[Rex]

Definately some sort of meat breed in there. I can also tell you he was castrated late by looking at the mass of the horns.

 

[Rex]

Definately some sort of meat breed in there. I can also tell you he was castrated late by looking at the mass of the horns.

Hmmm, good observation Rex. I do think that there are exceptions to that logic though. I have an alpine wether that I castrated (in my opinion too young) at 3 days old. His horn base and mass is at least 2x the size of my other goats. Deffinately an exception to the rule. You are right that most times the horn size is a good indication of how old the goat was when castrated, but my boy would deceive even the text books.

We have done several side by side comparisons on different kids and even twin brothers to see the effects of horn size relating to the castration date but I have never seen heavy horn mass on an early castrated goat. I'd love to see a picture!

 

[Rex]

Thanks for the pictures Jessica. Your guy has good mass but still not on par with a late castrated buck. If you notice in the original picture you'll see a heavy ridge on the front of the horn that nearly touches the other horn at the base. That is indicitave of a late castration. Your guy has mass but is lacking the heavier ridge and mass at the base that we have noticed in late castrations.