Reasons to Disbud Goat Kids

We raise dairy goats. My son shows them at ADGA shows, and in order to be shown they must not have horns. But, that is not really why I choose to disbud all goat kids born on this property. I hate the process...it does hurt them, and that bothers me. Disbudding is done when the kids are very young…less than 10 days old. We use banamine to help with both the pain and inflammation. I also believe it helps reduce the risk of over-burn symptoms, where the brain actually is affected. I have seen one kid with over-burn…she kept walking around in circles, and trembling. It was scary, but she recovered. I think it was the next year that I decided not to disbud the buckling-soon-to-be-wethers, as they were just going in the freezer later on in the year. Why put them (or me) through that unhappy procedure? Several months later it also became the year I decided to disbud ALL future kids born on the property, and the following reasons will explain why!

First of all, those wethers got their heads stuck in the fence with amazing regularity! It was very frustrating trying to get their heads and horns out of the fence…it was like those aggravating mind-teaser games sold at Cracker Barrel where the object is to get the ring off the string without damaging it or the person giggling at you trying to figure it out! However, ‘the goat with its head stuck in the fence’ puzzle is larger, louder, and usually panicking. And we got to do this over and over, as the wethers never learned not to put their head through the fence!

The final straw in the disbudding decision, however, was when one of them accidentally gored my house sitter. The goat didn’t mean to do it…it was a domino effect of one goat slamming into another, who then slammed into him, which made him throw his head back in surprise. And, when he did that, he accidentally drove his horn into my friend’s upper leg. Good house sitters are hard to come by, and she was the best. It really is better to leave good help (and friends) un-punctured.

So…horns have no place at our farm. A goat with its head stuck in the fence is in danger of death, be it by strangulation or predator. And, a goat with horns is essentially walking around with two small spears on their head. An accident waiting to happen.