In my view it's a fashion that the BGS promotes disbudding horned milkers
There is nothing "fashion" about disbudding - at nearly 50quid a go most goatkeepers will not disbud willy-nilly. However if you have to handle dairy goats (of nearly 100kg body weight for AN's and BT's) twice a day for milking it is just an ongoing safety risk. If you are planning to show your goats at shows where the general public is really close to them (and small children as well) then I think it is almost negligent to take horned goats.
It's all a matter of opinion. All the farm goats I knew as a kid had horns and were milked by all the kids that hung around the farms making a nuisance of themselves (most of the farms back then had riding ponies and if the kids made themselves useful every weekend they "might" get a ride from the yard back to the field when the ponies were turned out of an evening). As a teenager, I lived next door to a goat farm - again, everything was horned as far as I recall and milked twice a day. Does that mean today's handlers are less capable than the generation before or just more risk averse?
As for showing, I have 'medium sized' horned non milkers (although I do milk occasionally when the need arises), I rarely show (too difficult with high health goats to ensure appropriate biosecurity and their health), but from a safety perspective I have no qualms at all in taking my goats, including my 'big' buck with massive horns. He's a gentle giant and doesn't have a bad bone in him. He's more likely to cause injury by standing on your foot than using his horns. As a responsible handler, I wouldn't leave my stock unattended at a show (more because I'm concerned about what harm the public may cause them than vice versa), and I always try to ensure that 'small children' are under the control of an appropriate adult if they're in the vicinity of my stock.
'Negligence' can occur on several levels at shows.
She's had really bad feet issues this year, so I've had to do a lot of catching her and treating her. She's probably a bit fed up of me.
But she's always been unpredictable and aggressive to be honest.
I think I probably need to make the difficult decision and take her to the abatoir. I wouldn't want her back for the freezer, too sad. I wish I had tried to control her more when she was younger. Her mum was a really lovely goat ☹️
Sounds like it's maybe a fear response if her feet have been bad/sore and every time she sees you it causes her stress. You could try working through things but if you've already lost faith in her, then it's maybe not going to be positive for either of you to do that.
If you don't plan on having her back for the freezer, you could maybe arrange for her to be dispatched at home and spare her the stress of going to the abattoir alone.
Topic: Aggressive goat (Read 591 times)
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September 21, 2016, 09:03:22 pm
