# Hermaphrodites and Polled goats



## Green Acres Farm (Aug 3, 2016)

Please post why or why not you think the polled goat gene is linked to hermaphrodicism. I have heard both claims and am interested in what other people know or think.

Thanks!


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## NH homesteader (Aug 3, 2016)

Ooh fun I've been wondering this myself! I read in one of my goat books that it was and assumed there was no argument to it...  Until people started saying maybe not so true.  I have one polled doe but my buck is not,  so I have no personal experience.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 3, 2016)

I have no opinion on that.

But, I don't think that it is necessarily a good idea to try to develop an all polled herd making breeding and culling decisions based on if they are polled or not.  Not if you want a good dairy herd.  You should base your breeding decisions  on the strengths and weaknesses of your animal as it relates to what makes good dairy goats.  Not if they are moonspotted, polled, or blue eyed.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

There was more then one study done but the research was rather sketchy for most as all of them and took place between 1925-1960.

Here is one study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1209274/pdf/51.pdf
circa 1925-1944
It shows 13.5% of hetro poled to hetro polled Saanen breedings producing herms. But look closer at the study...
Notice the columns on the right side of Table 1...listing kids not checked for polled, horned, or sex.
They bred 231 does producing 857 kids...of which 100 were not checked(thats sketchy) thats roughly 1/9 of your test pool why would you not check them?

Further out of 851 kids 772 were not herm thats slightly over 91% success.
I would also mention you might notice there is no spot at all for recording horned herm goats. The "control" also seems to be 2 horned does bred to two horned bucks with all carrying pp, last time i checked 2 does of 231 does not make a control group.

Add in at the beginning of the page that it states "Several observers have noted the fact that horned hermaphrodites are very rare or perhaps do not occur at all." Which we know is not true.

This study was conducted by the USDA at their beltsville, MD farm and says right in it. It also clearly states they were inbreeding/linebreeding "matings were made to half-sisters, to dams, daughters, and granddaughters of the bucks as well as to unrelated does in an attempt to increase milk production." Depending on how heavily it was done it could skew the results as well.

They are also theorizing that only "females" were herms to even out the male/female ratio. Later in the paper it states 3 cases of defects were not really herms. "they have been regarded as males, since they possessed none of the distinctly female structures found in other cases. There were three such cases which have not been counted as hermaphrodites in this paper. Two of them, cases 20 and 27 of the above mentioned report, were distinctly cryptorchids, with one or both testes undescended, apparently normal males in every other respect. Case 2, which had difficulty in unsheathing and erecting the penis and had small testicles, though pendant in the scrotum, probably should be considered a normal male so far as the gene for intersexuality is concerned."

So this same group had some other genetic issues as well it seems as it also mentions two other defects in two females and of course we dont know about the 100 kids they didnt check.

Also note the above study was done strictly using Saanen and Toggenburg.



Interestingly another study but of Shami goats which are naturally horned and polled show 57 cases of herms out of 211 cases total, which is interesting because this breed was used in making Nubians.
http://www.smallruminantresearch.com/article/S0921-4488(97)00090-4/abstract?cc=y=


All that being said i think it would be possible to breed for polled and good dairy lines at the same time. I also believe it would be possible to bred out the herm potential, to reduce it from 8% to say 1% or less.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

@Green Acres Farm
(From the other thread)

That goat medicine thingy needs updated. There have been many studies done on shami with relation to polled and herms as well as angoras. The study i linked is specifically on shami goats and their apparent many sexual deformities including herm.

The studies say they are the same relation as swiss breeds btw lol.


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## Latestarter (Aug 3, 2016)

If you're making breeding and culling decisions based on dairy characteristics, why not ALSO use the eye color, moonspots and polled as part of that decision process? Hopefully you're also making breeding decisions on other things like ability to fight parasites and other health issues. I mean, yes, it does add three more variables, but then it take 5-6 generations minimum to get to an American breed mini and that's based on ears as well as other physical attributes in addition to the typical breed standards, dairy physique; udder, attachments, etc.  Why not have your cake and eat it too? 

Since I'd prefer to not have goats with horns, if I can breed for polled and avoid having to burn, and scurs, why not do so? (of course I ALSO want the blue eyes )


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> If you're making breeding and culling decisions based on dairy characteristics, why not ALSO use the eye color, moonspots and polled as part of that decision process? Hopefully you're also making breeding decisions on other things like ability to fight parasites and other health issues. I mean, yes, it does add three more variables, but then it take 5-6 generations minimum to get to an American breed mini and that's based on ears as well as other physical attributes in addition to the typical breed standards, dairy physique; udder, attachments, etc.  Why not have your cake and eat it too?
> 
> Since I'd prefer to not have goats with horns, if I can breed for polled and avoid having to burn, and scurs, why not do so? (of course I ALSO want the blue eyes )



Your in luck then Laterstarter because blue eyes are dominant...so get a homozygous blue eyed buck and you can have a entire herd of blue eyes.


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## Latestarter (Aug 3, 2016)

That's my plan!  Of course they have to be "just that right shade" of blue   Maybe I'll shoot for aquamarine?


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## Goat Whisperer (Aug 3, 2016)

I'm not sure I believe that it's the polled gene causing the hermaphrodites. I see quite a few hermaphrodites in other herds that have NO polled genetics gor several generations. Why were these kids hermaphrodites? 

There are whole breeds of sheep that are polled. 

I have to agree with OFA. I can't stand seeing all these flashy, blue eyed, moon spotted goats with absolutely horrendous udders 

I really do like plain and simple. I see goats differently than others, I see the goat itself not the color. 

I don't sell to people that are looking for color  Don't get me wrong, it can be fun, but I think it takes away the natural beauty that dairy goats have. 

With the mini's, they can still get to the PB status and have a terrible udder.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> That's my plan!  Of course they have to be "just that right shade" of blue   Maybe I'll shoot for aquamarine?



haha whatever makes you happy!

Other Dominant traits include frosted ears, white spot on poll/tail or both, wattles, white in general, medium guard hair length, long britch hair, grey is dominant over black, breed markings are dom to solid color except in boer where solid is dom to markings, and small ears.


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## Goat Whisperer (Aug 3, 2016)

misfitmorgan said:


> Your in luck then Laterstarter because blue eyes are dominant...so get a homozygous blue eyed buck and you can have a entire herd of blue eyes.


Unless you have goats that break rules 
I bred a blue eyed doe to a blue eyed buck. She had 4 living kids and only 2 had blue eyes. They "should" have been blue eyed. 

On the other hand, we have a buck that has sired over 30 kids and all have been blue eyed, even when the buck was used over brown eyed does. His kids throw the blue eyes strongly as well.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> I'm not sure I believe that it's the polled gene causing the hermaphrodites. I see quite a few hermaphrodites in other herds that have NO polled genetics gor several generations. Why were these kids hermaphrodites?
> 
> There are whole breeds of sheep that are polled.
> 
> ...



Personally we always breed towards improvement no matter what type, attitude, body weight, size, udder shape, capacity, height....generally a good sound goat with many years of providing for their owner. Which is a main reason why we are phasing out of current buck Ruger, his offspring is already gone....gorgeous buck but his attitude turned sour around 4yrs old. i think the best and right thing we can do for our goats is improve them....if you select for color of whatever or polled or not along with the process it is no different then breeding anything else. THe problem with mini's is anyone and everyone thought hey quick money! which is typical.


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## Green Acres Farm (Aug 3, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> Unless you have goats that break rules
> I bred a blue eyed doe to a blue eyed buck. She had 4 living kids and only 2 had blue eyes. They "should" have been blue eyed.



That's because both parents were heterozygous for blue eyes.  They both had one blue eyed gene and one brown eyed gene. So 75% chance for blue eyes, 25% chance for brown.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> Unless you have goats that break rules
> I bred a blue eyed doe to a blue eyed buck. She had 4 living kids and only 2 had blue eyes. They "should" have been blue eyed.
> 
> On the other hand, we have a buck that has sired over 30 kids and all have been blue eyed, even when the buck was used over brown eyed does. His kids throw the blue eyes strongly as well.



Actually your goats are following the rules of genetics.

I would wager the blue eyed doe and buck in the first set are hetrozygous...so they can throw 75% blue 25% brown.....with the blue being 25% homozygous and 50% hetrozygous.

The other buck is a Homozygous blue...so 100% of his kids will be blue eyed no matter the does eye color. Those offspring from blue does will likely be homozygous blue as well and the ones from brown eyed does can be hetrozygous.....so yes they can make blue eyed babies too.


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## Green Acres Farm (Aug 3, 2016)

For most genes, there are two sets of alleles, each coding for a particular trait. If a certain trait is dominant over the other trait, that is the trait expressed, even though they may carry the gene for the other trait. If the recessive trait is the expressed, brown eyes in goats for example, they do NOT carry the blue eyed gene. But, a goat with blue eyes can carry the brown eyed trait, and therefore pass it on to its offspring.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

Green Acres Farm said:


> For most genes, there are two sets of alleles, each coding for a particular trait. If a certain trait is dominant over the other trait, that is the trait expressed, even though they may carry the gene for the other trait. If the recessive trait is the expressed, brown eyes in goats for example, they do NOT carry the blue eyed gene. But, a goat with blue eyes can carry the brown eyed trait, and therefore pass it on to its offspring.


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## Green Acres Farm (Aug 3, 2016)

Genetics are so interesting!


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## babsbag (Aug 3, 2016)

I agree that it is fascinating. I know that a polled goat must have a polled parent, it can't skip a generation as the gene is dominant and will always be expressed if it is present.  I have a friend that had two does freshen on the same day (Saanens, so they looked alike) and she was trying to figure out which kids belonged to which doe. Well she had it wrong... someone pointed out that the polled doeling had to belong to the polled doe; but the does thought otherwise.


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## Green Acres Farm (Aug 3, 2016)

@Southern by choice, what do you think?


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## Green Acres Farm (Aug 3, 2016)

babsbag said:


> I agree that it is fascinating. I know that a polled goat must have a polled parent, it can't skip a generation as the gene is dominant and will always be expressed if it is present.  I have a friend that had two does freshen on the same day (Saanens, so they looked alike) and she was trying to figure out which kids belonged to which doe. Well she had it wrong... someone pointed out that the polled doeling had to belong to the polled doe; but the does thought otherwise.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

x2


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2016)

i know there is a lot of confusion surrounding polled goats in general not just the herm part but also the part where people think it skip a generation, which isnt possible. More then likely the goat was just polled or polled and burned because they either didnt know or they were trying to hide the fact they are polled.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 3, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> If you're making breeding and culling decisions based on dairy characteristics, why not ALSO use the eye color, moonspots and polled as part of that decision process? Hopefully you're also making breeding decisions on other things like ability to fight parasites and other health issues. I mean, yes, it does add three more variables, but then it take 5-6 generations minimum to get to an American breed mini and that's based on ears as well as other physical attributes in addition to the typical breed standards, dairy physique; udder, attachments, etc.  Why not have your cake and eat it too?
> 
> Since I'd prefer to not have goats with horns, if I can breed for polled and avoid having to burn, and scurs, why not do so? (of course I ALSO want the blue eyes )



You answered your own question:
_"I mean, yes, it does add three more variables"
_
Three variable that have nothing to do with putting milk in the pail.

It's difficult enough as it is.

I think I recall @Southern by choice saying that she doesn't focus on ears with her mini's.

I'll give you an example of my thought process on breeding.  Cocoa scored a 91 EEEV on her Linear Appraisal.  (The V on the end being Udder).  So, she's Excellent in General Appearance, Dairy Strength and Body Capacity, but only Very Good in Udder.

I'll also add that while her milk volume is high, she has some of the lowest butter fat in my herd

So, I will breed her to a buck whose Dam scored Excellent on Udder and has higher butter fat.

If I just limit that to the polled, blue eyed, goats with moon spots then .... well that limits my pool.

And you know what, even then I may not get any improvement.

I don't like disbudding goats any more than anyone .  But, I just feel that trying to have a herd that's entirely polled is not *necessarily* a good idea in my opinion.

But, everyone is free to pursue a breeding program of their choice.

Edited to add:
And @Latestarter 
How often in life can you have your cake and eat it too?


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## Goat Whisperer (Aug 3, 2016)

misfitmorgan said:


> i know there is a lot of confusion surrounding polled goats in general not just the herm part but also the part where people think it skip a generation, which isnt possible. More then likely the goat was just polled or polled and burned because they either didnt know or they were trying to hide the fact they are polled.


I think most people have a hard time telling the difference. I know folks who have had goats throw polled kids, but the parents were recorded as horned (disbudded).
It can be hard when you are burning young bucklings. 

We actually burn our polled bucklings, to prevent 'poll scurs'. We sold a young buckling who was polled, and as he got older he grew scurs (wasn't burned) but was still polled. He threw polled kids too.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 3, 2016)

babsbag said:


> I agree that it is fascinating. I know that a polled goat must have a polled parent, it can't skip a generation as the gene is dominant and will always be expressed if it is present.  I have a friend that had two does freshen on the same day (Saanens, so they looked alike) and she was trying to figure out which kids belonged to which doe. Well she had it wrong... someone pointed out that the polled doeling had to belong to the polled doe; but the does thought otherwise.



We had had a similar situation.  We came home one day and our doe Katie had decided she wanted to court the bucks and she broke in with them.  5 months later twin doe and a buck.  Buck was polled but doe had horns.  So, we knew that Caspian had bred her since he was polled.  But, then we thought that maybe she could have been bred by both Caspian and Rocky???
We just didn't register them instead of doing DNA testing.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 3, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> I think most people have a hard time telling the difference. I know folks who have had goats throw polled kids, but the parents were recorded as horned (disbudded).
> It can be hard when you are burning young bucklings.
> 
> We actually burn our polled bucklings, to prevent 'poll scurs'. We sold a young buckling who was polled, and as he got older he grew scurs (wasn't burned) but was still polled. He threw polled kids too.



I'm glad you mentioned the "poll scurs"  They can be significant.  I don't think I've ever seen them on a doe though.


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## Goat Whisperer (Aug 3, 2016)

OneFineAcre said:


> I'm glad you mentioned the "poll scurs"  They can be significant.  I don't think I've ever seen them on a doe though.


I haven't seen them break through on does, but I do see does with very large nubs. We don't burn polled doelings, but most of our polled bucklings still need to be burned.

ETA: We almost burned one of our polled doeling this year, her nubs are very large. They could break through, we'll see.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 3, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> I haven't seen them break through on does, but I do see does with very large nubs. We don't burn polled doelings, but most of our polled bucklings still need to be burned.
> 
> ETA: We almost burned one of our polled doeling this year, her nubs are very large. They could break through, we'll see.



At this point, I only have one polled goat and it's a buck.. Have not retained any of his daughters, and didn't use him at all last year.
I really do need to sell him.  Nothing wrong with him, just didn't like the length of his daughters, they just didn't seem to go along with the way our other goats look.  Nigerians can have really different body types and we are trying to have a longer body length and about 20" tall.

Of course @Goat Whisperer you know that buck I have my eye on is polled.


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## Southern by choice (Aug 3, 2016)

Haven't had time to read the whole thread and have been booted off the computer multiple times. LOL

Anyway years back I had researched this subject... I posted a link on my website regarding the subject 
http://www.genetics.org/content/30/1/51.full.pdf

I wrote this on my website years ago...

_"There is still some controversy over the polled genetics causing hermaphrodites. Studies done in the 1930’s-1940’s caused many to abandon the polled goats altogether. More recent studies believe it is a separate gene causing the hermaphroditism and it happened to be from polled stock, not because the animal was polled. Recent studies show horned/horned, horned/polled, and polled/polled breedings to have no significant difference in hermaphrodite occurrence. Typically many breed h/p or h/h however there are many breeders working on p/p breedings.

Below is the article that started a great deal of controversy regarding the polled genetics… it is from the 1940’s! It did a great deal of damage to the breeding of polled goats."
_
Some parts of the study came from data in the 1920's

I have not followed much on the recent studies mostly because I do research on many subjects and often times it just gets to be too much and I simply don't have time.
The following is a link from a breeder that worked with the polled genetics...
http://www.arkansasdairygoats.com/polledgoats.htm

Not sure that this breeder is still around, the site looks to not have been updated for some time.

Notice the first article was based on 2 breeds. Toggs and Saanens.

I had hoped to work with this however the "damage" done has caused so many in the goat world to not even touch a goat that was a polled/polled breeding. It is not financially feasible unless the breeder can retain several generations of offspring. Due to our limited space it is not an option for us right now. Hopefully in the future I may do a little experimenting. 

Polled goats are fine however there are a few drawbacks.
One, because of the scare of hermaphroditism most will not breed the polled to a polled. We have many polled does, we also have several polled bucks and this limits us in our breeding. When we retain a doe or a buck that is polled it puts a strain on us because now we have to have an unrelated horned buck/doe to breed with. In our case it has caused us to have to bring in more and more bucks, or sell certain animals that are polled that we would rather retain but we have nothing to breed with.

A word about the mix of the polled... blue eyed... color ... ears etc stuff-

A small herd that will stick to 2 bucks and 2-4 does and not retain, doesn't want to grow their herd or start a breeding program... polled is fine... if that isn't you then you will need to have a large enough herd and multiple bucks/does that are horned to really use the buck.
For us unless it is coming out of our current goats that we are breeding I will not buy another polled buck. 

Color is kind of a little more complex IMO. No, it puts zero milk in the pail! However, it isn't necessarily about being flashy etc BUT I really don't want a whole herd of all the same color goats. That's just me. I currently have 4 Lamanchas that all look identical.

It is a PITB! 
I don't want a whole herd of solid black nigies either. 
So color is nice. 
@OneFineAcre  I think had mentioned he had herd that the reds/gold dwarfs tended to have the old  style ( stouter, rounder) body style whereas other colrs have a more dairy look. As far as judges some have a preference. So, some will do well and some won't. 

The other side is the sale side. We cannot keep every goat. Some will go onto other homes. I have 2 mini Nubian does born March of this year. Everyone who sees them wants them. They are not for sale.  Both have blue eyes, both have great ears for f-1's, both are beautiful. They are also sisters. One is a flashy tri color with rich mahogany, black and white.... the other red and white - strawberry -... They are both great quality. People see the tri and go nuts, she is everyone's favorite yet they don't look at anything else to see is one doe better than the other... 
Yes, one doe is. Now saying that... this is by a hair... as in one being 10 and one being a 9.  So, not much of a difference but still the red/white is the one I would retain if I could only retain one of them. The teat placement, length of teat, rump width, body length, topline are all just SLIGHTLY better. Yet the tri-doe could be sold for a RIDICULOUS amount of money.
But that isn't me. Maybe that is stupid of me  and I should take the money and buy lots and lots of hay!

Everything equal, and both were exactly the same the tri WOULD sell faster. It is like that in goats. Most people do want eye candy to look at as well as having all the right stuff.

As far as mini's go - don't get me started. 
I could care less what generation, what name, how great the ears are... can the goat put milk in the pail? What about that udder?
Udders are hard to work with on mini's... 2nd gens are the hardest to work with because you may get awesome or you may get what the heck happened... even though you have put two GREAT animals together.

Personally I see far too many that their first goal is to get to those ears, and or nose as fast as they can and dang you ask for pics of the other end ( I notice many don't post those pics) and it is like

and then because it is an f-5 etc with correct ears they want big money... yeah NOT ME! No way.  I'll work hard and build the generations from the udder first. Sometimes you have to go BACKWARDS to achieve a particular trait you are working on. Not many are willing to go back or lose a generation. Our BEST producers are an unregistered Lamancha and her mini daughter. 
I shake my head...  the best producers with the longest lactations and the most hardy goats on the property but for some those papers are more important than production... I get it but still .

So back to the main subject. Polled IMO really don't bring that much to the table. You will still have to disbud the horned kids anyway. Even though it is suppose to be 50/50 it isn't.  
I think there were certain genetics that were responsible for the high rate years ago... I do think the polled gene was "blamed" but it wasn't the root. But what do I know.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 4, 2016)

If your goal is homozygous bucks you would not have to burn. Our polled buck has not needed to be burned and he is almost 6months old with nothing but smooth nubs covered in hair still, shall see if that changes but i dont think it will because i saw his father who is also polled and he looks the same without being burned at a year and a half old.

I believe if you start with good standard-size stock and are working on a polled herd it would not add much more difficulty to your breeding. I believe anything mini, dwarfs or pygmies is a totally different story.

If for example i have a Saanen doe, and two alpine does who have good dairyness, good size, good rump, good teats, good udder, etc....and i want to put a polled buck whose mother and grandmother on both sides had the same or better, im not sure how that could be making my breeding more difficult. Later when i need to replace the buck its possible that it could but finding a standard polled diary breed buck who has good dairy lines doesnt seem to be horribly hard in my area. Since i only own two registered does atm and dont plan on getting more registered im not limited in Bucks, i can breed all the does to any breed buck. If i come out with a herd of polled mutts im fine with that as long as they give good milk, our kids we dont keep go to 4h or a pets.

I can see if you were trying to breed for blue eyed moonspotted polled nigerians that were good for dairy...in that case its either going to take a very long time or something is gonna get left behind.


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## Southern by choice (Aug 4, 2016)

misfitmorgan said:


> If your goal is homozygous bucks you would not have to burn. Our polled buck has not needed to be burned and he is almost 6months old with nothing but smooth nubs covered in hair still, shall see if that changes but i dont think it will because i saw his father who is also polled and he looks the same without being burned at a year and a half old.



True, homozygous will produce only polled however most are not homozygous. The heterozygous  bred to a horned goat that does produce a polled animal may produce poll scurs. We have made several inquiries in regard to this matter.
A geneticist I spoke with believes that the polls scurs may be sex linked as it seems to occur in males only.

We went on the quest because several of our bucklings that were polled did develop poll scurs. They are basically rounded raised "giraffe" nubs. We had not seen this before, they were also out of different breed lines so not linked to ONE goat. We had a client whose vet insisted she had been lied to and the breeder had botched the disbudding and told the client they were scurs.
YES, I did call the vet. 

Anyway there are no real answers according to those I have spoken with but it is best guess.  

We do burn to prevent the poll nubs because when they mature they won't have the raised nubs. Many polled goats do end up burned because the breeder is just going across the board doing everyone. That is why on the papers you suddenly see the green coding that they are polled. Obviously it didn't pop out from horned goats, it just was not recorded previously.

Our polled buck (sold and on his new farm) was bred to a horned doe... the horned doe's sire was polled, sister polled as well. This buck bred several does this year and the majority of his kids were polled.  I find that interesting.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 4, 2016)

Southern by choice said:


> We had a client whose vet insisted she had been lied to and the breeder had botched the disbudding and told the client they were scurs.
> YES, I did call the vet.



I think I've seen that buck.


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## OneFineAcre (Aug 4, 2016)

I


Southern by choice said:


> True, homozygous will produce only polled however most are not homozygous. The heterozygous  bred to a horned goat that does produce a polled animal may produce poll scurs. We have made several inquiries in regard to this matter.
> A geneticist I spoke with believes that the polls scurs may be sex linked as it seems to occur in males only.
> 
> We went on the quest because several of our bucklings that were polled did develop poll scurs. They are basically rounded raised "giraffe" nubs. We had not seen this before, they were also out of different breed lines so not linked to ONE goat. We had a client whose vet insisted she had been lied to and the breeder had botched the disbudding and told the client they were scurs.
> ...



I've seen a polled Toggenburg doe with raised nubs about 2" tall.  Almost looks like a buck deer when they first start growing their antlers.  Kind of odd looking on a doe.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 4, 2016)

Yeah that would be odd looking on a doe...on the buck it kinda just looks more masculine least i think so.

I concur most are not homozygous because people dont want to breed to polled to polled much because of the studies. There are those doing just that but i have not seen pictures of their offspring after several generations. Just the basic....ive been breeding polled to polled for a decade and only seen one herm etc...posts and such. Testing if you have a homo or a hetro is easy enough though.


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## Southern by choice (Aug 4, 2016)

misfitmorgan said:


> Testing if you have a homo or a hetro is easy enough though.



Where did you get the testing done?
So far no luck in finding anyone that knows where to send it off to.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 4, 2016)

Southern by choice said:


> Where did you get the testing done?
> So far no luck in finding anyone that knows where to send it off to.



 Sorry i wasnt clear. As far as i know there is no place that tests Homo/Hetro in goats such as a lab to send samples to or anything....they do for cattle though 

Anyhow i ment easy enough to test them by breeding to all horned does. If you bred him to say 5 does and all kids came out polled you can be about 99% sure they are homo.


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## Southern by choice (Aug 6, 2016)

Out of 4 polled does bred this year by the same buck...
*12 kids*-* 1 polled* / 11 horned.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 7, 2016)

Shall see how I fair this spring


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## BYJ (Apr 15, 2018)

We have been raising dairy goats for about 13 years now and have among other traits (hardy, easy keeping, good personality, milk quality) been working towards a polled herd, in all that time we have not had an intersex kid, and we have mated several polled to polled animals.


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## Latestarter (Apr 15, 2018)

Greetings and welcome to BYH! So glad you joined us. This is/was a rather dated thread. Last entry was fall of 2016. It's great that you had some pertinent input though! Please consider taking a minute to visit the new member's thread and introduce yourself so folks can welcome you properly. https://www.backyardherds.com/forums/new-member-introductions.17/  There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home!

PLEASE put at least your general location in your profile. It could be very important if/when you ask for or offer help or advice. You know, climate issues and such. I recommend at least your state as most folks won't be able to figure out where if you put anything more specific (county, town, street, etc) by itself.  Old folks like me   will never remember & look there first. To add it, mouse hover over Account top right and a drop down will appear. Click on Personal Details and scan down. You'll see the spot for Location. Then go to the bottom and save changes.  Thanks! Hope you enjoy the site!


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