GRAPHIC CONTENT, MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN.
This Video demonstrates an easy simple meathod using a plug in disbudding iron to prevent horn growth on a 14 day nubian goat kid.
#1-Select disbudding site and plug in your iron away from any flammable material.(NOTE, you will need a block of wood to test the hot iron, it needs to be really hot before you use it on the goat, press it to the wood, if it immediatly sears a black ring in the wood as soon as you touch it, it is ready)
#2-Bring the goat or goats to the disbudding site.
#3-test your iron for how hot it is, read note above.
#4-Select your goat, either put it in a tight disbudding box to hold it still, or have it held by someone wearing gloves, This person should be pretty strong because the goat will struggle and can get loose,( you want to do this right the first time for the goats wellfair and yours)
#5-It helps to hold the nose still (see video) and hold the ears back so they dont get burned.
#6-Apply the iron firmly on/over the horn bud, hold it for about 10 to 12 seconds using a circular motion as showen in video, (NOTE There must be a copper/brown ring circling the horn bud, if not the horn may grow scurs, these are small stunted hornes that can get caught in a fence or a branch later on)
#7- Now apply the iron to the tip of the horn bud to sear of the top of the horn.
#8- Repeat steps 6 and 7 on the other horn bud.
Afer words you can apply some ice to the babys head, and remember to give the little guy lots and lots of love afterwords, he or she doesnt understand why you just did that to them, but it is nessesary if you dont want him to spend a life being caught in fences.
In one to three weeks the horn cap will pop off leaving a flat area that the new hair will grow over.
We have a buck goat that we purchased that still has his horns, he will occasionally get his hornes caught in the fence of brush, one time he pulled so hard that it olmost ripped one of his horns clear off, he was a bloody mess and it worried us alot, we thought he may bleed to death, now we disbud all of our goats.
