cjpup said:
How are they supposed to protect themselves from any kind of p[reditor? Even your own LGD could suddenly flip one day and decide your animals are no longer family but prey.
Our boer goats have horns and our dairy goats don't of course, they are housed separately. Our hornless dairy does can do as much damage to the dogs as the horned goats(actually they are a lot meaner!!) There are fight and flight animals; goats tend to be flight because they are prey not predator. Not many goats will try and fight something that is trying to eat them, unless they have babies. The mothers are extremely protective of the babies, but other that :shrug:
Also, horns act as a goats radiator. THey help to regulate the goats temperate and activate sweat gland in extreme heat as well as warming mechanisms in extreme cold. This is an essential for goat survival expecially when you live in an area with a wide array of weather like here in Texas.
As all1965 stated, the heavier haird goats need a way to scratch themselve to release air and heat from in there coats.
Even a lightly hair goat will need to scratch. Without horns, they will rub against something to get this scratch and could increase the chances of absesses.
Actually I believe it is the horn themselves that act as a radiator. In the summer the goat's horns always feel cool, and in the winter they are always warm. Sweetgoats could clear this up, but in the CSC somebody asked about putting oil on peeling horns and Lori said that by doing this you can overheat a goat because they have no way of cooling themselves down, so I assume its just the horns that keep them cool. Otherwise, for hornless goats, they cool down like a dog would, by panting and sitting in the shade.
Can you imagine the PAIN of going through the process of disbudding? I mean you are litterally putting a fired iron on their heads. How would you like that?
Of course it hurts but everything we do we do it out of love for our goats. We disbud not only because it is a lot easier to sell them that way, but also because: 1. dehorning is even more horrible and more painful(check out this link if you want to see dehorning:
http://www.sandylanedairygoats.com/dehorning.htm) 2. so they don't get their heads stuck in the fence(LaManchas are not always the brightest goats) and 3. to prevent injury to extremely important milking udders. A torn up udder is NOT pretty or fun. I remember a while ago(this was on GW) a member had her goat get her head stuck in the fence and a dog came along and ate her head(I almost threw up at that one) and I would never want that to happen to my goats, or to the people that I sell goats too.
The Boer goats are left with horns because that is just to many kids to disbud and they don't really have a tendency to stick their heads through things.
Goats are born with horns (well except for polled but that took years and years of special breeding to obtain)
Actually I think that being polled is just a recessive gene, not that goats were bred for it. I know some breeders do(like all1965 and I know a couple others) but breeding polled on polled usually(not all the time) results with hermaphrodites.
Please dont take this as an argument or anything maliciouse, I just think its a great discussion to have if it can be done in a mature manner.
CJ
Never did never will, I just like to debate
