Do only the males have horns? Do some breeds have horns and others don’t? Within the same breeds do some goats develop horns and others don’t? Has “hornlessness” been bred into some breeds? It sure seems that it would be a lot easier to handle a goat that doesn’t have horns!
Thanks!
The majority of goats have horns. Does have horns as well, but they’re usually smaller/stubbier than those of a buck.
However, there are hornless goats. In fact, according to this site, the gene for hornlessness is dominant, which would imply that once that allele is introduced into a given goat population, lack of horns tends to become the norm (though you’ll still get the odd horned kid born from heterozygous parents).
I don’t know anything about goat breeds per se, nor whether that “Polled” gene exists in all, some or only a select few of them however.
As for whether lacking horns makes them easier to handle, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. For one, horns are nature’s handlebars :). For another, IME goats are mean spirited, ornery beasts that’ll make your life miserable in any number of ways no matter what. Headbutting’s just another tool in their arsenal of pettiness :p.
Dang, after reading the above, I just had to post a link to the awesome story about gelding the goat (Hal Briston, was it?) but I have just spent an hour looking and I can’t find it.
But it would be perfect here.
And they headbutt just fine without horns or with the tiny ones does have; I’ve seen sheep herds in Spain which included female goats and according to a shepherd one of the uses of the goats is that when a sheep goes up to a place she can’t figure out how to get down from, the dog will just stay underneath and bark its fool head off, while a goat will climb up after the sheep, headbutt it down and then jump down herself with an air of “seriously, if these woolheads were any dumber they’d be rocks!” (we saw a goat do exactly that another time). The demand for goat cheese and meat isn’t high enough to justify herding them but it’s enough that it makes sense to mix a few in with the sheep.
Mmmmm… goat cheese.