Article Index | "Disbudding Kid Goats - Is It Commercially Applicable?" | Article Index |
Your support of our advertisers helps support GoatWorld! |
|
DISBUDDING KID GOATS - IS IT COMMERCIALLY APPLICABLE?
By: Dr. Rick Machen, Extension Livestock Specialist, Uvalde |
|
Summary Five hundred ninety-six young wether kids were disbudded in order to collect the information necessary to evaluate the feasibility of this management practice for an extensive production enterprise. Note: The conduct and publication of this result demonstration should in no way be construed to represent the promotion of disbudding as an essential or absolute management practice for meat goats.
Problem
Objective
Material/Methods Equipment required for disbudding included: electric disbudding iron, restraint box, wire brush and gloves. The disbudding irons used in this study were either the Rhinehart X50 (216 watts. Rhinehart Development Corporation, Spencerville, IN) or the Lenk 200 (200 watt. Wall Lenk Corporation, Kinston, NC). The disbudding procedure employed was as follows:
Results/Discussion
The number of workers shown in Table 1, column 3 is the number of disbudding irons at work. In addition to the people required for disbudding, two or three ranch employees were also involved. Therefore the total labor involved was 5-6 people for each workday. The time required includes separation of does and kids, vaccination of the doe kids and processing of the wether kids prior to disbudding. The March 27 workday involved moving to a second location; therefore the time required versus the number disbudded is different from the previous three workdays. The actual disbudding process was performed at the rate of 15 to 20 kids per hour per technician. If kids were easily accessible and assuming no equipment malfunctions or technician fatigue, a single iron (minimum 200 watt) operation could feasibly disbud 100-120 kids in an eight hour day. As noted in Table 1, the incidence of scurs appearing after disbudding was less than one percent and the death loss attributable to disbudding was essentially zero. Assuming an iron of appropriate temperature is available (irons with >200 watt capacity are strongly recommended), the single most important determinant of successful disbudding is size of the horn base. Smaller horns generally result in greater success. Based on the significant number of wethers involved in this project, the ideal time to disbud kids is 10 days to 3 weeks of age or just as the bud breaks through the skin, whichever is the earliest. Horn growth rate appears to differ between individual animals. Economic considerations are intentionally omitted from this report. Excluding the initial equipment investment, labor represents the majority of the expense incurred with a disbudding program. No two meat goat enterprises are the same size and neither is their labor availability or cost. Therefore, application of economic analyses would have provided little more than an academic exercise. At the present time, there is no commercial market incentive offered for disbudded kids. However, two management decisions warrant the consideration of disbudding:
Information contained herein provides meat goat producers the baseline data necessary to evaluate disbudding as a management practice for their operation. Labor cost and equipment expense must be weighed against value enhancement (if any) to determine the feasibility of disbudding kid goats. Mention of a trademark or a proprietary product does not constitute a guarantee or a warranty of the product by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may also be suitable. Extension programs serve people of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, disability or national origin. |
About the authors: Information unavailable. |
Email: Contact INFO Telephone: Contact INFO |
Designed & Hosted by: JOLLY GERMAN ©1999-2024 GoatWorld.Com |
|
All written, audio, video and graphic material contained within this site, except where otherwise noted, is Copyright ©1999-2024. Some content may also be the property of contributors to the site, in which case their material is also protected by applicable copyright laws and this copyright policy. No material may be linked directly to or reproduced in any form without written permission. If you would like to reprint something from our site, simply send us an email to request permission to do so. Please refer to our REPRINT criteria. This site is run and operated by a Disabled Veteran |