Beef Cattle With Horns Cut Off

Horns are absent-minded at birth but grow from a cluster of cells known as horn buds. Not all cattle have horns and with the availability and adoption of polled genetics, the bulk of Canada'southward beef herd is polled. Horn buds attach to the skull when a calf is approximately two to three months of historic period.

Removing horns by disbudding or dehorning is a mutual management do in order to:

• Key Points
• Carcass Quality Considerations
• Timing
• Dehorning Methods
  • Polled genetics
  • Disbudding
  • Dehorning
• Managing Pain
• Potential Complications

Cardinal Points

• Dehorning must be performed by an experienced person using proper, well-maintained tools and accepted techniques. Dehorning should be performed when the creature is as young as possible, prior to two to three months of age.
• Producers should consult with their veterinarians regarding pain control when dehorning after horn buds have attached, every bit indicated in the Code of Do for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle (2013).
• Using polled (i.eastward. hornless) genetics helps reduce the costs, labour, and fauna health and welfare issues associated with dehorning.
• Horn tissue can exist physically removed at the bud phase (i.eastward. disbudding) using caustic pastes or an electrical disbudding tool.
• Physical removal of horns later on skull zipper, while not preferred due to pain and other complications, can be washed using tools such every bit a Barnes dehorner, a scoop or tube, a gouger, or dehorning cable.
• Risks of dehorning include pain, uncontrolled bleeding, wing infestation, and bacterial infection.
• Pain medication, such as anesthetics and analgesics, is effective at reducing hurting and improving welfare. A number of different pain-command products are commercially available and surveys demonstrate producers are using them.

Carcass Quality Considerations

Contempo producer surveys betoken that the majority of herds across Canada are polled. In 2017, 89.3% of western Canadian and 86% of Ontario cow-calf producers reported having >75% polled calves.

According to the latest National Beef Quality Inspect, the proportion of all cattle that had horns at slaughter has dropped from xl% in 1994-95 to 9.five% in 2016-17. While the proportion of horned slaughter cattle has dropped, the beef industry still experiences a price of approximately $0.06/head on all slaughter animals (not just the horned animals) due to boosted costs for horn removal at the packing plant. Carcass bruising, partially attributed to horns, caused estimated economic losses of $ane.ninety/head to the beef sector in 2016.

Timing of Dehorning

Calves should exist dehorned or disbudded at the youngest age possible, preferably while horn evolution is nevertheless at the horn bud stage (typically 2-3 months). Producers may disbud or dehorn calves at 3-6 weeks or historic period, at the aforementioned time as other common procedures such every bit castration or vaccination. Dehorning should be avoided during weaning in order to reduce stress.

The Lawmaking of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle requires that dehorning is performed past an experienced person using proper, well-maintained tools and accustomed techniques. Producers should consult with their veterinarians regarding pain control when dehorning later horn buds have attached.

Dehorning Methods

Polled genetics

Horns are under genetic control. All cattle carry two copies of the gene, and the cistron exists in two versions. The "polled" version of the gene is dominant over the recessive "horned" version. An animal with two copies of the polled version of the gene is "homozygous polled" and will ever have polled offspring. An animate being with ane re-create of the polled version and ane copy of the recessive horned version is called "heterozygous polled" but will be visibly polled (considering the ascendant horned version masks the recessive horned version). An animal with two recessive horned versions of the gene will have horns. Breeding horns out of a cattle herd tin take several years because some visibly polled cattle may still carry the recessive horned version of the gene.

Breeding for polled cattle is a non-invasive fashion to dehorn cattle. Polled genetics eliminate the costs, labour, animal health and welfare issues associated with dehorning. Canadian research compared horned and polled bulls and found that there was no difference in birth, weaning or yearling weight, pre- or mail-weaning growth rate, scrotal circumference, carcass weight, marbling score, ribeye area or lean meat yield.

Disbudding

Removing the horn buds before they get attached to the skull at ii or 3 months of historic period is called disbudding. This causes less injury and hurting than removing fastened horns. Once the cells are permanently destroyed, horn tissue will not be able to grow later in life.

Chemical disbudding  involves applying a caustic cloth, such every bit a hydroxide-based paste, to the horn buds to kill the horn-producing cells. Discomfort may occur, and intendance must be taken to ensure the chemical does not come in contact with the calf'due south or operator'southward skin or eyes. Calves that have had dehorning paste practical should be kept dry and abroad from other animals, including the mother cow, for approximately six hours postal service-awarding.

Hot iron disbudding  physically burns the horn-producing cells with a special tool. This causes no adventure of chemic burns to the skin, eyes or udder.

Effigy ane. Electric hot iron disbudding tool

Image courtesy of the Ontario Ministry of Agronomics, Nutrient and Rural Affairs

Dehorning

Attachment of horns occurs betwixt two to three months of age. Removing attached horns causes more pain, greater injury, longer recovery time, potential risk of infection, and a greater setback in creature growth.

Some methods are designed for animals that are all the same young, with small horns.

Spoon or tube dehorning  uses a special tool designed to cutting out the horn bud, forth with any horn-producing cells in young animals.

Figure two. A dehorning spoon or tube

Image courtesy of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Knives tin too exist used to cutting around the skin and under the attached horn bud.

Scoops or gouges  are  sharpened hinged tubes that slide over the horn and cut the horn along with the horn-producing cells. In older cattle a portion of the skull may also be cut out.

Figure 3. A Barnes-type tool scoops the horn and surrounding horn-producing tissue

Image courtesy of the Ontario Ministry of Agronomics, Food and Rural Affairs

Dehorning larger animals is discouraged because of the increase in the size of the wound, the caste of injury and pain, risk of infection and recovery time. Still, several methods can be used to dehorn large cattle if necessary, including big gouges, keystone or guillotine dehorners, hand saws, or obstetric (embryotomy) wire.

Tipping involves cut a portion of the horn off an older animal only non completely removing it. This technique tin can also cause hurting and bleeding, simply is typically viewed as less invasive and painful than other methods. Tipping reduces the gamble of puncture injuries due to sharp horns, but is less effective at reducing bruising.

Managing Pain

Managing pain in cattle is a public business organisation and a producer priority. Pain, stress, recovery fourth dimension and complications are minimized when dehorning is performed early in life. Several methods can be used to reduce the pain of dehorning, including anesthetics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

The following webinar discusses the pain management methods for dehorning (29:51), requirements under the Code of Practice for Beefiness Cattle (thirty:09), and local anesthetic methods (33:12).

Ananesthetic(east.thousand lidocaine) is a drug that temporarily eliminates all feeling. Local anesthetics cause numbness; general anesthetic cause unconsciousness. Anesthetics used to block the cornual nerve should ideally be injected 5 to xx minutes before dehorning for maximum benefit to the animal and operator, although injection even a few minutes prior to the procedure still helps manage the pain chop-chop and can provide several hours of pain relief.

Ananalgesic or NSAID (i.eastward. Metacam and numerous others) temporarily eliminates pain, but not normal sensation. Analgesics are longer-interim than anesthetics, and may provide some pain relief for up to one day after dehorning by reducing swelling and pain.

A number of hurting command products take been approved for use in beef cattle and can be found in this table.

According to recent surveys, between 27-31% of Canadian producer respondents indicated they ever use pain control for dehorning. Between 14-23% of producers reported using pain medication depending on age and method of dehorning.

Potential Complications

Wounds usually heal well with no handling, but there is a run a risk of complications such as uncontrolled haemorrhage, fly contagion, and bacterial infection. Calves require ascertainment for bleeding for thirty-threescore minutes after dehorning. Coagulants like claret terminate powder, tourniquets, clamps or hot atomic number 26 cauterization can help to reduce claret loss. A fly repellent is recommended, and producers should picket for signs of infection for 10-14 days afterwards dehorning.

References

Goonewardene, 50.A., Pang, H., Berg, R.T., and Price, M.A. 1999. A comparison of reproductive and growth traits of horned and polled cattle in iii synthetic beef lines. Canadian Periodical of Fauna Scientific discipline, Volume 79, pages 123-127.

Neely, C.D., Thomson, D.U., Kerr, C.A., and Reinhardt, C.D. 2014. Effects of three dehorning techniques on beliefs and wound healing in feedlot cattle. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 92(5):2225-9.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Eugene Janzen for contributing his time to reviewing this content.

This topic was last revised on October 11, 2019 at 10:10 AM.

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Source: https://www.beefresearch.ca/research-topic.cfm/dehorning-69

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