Gentle iodine,” which is a one percent solution, is a good disinfectant for injuries like this and is likely to elicit a less negative reaction than stronger iodine.

  Polled Goats

  Polled goats never grow horns. No disbudding is required. When a polled goat is bred to a genetically horned goat, half of the offspring will be polled. The polled gene is dominant, which means that if a goat has a gene for polled, it will be polled. If a goat was born with horns, it has two genes for horns. If it was born polled, it most likely has one horned gene and one polled gene. Most breeders in North America don’t breed polled goats to each other because of the increased risk of intersex goats or hermaphroditism, and for this reason, you won’t find breeds of polled goats, even though there are breeds of polled cattle.

  The polled gene in goats is not fully understood, but in research conducted in the early to mid-twentieth century, several studies showed a definite connection between breeding polled-to-polled parents and intersex kids. In one study, when two heterozygous polled goats were bred to each other, ten percent of the kids were hermaphrodites. When a heterozygous polled goat was bred to a homozygous polled goat, 25 percent of the kids were hermaphrodites.29 Polled goats almost became extinct as a result of such studies. However, with the increased interest in raising dairy goats recently, there is a renewed interest in polled goats because new goat breeders tend to greatly dislike disbudding. There is also a very small number of people starting to breed polled goats to each other in the hope of getting homozygous polled bucks.

  The intersex conditions appear to be more of an issue in European breeds, such as Saanen, Alpine, and Toggenburg. Some say that the polled-intersex connection is not the same with Nubians and Angoras.30 Since Nigerian Dwarf goats have some African and some Swiss genetics in them, it is unclear whether the intersex condition is a concern when breeding polled to polled with that breed because it has not yet been studied. In any case, there is nothing wrong with the meat of an intersex goat, so if you have no problem eating goat meat, you probably have nothing to lose by experimenting with polled to polled breedings.

  Polled Goats: Types

  Heterozygous polled. A goat has one polled gene and one horned gene. If either of its parents was genetically horned (born with horn buds), a polled goat is heterozygous. When breeding a polled goat to a horned goat, there is a 50 percent chance of each kid being polled. Since the polled gene is dominant, if a goat has a polled gene, it will be polled. Virtually all polled goats in this country are heterozygous polled because they had one horned parent. All horned goats have two horned genes, meaning they can only give a horned gene to their kids.

  Homozygous polled. A goat has two polled genes. Both parents must have been polled. If you have two heterozygous polled parents, that means each parent has one horned gene and one polled gene, so 25 percent of their kids will be homozygous polled because they got a polled gene from each parent. Fifty percent of kids will be heterozygous polled because they got a polled gene from one parent and a horned gene from the other parent, and 25 percent of kids will be horned because they got a horned gene from each parent.

  Do not buy a kid that someone claims is homozygous polled. It is impossible to determine homozygous status in a kid because there is no test for this in goats. A goat that has thrown at least ten kids, all polled, is likely homozygous polled, but if kid number eleven is horned, then the goat is heterozygous. Even though a homozygous goat can throw only polled kids, if it is bred to a horned goat, the kids will be heterozygous polled because they will have a horned gene from the horned parent.

  If you have a kid from a polled parent, you should be absolutely sure it has horn buds before disbudding. It has been argued that the polled gene can skip a generation, evidenced by disbudded goats that gave birth to polled kids in spite of the fact that the polled gene is considered a dominant gene. However, there is always the possibility of human error — the breeder thought they felt horn buds and disbudded a goat that was genetically polled. Whether the gene can skip a generation will remain a matter of speculation until we have a test for the polled gene in goats. Because I never want to get an email from a buyer telling me that the disbudded goat I sold them is throwing polled kids, I tend to wait a little longer with kids from polled parents before disbudding to be absolutely sure that they are indeed growing horn buds.

  To determine whether a kid from a polled parent is horned, you need to check its head daily from the time it’s born. Most bucks have little points on the top of the head the day they’re born. In every case except one on our farm, when a buckling did not have horn buds at birth, it was polled. I got lucky with the kid that was horned because I had a buyer who had horned goats and only wanted the buck if he was horned, so I know we didn’t make a mistake and disbud a polled goat. Does can be a little more challenging because most of them do not have noticeable horn buds until they are at least a few days to a week old.

  The arrow indicates the swirl of hair that grows around the horn bud on the kid’s head.

  Polled kids will get bumps on the top of the head, which makes determining whether there are horn buds a challenge. You may be able to feel bumps on the top of a polled buck’s head a few days after birth. How do you tell the difference between horn buds and polled bumps? First of all, polled bumps are smooth, or rounded, across the top, whereas horn buds are pointy. The points of horn buds will become more evident each day. The polled bumps will grow out, getting wider, whereas the horn buds get pointier and pointier until they’re like the point of a pencil. Horned kids have a swirl of hair around each horn bud, whereas the hair on the head of a polled kid grows from the center of the head towards the edge with no swirls around the poll bumps. Although it is subjective, a polled kid’s head is said to be more egg-shaped than the head of a horned kid. With time and experience, you may find yourself saying a kid is polled before even touching its head.

  Castrating Males

  It is a simple fact that you don’t need very many bucks for a goat herd. Because a buck can sire dozens of kids, you should keep only the best for breeding. That means that a lot of bucklings will become pets, brush eaters, or meat. Unless they will be butchered in a few months, bucklings should be castrated because intact bucks get stinky and pee on themselves. They also tend to fight with each other during the breeding season. There are three methods of castration, and breeders can easily learn the methods themselves.

  Banding

  Banding is probably the most popular method of castration because it is simple and inexpensive. A rubber band the size of a penny is placed around the base of the scrotum using a special tool that opens up the band wide enough to get it over the testicles and in place. Some argue this is the most inhumane method of castration because it cuts off blood flow to the entire scrotal area, which causes everything below the band to atrophy and fall off. We used this method for a few years, and most bucklings didn’t seem terribly bothered by it. A few bucklings would scream for a few minutes up to an hour, and some would get very depressed for a few hours or a day following banding. Because of the anaerobic environment that exists under the band, there is a risk of tetanus with this type of castration.

  Emasculation

  Emasculation is the safest method of castration because the skin is never broken, but it is not immediately obvious that you have done the job. With this method, the cord that goes to each testicle is crushed using a special instrument called a burdizzo, which is a type of emasculator. Although a kid usually lets out a short bleat when the cord is clamped, most recover fully within 15 minutes. Some cattle ranchers say they have an unacceptably high rate of failure with this type of castration, which makes sense when you see that a cattle burdizzo is quite large and requires the use of two hands to operate. The goat and sheep burdizzo is much smaller and can be closed with one hand by most people. Since I
can clamp with one hand, I use the other hand to hold the cord in place. We started using this method in 2008 and only had one failure in ten years, which is far less than a half of a percent failure rate. You should check the scrotum every couple of weeks to be sure that the two testicles are shrinking at the same rate. If one is not, then that side simply needs to be clamped again.

  Castration usually requires two people, one to hold the kid and one to do the castration. The cord that leads to each testicle is clamped separately. I hold the cord in place to make sure it does not slip out of the burdizzo as I am clamping it. Crush each side separately. Leave the burdizzo closed for a count of five, then release, and crush the other side.

  Surgical Castration

  When I had my first goats, I read that surgical castration was the most humane method, so I took my first kids to the vet for the procedure. As we stood in the parking lot, I held the bucklings as the vet sliced open each side of the scrotum, pulled out each testicle and dropped it on the ground. He told me he was leaving the scrotum open so that it could drain because stitching it up would be more likely to result in an infection. Although the boys survived the ordeal and were just fine, I decided to look into other methods of castration. Some people do prefer surgical castration, though, and if you want to do it yourself, you should have a vet or an experienced breeder teach you.