Prevention Methods for Fighting Injuries in Cashmere Goats

Fighting is the result of competitive selection among horned animals in nature. Through fighting, they can gain more access to water and food, have more mating rights, and enjoy a better living environment, thereby continuously expanding their own group and adapting to various environmental conditions. However, under farming conditions, fighting among goats can affect their rest and feeding, cause fighting injuries or even death, adversely affect reproductive performance, cashmere production performance, and survival rate, and increase feeding costs. Therefore, in production, the occurrence of fighting among goats should be avoided or reduced as much as possible.

Breeding rams should be kept in separate groups. Breeding rams should be divided into small groups according to age, purpose, constitution, body size, etc., with no more than 30 rams per group. Rams that are bullied should be kept isolated from the group. Where conditions permit, each ram should be kept in its own small pen to ensure that no fighting injuries occur among rams and to ensure that each ram feeds according to its nutritional needs.

Opaque isolation should be used between ram pens. After rams are separated from each other, if the partition is a metal fence, the rams can still see each other and fighting will still occur. Although the rams cannot physically contact each other during such fighting, the two rams charge at the metal fence, often breaking the metal fence and causing damage to their horns and heads as well as affecting feeding and rest. When opaque barriers are used for separation, the rams cannot determine each other's position, and the fighting naturally stops.

Rams used for estrus detection, natural mating, and semen collection should be isolated from rams not used that day. After rams have undergone natural mating, estrus detection, or semen collection, they will be attacked by other rams when returned to the original group. Therefore, proper isolation should be carried out to prevent injuries from group attacks.

When forming groups each year, goats of similar age, body size, and physique should be grouped together. Forming a group of goats similar in age, body size, and constitution not only facilitates scientific feeding but also reduces fighting injuries, and the phenomenon of larger goats bullying smaller ones will also be significantly reduced.

The stocking density of newly grouped goats should be relatively low. In newly formed groups, because the number and members of goats have changed considerably, the hierarchy needs to be re-established through fighting. If the stocking density is too high, the losing side in a fight has nowhere to escape and is often seriously injured or killed. Appropriately reducing density can significantly reduce the rate of injury and illness. After the group has stabilized, goats with strong constitutions can be added according to the actual situation, so that fighting will be limited to individual goats and group injuries will be relatively minor.

Remove the "horn tips" of dominant individuals. Removing "horn tips" is mainly aimed at ewes and has no effect on controlling fighting among rams. The method of removing "horn tips" is as follows: select strong and aggressive individuals from the flock and saw off about 2 cm to 3 cm of the horn tip from the base direction, which can reduce fighting injuries. The "horn tips" of weak goats in the group should not be removed, otherwise the weak goats will be even more vulnerable to attacks within the group.

Prevent individual goats from having an obviously different appearance from other goats in the flock. For example, if individual goats are returned to the original group after cashmere combing, while most goats in the original group have not been combed, the combed goats are extremely likely to be mobbed by the uncombed goats, and the group will treat the few combed goats as "outsiders."

Frequently observe, adjust, and isolate fighting goats. During feeding and management, the keeper should frequently observe the fighting behavior of goats, pay attention to fighting goats, and carefully check whether the goats have fighting injuries, the severity of the injuries, the possible causes of the fighting, and the scope of the fighting. If individuals with severe fighting are found, efforts should be made to regroup or isolate them to reduce the incidence and severity of fighting. Liu Zhenghua