Farm life isn't always pleasant. A week ago, Brian and Libby performed one of those jobs that has to be done. They dehorned the kids. The goats cried while Brian burned off their little horns. Then Libby held her "babies" and comforted them.
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Agreed. This is by far my least favorite part of raising goats! Thankfully, the little guys seem to get over it quickly. I am sure that Brian and Libby are glad to have that task finished!
ReplyDeleteHow old do you generally do your babies?
ReplyDeleteWe have disbudding here too... and we have some babies due for it actually. Sigh.
poor babies....glad Libby was there to make it all better afterward.
ReplyDeleteMostly it depends on the kind of iron you use as to how old/large to do the horns. With a small iron/debudder maybe within the first week or two. But if you have a good iron like a Rhinehart 30 we would wait until the kids are older and the horns are a bit larger. These were on the large size, about 1 inch around and maybe a little over an inch high.
ReplyDeleteLibby
Hey Libby, Thanks for this tip. :) We haven't bought a disbudder yet. Our vet usually does it. But we are getting either a Rhinehart 30 or 50. So how old would you consider too old?
DeleteWe have some does now that were not burnt long enough, and are going to need redone.
Thanks so much!
Carra
These kids were approximately one month. We have yet to see if they were done well enough, I hope/think they were.
ReplyDeleteThe age doesn't matter as much as the size of the horn.
It really matters on how much your burner can handle, as to how old is to old.
Libby
I know I'm showing my ignorance here, but why do they have to be dehorned?
ReplyDeleteOn a grown goat horns can be dangerous, annoying and harmful.
ReplyDeleteIn the wild, goats use their horns to protect themselves from predators but since predators are kept away from most goats their horns do more harm than good.
Goats with horns will unknowingly hurt people and other animals. Just before we burned the horns one of the kids thunked me in the mouth and I had a fat lip for the next week, if it would have been dehorned it wouldn't have hurt me.
Around a farm goats with horns are harder to deal with. Goats with horns are harder to take care of because they get their heads stuck in fences more easily, feeder options are limited, and they cause one more thing to have to worry about.
Also generally goats that are raised to show are not allowed to have horns.
Libby
Oh, okay. Thanks for your answer to my ignorant question!
ReplyDelete