Farmers and small livestock breeders are often faced with the question of when newborn goat kids begin to grow horns, because horned offspring can be expected from a polled female or male. It is possible to determine the presence of future horns already in the first days after lambing of a goat by a number of external signs. The timing of the appearance of horns has also been identified, obvious deviations from which are not common.
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What do baby goats' horns look like?
The rudiments of horns in newborn cubs are palpable at an early age - 7-14 days. Pronounced compactions are clearly visible on the 21st day of life of the young.Later, tubercles on the skull can also be visualized in polled offspring, but in horned breeds, by that time small keratinized cone-shaped outgrowths already appear.
In practice, the first sign of horns is considered to be the characteristic curls of hair on the sides of the upper part of the head. Another sign is the direction of fur growth. Horned animals usually have a parting in the center of the head, while polled animals have hair that grows from the top of the head in a circumferential direction.
At the initial stage of eruption of horns, they can only be detected by touch and noticed by the increased size of the tubercles on the head. As kids age, their horns grow quite quickly, becoming more noticeable with each subsequent week.
In young animals that have reached the age of 1 year, the horns usually have a regular, even shape, grow in parallel, slightly diverging with their tips to the sides, and point upward.
The pattern on the horns is visible, but the surface still remains smooth. In mature individuals, the horns begin to bend, and growths may appear. The degree of curvature depends on the heredity and individual characteristics of the cattle.
At what age do horns begin to grow?
In most cases, goat kids erupt antlers when they reach one month of age. Sometimes the period of appearance shifts by 1 week in one direction or another, rarely the first outgrowths appear in the early period, on the 15-20th day of life.
Six-month-old young animals of horned breeds have impressive horns, reaching a length of 7 to 10 centimeters.In exceptional cases, as a result of incomplete dominance of the trait at the genetic level, in the presence of polled animals in the family, animals may develop fake, small horns, which the kids often knock off on their own.
