Removing Spurs, Eartagging & Disbudding

Yesterday was a day of firsts for me since I’ve only recently became involved with our goats.  I’ve always enjoyed our farm animals but have wanted my kids (children not goat kids 🙂 ) to do the farm work for the experience as well as the wholesomeness of it all.  I think it’s good for them.  I’ve found it to be good for me, too.  It’s quite therapeutic to be outside and care for the goats.  It’s so easy for me to stay inside since it’s more comfy and because there’s always plenty of work to be done.  But now I have to get out there and feed the goats and I’m really enjoying it.  I have learned a lot just by watching them everyday.

It’s been a hard week for me.  We found Charming, our sweet little black buckling dead on Monday morning, a board/fence having crushed him.  So very sad to me; he had been so full of life and was the healthiest kid that was born recently.  Yesterday, we found Starlight, our only female kid to be born, missing.  They usually stick right with their mother when they’re out foraging so I don’t know what happened.  Probably a coyote but we’ve had no predators around for months now.

Yesterday, I decided it was time to do some jobs that needed to get done.

First thing was the rooster which went very well. I wanted to shorten his spurs because they were getting very long and looked deadly!  One spur was 3 1/2″ long but we were able to trim it to 1 1/2″.

My invaluable farmhand, Zachary.  I could not have did the chores yesterday without him.  He’s really good at this farm business.

The hens will be so thankful that this fine feathered rooster doesn’t have those wickedly long spurs anymore to rake them.

We have never trimmed our roosters spurs before but it was very simple.  We used our goat hoof trimmers to cut the spur and we did just a little at a time to be sure we weren’t getting down to the quick or whatever it’s called.  Zachary did a perfect job, only drawing a dot of blood in each spur.

The next job was the worst one – ear-tagging.  The goats did not like it at all.  We did not do the 3 little bucklings since I will be selling those but only the ones that we’ve had here at the ranch that were bred by our buck, Malcolm.  I have no pictures.  The only way I was involved was to hand Zachary the ear tag and applicator.  He did the rest.  Some of the goats were pretty good but everyone of them went ballistic in varying degrees.

I wanted to have them ear-tagged so that I can see who is having babies, if they’re usually healthy, how many kids they usually have, do they need assistance during birth and anything else that might be useful in determining whether to keep the goat or to cull it from the herd.  I hope that I find the ear-tagging to be of use because it surely was not pleasant for me to see it being done and although the goats were fine immediately after, without a doubt they didn’t like the process.

Zachary was not looking forward to disbudding the 3 bucklings.  Happily for him, it ended up being the easiest time he’s ever had.

I went to Fiasco Farm and read this article on disbudding. It was very, very helpful and has pictures to accompany it.  It’s not required but they do ask for a donation if you find their site useful.

I shaved the area where the buds (horns) were forming making it easier for Zachary to see exactly where he would put the iron (do they call it that?).  I was glad I was finally able to be of some help. 🙂

We heated the disbudding tool till it was hot and then to make sure it was really good and hot, Zachary took a propane torch and heated it some more.

And finally, here is what it looks like after you’ve disbudded them.  We learned from Fias Co Farm that you want copper rings all the way around otherwise they will grow a partial or full horn.  Zach did it perfectly.

In a few weeks the hair will grow over this area.

So, the job that Zach thought would be the worst turned out to be the only bright spot in the day.

Do you have a farm job that you just love or conversely really dislike?

Just a goat owner in training,