I'm curious if bucks go into rut if there are no girl goats around? I might be keeping my bucks and wethers on a lovely area of much browse that is far from my girls - 1 - 2 miles. Will they smell the girls at this distance? Will they rut regardless? Love some education. I ask because my experience with my last bucks indicated my buck and wether team that I housed at my friends farm lost his smell once he was removed from my other buck. Is it proximity to other bucks or other bucks while in presence of girls?
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I have two bucks. One of them I've had penned with the girls for quite some time. He is Much less stinky than the other buck. Not sure if it's because he's with the girls or not.
The only thing I've heard about bucks in rut was from a friend who had a very "relaxed" farming style, and raised her goats for meat. She let her bucks run with the does full time, for the most part. Occasionally she had reason to separate them. She said the bucks were much less stinky when penned with the does.
I think the peeing on themselves and other rut behaviors are to attract does, so if there are none around, maybe they just try harder. :)
I think they would always come into rut regardless of the proximity of the girls, and if they didn't there would be something wrong with them. The wild deer, elk all come into rut and go off searching for girls. It is just part of their makeup. Goats I think would be just the same if they were in a lose situation. The fighting is also part of all of those animal's makeup. My buck comes into hard rut late in the fall and is out of it now (except he enjoys peeing on himself from time to time.) Also - when my guy Quigley, comes into rut he can be agressive to me once in awhile but never to my husband. Now he is his old friendly self.
One year we had all of our does bred by early October, so we put our bucks across the creek. The just got stinkier and more aggressive with each other over the next couple of months, even though there were no girls that they could see.
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I think rut is the way of the buck, especially from early fall to spring, and some start early!
The only thing I've heard about bucks in rut was from a friend who had a very "relaxed" farming style, and raised her goats for meat. She let her bucks run with the does full time, for the most part. Occasionally she had reason to separate them. She said the bucks were much less stinky when penned with the does.
I think the peeing on themselves and other rut behaviors are to attract does, so if there are none around, maybe they just try harder. :)
I think they would always come into rut regardless of the proximity of the girls, and if they didn't there would be something wrong with them. The wild deer, elk all come into rut and go off searching for girls. It is just part of their makeup. Goats I think would be just the same if they were in a lose situation. The fighting is also part of all of those animal's makeup. My buck comes into hard rut late in the fall and is out of it now (except he enjoys peeing on himself from time to time.) Also - when my guy Quigley, comes into rut he can be agressive to me once in awhile but never to my husband. Now he is his old friendly self.
One year we had all of our does bred by early October, so we put our bucks across the creek. The just got stinkier and more aggressive with each other over the next couple of months, even though there were no girls that they could see.