Goat people...When is the best time to sell wethers?

[savingdogs]

Yes, I'll have to get your assistance via SS webcam.

My vet did say that putting goats under is dangerous, they were measuring weights and dosages very carefully and had a special assistant there just monitoring that aspect, another helping hold the animal and then him doing the procedure.

I'd just a soon not put them under. I had a dog almost not wake up from anesthesia for a teeth cleaning and since then I've been very leery of elective procedures. I'm not squeemish......I work for a vet, squeemishness goes away quickly or you don't last at a place like that.

So Karen did you also buy that castration tool that Blackbird linked me to? I think I need me one of them if I'm going to do much goat raising!

 

[ksalvagno]

Yes, I have the same bander as Blackbird. I bought mine at TSC so they do have them there too. I think it was $9.95 at TSC.

I bought the Rhinehart X50 with the goat (regular size) attachment for the disbudder. I was told that it was best to have the hottest possible so you didn't have to hold the iron on the kid for very long. Worked fine and I only hold it on the horn for 5 seconds. Maybe someone else has experience with the other ones.

 

[Buster]

We disbud and castrate our goats ourselves, it's not hard at all.
This is what we use;
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/jeffers-band-castrating-tool/camid/LIV/cp/IA-M1/cn/31073/

In the photo, the square you see at the top, that is what the band will look like when you pry it open. You simply put the scrotum in that area, making sure you have both testicles below the band area, and slowly release until it is snug, then pry the band off each of the four prongs. I've been doing it since I was about 12-13, it's a piece of cake! You should be able to find the actual bands at any feedstore. It takes mere seconds. The scrotum then usually shrivels up and falls off within a month. It is normal for them to go off their feed or whine right after, but by the next feeding or the next day they are usually back to normal. You may need to watch it for infection and spray iodine on it occasionally, just in case.

What various ethniticies do you have in your area? That can affect the market quite a bit. Supposedly if you keep the animal a buck and butcher it, it can have a bucky flavor.. Some people like that, and some people do not. We always castrate our extras that we do not want simply because they are easier to handle than bucks when they are older.
If you sell them young, the buyer can make the choice, but you need to disbud and castrate them fairly early if you plan to do so.
If you have them in the spring, they should be big enough for Eid, the end of Ramadan, if you have any Muslim or Islamic cultures around.. Then again you do have small breeds.. so I'm not sure.


If you handle your animals well, disbudding will not affect their behavior towards you.

We have a similar disbudder as shown on this page.. Not sure on exact make though;
http://www.hoeggergoatsupply.com/xcart/home.php?cat=92

After getting a horn in the crotch multiple times (it was an accident but the goat never said sorry) and having our Jenna stuck in fences for hours on end in the heat, we always disbud. An animal stuck in a fence can become frightened and easily choke themselves.

Being a first timer I suggest you have the cheaper vet do it so you know how it is done. We are complete failures at disbudding, it wasn't until this year that we successfully disbudded our kids - after having already done them once, mind you. It is a two person job, and while it isn't necessarily hard, they do SCREAM. Sometimes there will be a little blood; we put a damp rag on their head and spray iodine on to prevent infection, and cornstarch to clot of the blood and prevent flies.

There are disbudding pastes.. that's a big no, to me. Too many accidents can happen, like getting in it the eyes, etc.

Disbudding is really a little bit of pain for a lifetime of ease.

I defer to the pro. I am after all just a goat rookie.

But I regularly debudded and castrated calves when I worked on a dairy as a teen. Was trained by a lifelong dairy farmer. I don't think I will be doing either with my animals, as a matter of personal preference.

But then I won't be milking anything because of my personal experiences, either. Maybe there is a connection.

 

[Blackbird]

Yep, and that's fine, too! I want to say that I wouldn't bother with it for the amount of goats I have, but they are all registered and are required to be hornless if they are to be shown.
You won't find me touching the udder of a cow anytime soon, either. Both sides of my family had dairy cattle. No thank you!

 

[savingdogs]

Cows smell....goats smell good! (except bucks of course).

 

[FarmerDenise]

I like the way cows smell

I watched when my goats were disbudded, so I could do it myself in the future. They also have a special box for the kid to hold it still for the disbudding. My vet had a vet tech wrap the kid in a towel and then hold it down on the table for the disbudding. The sceaming was awful for me, but it didn't last long. The vet also explained every step to me. I think it was worth it to me, to spend the money this time. Next time I'll either do it myself or I won't do it at all.
And even though the disbudding was done by a vet, both my goats have little bits of horn growing.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Definitely buy a bander and some bands ($20 total, if that), and buy a disbudding iron. It's so easy to do yourself. I did my own goats this year for the first time, and it was very easy. I even did a youtube video of it. Here it is . Maybe I'm a big meanie, but it didn't really upset me. Yeah, it isn't my favorite thing to do, but it has to be done (I won't own any horned animals-except maybe sheep, but I really hate horns).

IMO, it would be more traumatic to put a goat to sleep for a simple disbudding than it would be to just do it.