4hmama
Chillin' with the herd
Interesting buck opinions....Here is what I think:
I have 4 bucks, none were bottle raised. They were all dam raised but handled as babies. The oldest is almost 3 and they are as nice as can be. I have 16 girls and use all of of my bucks for breeding. They have never offered to be nasty or aggressive. We usually work with them by using grain as a treat - ie: getting them from buck to breeding pen, etc. We don't ask much from them because they do smell bad - but they have never challenged any person that has been around them.
A friend of mine had a nubian buck and he would 'challenge' her by pushing on her. Not knowing what was going on, she would push back and thought it was 'play'. Needless to say the buck went 'down the road' because he got too aggressive to handle.
My opinion: People need to understand goat behavior and that buck's 'play' can be a precurser to aggression. They can be pre-disposed to being more aggressive by genetics, but the problem can be compounded by outside factors also.
I have 4 bucks, none were bottle raised. They were all dam raised but handled as babies. The oldest is almost 3 and they are as nice as can be. I have 16 girls and use all of of my bucks for breeding. They have never offered to be nasty or aggressive. We usually work with them by using grain as a treat - ie: getting them from buck to breeding pen, etc. We don't ask much from them because they do smell bad - but they have never challenged any person that has been around them.
A friend of mine had a nubian buck and he would 'challenge' her by pushing on her. Not knowing what was going on, she would push back and thought it was 'play'. Needless to say the buck went 'down the road' because he got too aggressive to handle.
My opinion: People need to understand goat behavior and that buck's 'play' can be a precurser to aggression. They can be pre-disposed to being more aggressive by genetics, but the problem can be compounded by outside factors also.
