No Head Butting!
November 12th, 2013 · 3 Comments · Posted in Blog
Leave my grain alone!
That’s what our Jersey heifer, Emily, is trying to tell momma goat Dolly. I’ve always given the goats a little grain as a treat in the morning and afternoon out of Emily’s feed bucket but it’s become a bit of a problem now that we have the goats, sheep and heifer all grazing together in the upper pasture. Turns out Emily doesn’t like the goats to get anywhere near her grain. What I try to do is call the goats over to the fence quick when I reach the paddock and extend a handful before Emily can lumber over and make her displeasure known.
As you can see in the photo, I don’t always succeed. Dolly the goat is trying to wolf down the grain from my hand as Emily is about to give her a big shove in the side with her head.
Head butting is both play and a weapon among this crew. Even before I moved the goats in with the other animals, I sometimes noticed the sheep going at it–launching themselves at each other head-first. They don’t have horns, so there’s not much to worry about. I think they do it just for fun. Although once I found one of the ewes bleeding a little from a spot where one of her horns would otherwise be.
The goats, on the other hand, are much more aggressive with the butting. Dolly and her daughter Tanner joust to test each other. When they were in the goat enclosure by themselves, Dolly would butt just about anything sturdy– even the wooden shed where they slept. You could sometimes hear her all the way from the house–Bam! Bam! Bam!–as she clobbered the walls inside the shed. She also liked to take out her frustrations on the door frame, or on one of the nearby trees. I once noticed bark stripped away from a tree where Dolly had been pounding it. Why would she do that? I guess you have to be a goat to know.
Dolly, whose Kiko breed comes originally from New Zealand, does have some rather impressive horns and that worries me as far as injuries she might inflict on the other animals. Fortunately the horns sweep backwards and to the sides. She has to swipe sideways with her head to hit you with the point of her horns and sometimes she does just that if she’s irritated. What’s really scary is when she rears up on her hind legs, standing suddenly tall looking down on you. That’s her way of winding up for a really powerful head butt. In the goat world, she would launch herself downward, using her forehead as a weapon. If she rears when I’m inside the paddock, I get out of the way fast.
Emily isn’t scared of Dolly, though. The heifer just lowers her head and chases after the goat. She’s naturally polled, meaning she doesn’t have horns. But she still has a massive plate of skull in that area and when she swings her head, her skull becomes a force to be reckoned with.
The goats, including Tanner, with her teenage horns, seem to enjoy intimidating the sheep. They just have to lower their heads and the sheep scurry off. So far there haven’t been any injuries. But the other day, I arrived at the paddock for Emily’s afternoon snack of high-protein grain and found one of the sheep standing all alone in the adjacent paddock the animals had recently vacated. Part of the temporary fence separating the two paddocks was down, indicating there had been some kind of scuffle that forced the ewe through the netting.
That’s disturbing enough that I think about removing the goats. But I so like the idea of all these different ruminants grazing together. As a unit, with their different tastes, they do a great job mowing all the different grasses and weeds. What fabulous pasture they could build if they would just stop the head butting and work as a team.
Hey, guys! Can’t we just all get along?
Ed, you should stop that head butting/horn swinging behavior around you ASAP. Not only is it bad protocol, but that bad protocol will get you hurt eventually. This isn’t an “if” situation but a “when and how bad” situation.
Head butting is both play and dominance behavior. Animals may not be aware that they can hurt you, and they darned sure don’t care if they can hurt you. That’s something you need to keep in mind at all times and you need to make sure to let all of your animals know that you have personal space just like they do and that they are not to enter your personal space in any kind of aggressive way. Your sheep aren’t so much of a problem unless you have a ram. Sheep aren’t too aggressive unless there is food involved, and when feeding, if you’re in the pen with them, then they should know to respect your space.
Goats and cattle on the other hand, can be aggressive at any time and even if they’re not being aggressive, their play can (and often does) put people in the hospital, and, unlike sheep, there doesn’t necessarily have to be food involved to cause those behaviors.
All animals need to respect your space. This is not something that comes naturally to them, they have to be trained to respect your space. You don’t want to be abusive toward your livestock, but neither should you be timid.
With your calf a simple swat on the nose with the flat of your hand along with a gruff command (“don’t”, “Hey”, etc.) can be a good and quick check on any aggressive behavior. Goats are more problematic because they’re tougher than cattle and sheep. Even smacking them with a stick may just be seen as only one move in a game of push and shove.
When I first got my buck goat, he was very pushy. I don’t think he was pushy with his former owner, but I was a new individual and we had to sort things out in order for each of us to see who was boss. He head butted as a matter of course, as is the goat way, and did the whole rear up and really throw your weight into it style. What I found to be the most effective was to set him up and intentionally let him challenge me. Then, when he came at me I’d catch him as he’d come down and hold him in a bear hug in the most uncomfortable position (for him) I could think of. Usually this involved keeping his body at about a 30° angle to the ground. A few times of doing this stopped the behavior when we were facing each other.
However, there were still situations when I had my back to him, especially if I was bent over latching the gate, picking anything up, etc. For that I have a couple of strategies. I never turn my back on him without staying aware of where he is at all times. And, he learned that I can kick like a mule. I think I only had to kick him in the chest twice before he got the idea that challenging me in that situation wasn’t worth the trouble either.
He still challenges me periodically and this is to be expected, especially during rut. Everyone needs to reaffirm the pecking order and this is normal behavior.
Thanks for those comments, Joanne. Spot on. We haven’t experienced any aggressive behavior from the sheep or the heifer. Mostly what Emily likes to do is rub her head on our leg. The goats are a different story and I’m afraid our 13-year-old daughter has encouraged bad behavior–encouraging the smaller goat to climb up on her, for instance, and allowing the smaller goat to push and gently butt her from behind. She thinks it’s cute. So far, Dolly’s aggression has been aimed at the sheep, although she will sometimes swipe with her horn if she’s not in a mood to be petted or scratched. Otherwise I think socializing with the animals is helpful within the limits you’ve described.
Oh I agree that socializing with the animals is a good thing. You just need to constantly remind them that you’re the top of the pecking order when you’re in with them.
Remember, livestock kill and injure more people in this country than any other domestic animal. I think cattle are responsible for the most deaths and maimings, then horses. Goats, unless they’re very, very small are right up there with horses and cattle.
So enjoy your animals, but for your sake and theirs, be careful and be safe.