Keeping dairy goats with or without horns in large groups

The objectives of the present projects are: 1) to gain data on the situation in large goat herds with horned animals as well as in hornless (genetically & dehorned) herds with respect to social stress and injuries, 2) to identify factors influencing social stress and injuries 3) to suggest solutions for keeping horned and dehorned/hornless goats with good welfare, and therefore 4) to assess the effects of prohibition of dehorning of goats with respect to goat welfare and farm economy and 5) to give recommendations to goat farmers regarding housing and management and 6) to prepare a booklet summarizing the results and recommendations. For this purpose, 1) an on farm survey on dairy goat farms with horned/mixed as well as with hornless herds will be performed, 2) in experiments, practical solutions to reduce social stress as well as potential differences in social stress between horned and hornless groups of dairy goats will be tested and 3) a study on the economic effects of such practical solutions will be investigated. The BOKU subproject addresses the workload and economic efficiency of farms with horned and dehorned goats, respectively. This will be investigated using questionnaires in the 60 farms participating in the on-farm survey, more detailed analysis of labour requirements in five farms each with horned and dehorned goats as well as during the experimental studies.