# Polled Boers?



## warhorse (Mar 2, 2012)

Hi, I admittedly haven't taken the time to look around, but does anyone have any experience breeding for polled boers?


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## beckyburkheart (Mar 2, 2012)

I'll be interested to hear any answers to this.  I have half-lamancha twins, a buck and a doe, that are naturally polled.  As much as I'm working toward a registered herd, with all the juggling i'm having to so and realizing i'm a year maybe two out from that, i'm curious to see if i could establish a naturally polled line.

knowing it would take three/four generations bred back to pure to get back in the registry, what are the genetics of being naturally polled.  I know there is an element of hermaphroditism (is that a word? my spell checker says "no") with the polled goats.

is it a dominate trait that will pass or not (visually)? or can it be a recessive?  the doe that i have has had three does and four bucks for me, only two of the bucks grew horns.


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## warhorse (Mar 3, 2012)

WithMine so far are not registered but high percentage.  I have 3 nannies that are nubian-boer (50%) and 3 nannies high peecentage boer possibly mixed with spanish and/ or fainting.  Those 3 are gma, mom, and daughter, with tje youngest being naturally polled sired by a polled boer.  (the other 2 have horns as did the nubian crosses, but they were disbudded).

so. I bred them.all to the polled buck (sire of one of them, so linebreeding there) and got:

 Triplets out of the oldest spanish-x nanny.  1 polled doeling and ahorned doeling and a horned bucklings but the buckling was born blind and deaf and later died.

 Twins out of the middle spanish-x nanny. Both polled and REALLY nice.  (I think she may have some fainting in her bloodline because they all have a much nicer muscle structure thanks the others.

A single polled buckling out of the youngest spanish cross does (the one that was linebred).


 AllThe nubian crosses just threw single horned bucklings.

So overall, 9 kids, 5 male, 4 female, 4 polled, 5 horned.

 TheyAll appear "normal" and normal behaviour so far (at 4 weeks old bucklings are acting like little bucks.)


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## beckyburkheart (Mar 3, 2012)

well.  we sold our naturally polled half lamancha buck last night, but kept the polled sister.  i'm still wading through the registration, but since she's by a purebred sire an has elf ears, i think she can be registered (and i have her sister from last year who is polled but has ears, but had a no-eared buck this year). ... so i have a few generations to work through, but if i can get half polled, if i can get enough does, it will be an interesting project.

i googled some genetics last night and bookmarked the pages but didn't read them in detail.  but i'll go back later this weekend and see what i can figure out.


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## beckyburkheart (Mar 3, 2012)

warhorse said:
			
		

> So overall, 9 kids, 5 male, 4 female, 4 polled, 5 horned.


so about half, which is about what i am getting here out of my polled does.


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## warhorse (Mar 11, 2012)

Is polled more common in dairy breeds or certain breeds?

I had read about hermaphriditism, so I was pleased that my two original polleds were fertile, and I'm curious to see how fertility plays out.


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## warhorse (Mar 22, 2012)

Wow, all of a sudden there are three listings on craigslist today for polled boers.   I emailed them all; it will be interesting to see photos when they send them.


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## jodief100 (Mar 22, 2012)

The genetics on polled is rather straightforward.  The polled gene is dominant.  If you have one copy of the gene, the polled trait will show (the goat will be polled).  Horned is recessive, you have to have two copies of the gene for the goat to have horns.  The hermaphroditism is a recessive trait that is located very close to the polled gene on the loci, so they tend to come together.  Since it is recessive, you have to have two copies of the gene for the goat to be a hermaphrodite.  

Let me use a P to indicate a polled gene and H to indicate a horned gene.  A goat gets either a horned gene or a polled gene form each parent.  Horned is recessive so horned goat has two copies of a horned gene (HH).  The goat can only pass along a horned gene.  A polled goat can have either one horned and one polled gene or two polled genes (PP or HP).  Since hermaphroditism is a recessive trait closely linked to the polled gene, if the goat has two copies of the polled gene you have a dramatically increased risk of getting a hermaphrodite if the goat has two polled genes.  

If you breed a horned goat to a polled goat with one horned and one polled gene (heterozygous polled) the Punnet square looks like this.  The horned parent is the top row, with two horned genes.  The polled parent is the left column showing one horned and one polled gene.   Half the kids will be heterozygous polled.

	H	H
H	HH	HH
P	HP	HP

If you breed a horned goat to a polled goat with two polled genes (homozygous polled) the Punnet square looks like this.  The horned parent is the top row, with two horned genes.  The polled parent is the left column showing two polled genes.   All the kids will be heterozygous polled.  Of course a homozygous polled goat is likely to be a hermaphrodite so it is doubtful you will be able to breed it.

	H	H
P	HP	HP
P	HP	HP

If you breed two heterozygous polled goats, 25% will be horned, 50% will be heterozygous polled and 25% will be homozygous polled.  
	H	P
H	HH	HP
P	HP	PP

The best thing to do is never breed a polled goat to a polled goat.  That way you will not have the increased risk of a hermaphrodite.


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## Vumani (Mar 22, 2012)

That is an impressive explanation!


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## animalsRawsome (Mar 22, 2012)

So... if you're buying a goat, you just have to take the breeder's word that they are polled? How can you tell they didn't just disbud them when they were younger?


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## warhorse (Sep 26, 2013)

animalsRawsome said:
			
		

> So... if you're buying a goat, you just have to take the breeder's word that they are polled? How can you tell they didn't just disbud them when they were younger?


After looking at quite a few polled goats, there is a slight difference in the skull at the point where the horns would attach.  It's really difficult for me to explain, but if you see them side by side you can tell the difference.


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