If you visit the farm or view photos of our herd, you will notice that all of our goats have horns. Goat horns serve multiple purposes. Primarily, the horns are used to regulate body temperature and can dissipate heat to cool a goat in hot weather. The horns are also used for protection and communication. Headbutting between goats is often observed as they play, establish a pecking order, or dispute over food.
It is standard practice to leave horns on a Boer goat. Boer goats boast lovely curved horns. The American Boer Goat Association (ABGA) states in their breed standards that “Horns should be dark, round, strong, of moderate length, positioned well apart and have a gradual backward curve before turning outward symmetrically.” In contrast, many dairy breeds, fainter, pygmy, and kiko goats have upright or curling horns. An easy way to tell if a goat is crossbred with breeds beyond Boers is to examine their horns. We have never disbudded goats on our farm and prefer to keep our Boers horned.
Horns are sometimes viewed as dangerous or hazardous to work with. Specifically dairy goat breeds are most often disbudded due to the danger of working with upright horns while milking the animals. Horns can also get caught in fences or can injure other goats in shared housing. Goat kids are often disbudded at less than three week of age to prevent horn growth. The disbudding procedure involves the use of an electric disbudder/hot iron pressed onto the small horn bud. Pain relieving drugs can be used with the procedure. The disbudding process is uncomfortable for the kid, but performed quickly and efficiently by goat owners. Removal of grown horns from a goat is called “de-horning” and requires veterinary surgery.
What is that small horn? When a horn buds is incompletely removed from a goat, it will grow small horn pieces called “scurs”. A scur is an incompletely developed horn growth and is generally not connected to the skull (USDA November 2020).
At Fern Hollow Farm, we maintain all horns on our animals. We find the horns can be useful to grab when handling the animals. We have not had any injuries caused to other goats due to the horns. Even our full grown bucks have horns. We have experienced that young animals may catch their heads in cattle panels when their horns are not fully grown in. Our pasture is fenced with sheep and goat 4x4 inch mesh fencing, which does not allow the goats to fit their head through and prevents most of this problem. We are also diligent at keeping our horse hay net bags out of reach of the goats so they do not get tangled in the horns.
Over the years, we have only experienced two goats that have broken their horns. This is most likely to occur at less than a year and a half of age when the horns are smaller and can get caught. Broken horns can bleed heavily. If your goat has broken a horn, carefully observe the animal to ensure limited blood loss and vision is not impaired. Use of blood stop powder or contacting a veterinarian may be necessary. Finally, keep the wound clean and free of flies. Opal broke her horn in the summer of 2021. We still do not know how it occurred. The horn required months to fully heal and started to grow by the winter season.
We believe that the horns are a beautiful and useful part of the Boer goat. Each and every goat on our farm retains their horns for cooling and herd status purposes.