Bad Farm Day

We took the kids in for disbudding. Most farms will do the disbudding themselves. I am too much of a whimp/city person to do it myself.

Disbudding is burning the horn tissue on a kid's head to prevent horns from growing. There are many reasons to do it. It makes the adults easier to handle, there is less risk of injury to another goat and to any human working with them, the goats won't get their heads stuck in a fence which can kill them etc. Some people opt not to do it. However, we disbud our kids and will continue to do so.

I have done it. In my 20's I helped to castrate and dehorn some calves. I thought it would be really cool! Once it was over tho, I felt sort of sick to my stomach to hold down an animal and cause it that much pain. I know it's for the good of the animal down the road and it has to be done. I didn't chicken out, I did the job, but that is where my city upbringing gets in the way of my love for all things agriculture. I was raised in the city with our pets inside and learned to take our animal to the vet and treat it like a member of the family.

I know that farmers and ranchers care for their animals and treat them well. They also are running a business and can't afford to make a living if they take their stock to the vet for every little procedure. Think about it. If you were running hundreds or thousands of cattle, it doesn't make much business sense to pay a vet for vaccinating, castrating or dehorning all these animals and using drugs for pain management when those are things you can learn and do yourself and the animals don't "need" those drugs to live.

I think of it sort of like circumcision in babies. It hurts them and it's traumatic, but the babies and animals get over it and don't have lasting fear or pain once it's over. Our kids are just as happy after it's done as they were before - they frolic and play and suck down thier bottles and come running to see us.

Anyway, we took our kids to be disbudded one year to our very favorite dairy goat farm of all time - Harmody Farms. After learning how and seeing it done to the kids - I decided that I did not want to do that myself. Since we have a very small "herd", I have the luxury of taking the kids to a veterinarian who will put them under general anethesia to burn the horn buds so they don't feel it. She charges $10/head so people will use her service and to me, it's worth it. I know anyone reading this who runs cattle or has large herds or was raised on a farm or ranch is rolling their eyes right now. When we only have 4 or 5 kids a year, it's just not that big of a cost to us. Just seems like in this world, you do what you have to do to feel comfortable and everyone does things their own particular way. It's not right or wrong - just different.

That said, we took all the kids in for their disbudding like we have every year. The vet lost one. She lost it because there was an accident. She felt awful. I know it was unintentional. However, Furry Husband and I felt awful too. It was our first kid loss. Hard to lose a fresh new life... hard to lose any life, but a baby that new was very sad to us. Especially since Sonata and I worked so hard to get all those babies into this world! It carries even more of a sting because the kid was a doe, does are worth more money and usually go to good homes with families that use them for their milk production or to children that show them in 4H and love them. This doe was the right color and sex for someone - she would have had a good home.

There is an old saying: When you have livestock, you are going to have deadstock.

It is so true, no one likes it, no one means for it to happen, but accidents occur, mistakes happen, bad things come around from time to time. I don't like it and I'm not happy about it. It was a bad farm day. There is nothing I can do except feel sad and at the same time look forward to the new life that Spot and Savannah will give us. We will enjoy the kids we still have and find the million other good things in each day.