Billy goats or the bucks are the intact male goats. If you have bucks in your herd, then you might noticed that your bucks smell really very bad. They stink with a peculiar odor.
And it can be quite offensive to the people, especially who have not been around goats. The does (female goats) and wethers (castrated male goats) do not exhibit such odors.
But do you know, why do bucks smell so bad? Read details below about the reasons of why do bucks smell so bad.
Buck Smell
Usually bucks always stink with a strong peculiar musky odor. This musky odor usually come from both their urine and scent glands. Their scent glands is located near their horns.
Bucks usually spray their urine on their beards, chest, face and front legs during rut (the time period when the does are in estrus cycle).
During rut, the bucks become more smelly. Generally rut occurs in the late summer through fall. You may not like the odor as most of the people do, but your does find it irresistible and it attract them very much.
When Do Bucks Stink?
The rut causes your bucks smell very bad. Usually they urinate on themselves during this period more than any other time of the year, although they smell pretty much all the time.
When the bucklings (your young male goats) become sexually mature, they also start smelling like the adult bucks.
Bucklings usually gain sexual maturity earlier than the female goats. Even, some male goats can become sexually mature as early as their 2 months of age. As a result, some of your youngster can also become stinky as early as that age.
Preventing the Stench
You can keep your bucks separated from the herd for avoiding unplanned breeding and also for avoiding tainting the milk with the smell, as most of the goat owners do. You can keep the bucks in a separate place inside your farm.
And doing this will help to keep the buck’s smell away from your herd. You can also clean your bucks on a regular basis.
Trim the beards of your buck, wash their bellies, heads and legs with clean water. This will help to reduce their strong urine scent.
Wethering
Wethering your bucks is a good idea for preventing their bad smell. Usually wethers do not smell bad like the bucks and they become very friendly and well behaved in nature. By using an elastrator or a burdizzo, you can easily wether a buck.
An elastrator will put a strong rubber band around the top of the scrotum of your buck and it will cut off the blood flow to their testes and scrotum.
And cause the testes and scrotum to fall off within a few weeks. On the other hand, if you can use the burdizzo properly, it will crush the spermatic cord of your bucks.
If you want to keep some bucks in your herd for breeding purpose, keep them separate from the herd. And if possible, wash them regularly.
But during the rut, there are almost no way to avoid their urine scent. If you wish, you can try using your deodorant body spray during this period 🙂
