Horned? Dehorned? Polled?

One of the hottest topics in goats is whether to have goats with horns or goats without. I've had both, so I'm going to share the pros and cons with you.

First, a little about horns. All goats, unless genetically polled, have horns. You probably won't feel them at birth, but around a week, those little horn buds will start protruding. If you don't want horns, your baby goat will need to be disbudded.

Pros and Cons of having horned goats. Probably the biggest pro is that you don't have to do the disbudding thing. You just let the horns grow as nature wills it. Horns can be used as something to hold on to and give you some control over the goat. Horns look cool. The cons: it's much easier for a goat to get its head stuck if he has horns. The way they are designed, the goat will get its head through the fence and then be unable to get it back out without assistance. It can get stuck in corners of the barn, or a tree branch. A broken off horn (though rare) will bleed a LOT, as well as expose the blood vessels to the sinuses, which can cause some problems. Goats can also hurt other goats or their people, even if they're not aggressive with their horns. Just clipping hooves or milking can be dangerous if the goat moves suddenly. I have also found that goats with horns tend to be more defensive with their horns. If you have a weapon and you feel threatened, chances are you're going to at least brandish that weapon. Some people say that the horns protect goats from predators, but especially with small goats, that's not going to be much of a deterrent. A coyote, a wandering dog, or a cougar is still going to easily take your goat down.

Pros and Cons of disbudding. If you're planning to attend shows, horns are not allowed, for everyone's safety. So if you disbud, you have that option open. It also gives you a wider audience of buyers, especially for registered goats. Not many people keep horned registered goats. Goats are not likely to get stuck in a fence panel. Goats are less likely to injure themselves or others when they inevitably decide to butt heads with a friend. Goats become significantly less dangerous to YOU without horns as well. They could still butt you, but you won't need stitches. The cons: disbudding is not fun for the owner or the baby goat. You use a hot iron to burn off the horn bud and cauterize the wound. The baby goats scream a lot because it doesn't feel good and they don't like being trapped. They do recover quickly and will not generally suffer any ill effects of the procedure. It's also hard to steel yourself to do it thoroughly enough that you won't have scurs. Another con is that without horns, you may need your goats to wear collars, which presents its own set of dangers.

What do you do, Nicole? I disbud all of my baby goats around 2-3 weeks old. And by "I", I mean my vet does it. I have a wonderful farm vet who comes out and takes care of this for me. She gives them a tiny bit of anesthesia so they go to sleep. Then she can take her time to make sure she can safely and thoroughly complete the job. She uses an open iron so she can be really detailed in how the horn bud is burned off, rather than using the type with the ring. The babies generally sleep for an hour or so. I monitor them, and put them back with their moms when they wake up. My vet's prices are reasonable, and she does a great job, so this works for me.

My vet doesn't recommend disbudding earlier than 2-3 weeks, because if the horn bud is not developed enough, it's easier to do an incomplete job and have scurs.

What about polled goats? Can't I just exclusively breed those? I will make a more detailed post about goat genetics soon, but in the meantime, here's the basics on polled goats. You can get some polled babies if the sire or dam is polled. It will not be 100%, because polled goats still have 2 genes to give, and a polled goat can still produce a horned goat. But you'll definitely cut back on how many horned babies you have to deal with. It is not a good idea, however, to breed a polled goat to a polled goat, as a homozygous polled goat is likely to be sterile. As far as desireability, some people really want polled goats, some people really don't. Some are like me, and don't really care. So basically, if you have some polled goats, you should be able to sell them just as easily as anything else.

I want to dehorn an adult goat. Is this possible? Not really. You can put a castration band on it to keep it lower, but it will keep growing back. It's not safe to dehorn after a certain point because of the exposure to the sinuses, as well as the blood loss. Some people put tennis balls or pool noodles (haha!) on goat horns to help with safety to other goats or humans.

What about scurs? Your vet can usually deal with those, as they won't have too much bleeding. Most of the time, they aren't an issue. I have one wether with a scur, but it gets knocked off about once a year, so it's not a problem.

Hope this was helpful!