Horned Dairy Goats

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their experiences raising dairy or even meat goats with horns. In the next year, I am going to start a herd of dairy goats if and only if I can find practical ways to keep them without disbudding. I am not really interested in debating disbudding, I don't object if you do it - I just am not interested in raising goats in that condition.

From my perspective having been around goats a lot of my life, the proper fencing should solve the majority of issues with a horned goat. I am just trying to understand additional precautions or plans I can make to see if I can make a horned herd work as well as a disbudded one.

I have yet to have an issue with goats who have horns. I have 4 foot tall cattle/hog fence which is woven and not welded. I have not observed any issues with it. One goat can get her head through it and she manages to get it out. she is a Nubian and her horns allow for this to happen. My alpine however wouldn't really even fit though a fence which had a 1 foot hole in it. The little male goat i have can fit his head through it and can also take it out.
I've observed if they can get it out they can get it back in and they seem to know this themselves.

All i can say as a precaution is to be aware of the horns and to know when to not stick your head somewhere it would get poked or hit.

Ive also found it very practical to have my goats with horns.

I am wondering Lucas if you could tell us what your concerns are around having goats with horns. I could try and answer your question better if i knew more what your concern is.

I guess my main concern around horns is stabbing, eg losing an eye or stabbing a goat causing a wound. My tentative plan around this is to put something on the end of each horn.

Its also just really good to see there are keepers of fully horned herds out there, confirms what I suspect which is it is entirely possible without incident.

I've never had any real problems with horned goats. I've had a couple of bruises in the leg, but as long as I've been observant of what they are doing, and keeping my head far away enough that any sudden turn of goat head won't get a horn in my face, there's been no problems.

My does are not aggressive to me, so any injury would be from me not observing properly when near them. The buck is sometimes aggressive so I watch him carefully and put him on a tether for a few minutes when I need him out of the way.

Some people are afraid of horns, some don't like the look of them, but horns have a natural function - helping goats to regulate their temperature, and to defend themselves against predators.

Lucas Green wrote:I guess my main concern around horns is stabbing, eg losing an eye or stabbing a goat causing a wound. My tentative plan around this is to put something on the end of each horn.

Its also just really good to see there are keepers of fully horned herds out there, confirms what I suspect which is it is entirely possible without incident.

You can also try filing down the pointy horns. My alpines horns are quite blunt. They came to me this way, I would imagine a wood file would be able to take the point out.
I almost never have the alpine trying to use her horns on me. The goats are kept as milking goats so i handle them daily.