Disbudding and dehorning cattle are different procedures with the same outcome – no horns on cattle.
Disbudding is the process of cauterizing the bud before it grows into horns, and it typically occurs before a calf is three months old. Dehorning is the process of removing a calf’s horns. While there are different methods of dehorning, all of them can cause significant pain to the calf.
Removing horns from cattle is first and foremost a security objective, as it is less likely for dehorned cattle to injure their handler, other cattle or themselves. Other benefits include reducing the space required at the feed bunk or in transit, as well as gaining a price advantage by offering hornless cattle at auctions.
There are mixed views on the process of dehorning. While some consider dehorning to be inhumane and unnecessary pain for cattle, most would agree that dehorned cattle result in a safer workplace for the producers who handle them, and a safer environment for their herd mates.
There are a number of ways that producers can improve the welfare of their cattle, during and after the dehorning process.
HOW PAIN MANAGEMENT HELPS
The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association recommends that dehorning be performed within the first week of life. This minimizes hazards to the calf, as well as the producer.
While there is no evidence that pain differs when dehorning calves of different ages, there’s less risk associated with disbudding young cattle. Dehorning older cattle can result in trauma, sickness (sinusitis, abscesses) or death (from bleeding), and decreased weight gain in the weeks following dehorning. Disbudding calves at a young age can help avoid or limit most of these complications.
Younger calves are easier to dehorn, and it’s less stressful for them compared to their older counterparts. When calves are born, the skin bud that will produce the horn has not yet attached to the bone and the skin on the skull is still mobile. Within 2-3 months of age, part of the skull prolongs into the horn. Disbudding a young calf causes less injury and pain than removing the attached horns.
On January 1, 2016, the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle mandated the use of pain management techniques to limit pain while dehorning calves after the horns have attached to the skull.
Veterinary recommendation is that calves receive both a local anesthetic and NSAIDs before disbudding or dehorning to minimize the impact on their welfare.
Regardless of when cattle are dehorned, it is each producer’s responsibility to ensure that each dehorning procedure is safe and humane.
CANADIAN TRENDS
The preferred method of obtaining beef cattle without horns in Canada is to breed polled cattle. Polled cattle are animals born without horns. This is also the preference of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.
In Canada today, fewer than 13% of cattle have horns, compared to 40% in 1995.
Dehorned cattle offer a better bottom line to producers. The Beef Cattle Research Centre found “the economic loss to the industry caused by bruising is estimated at $2.10/head processed in addition to $0.06/head due to extra packing plant labor costs to remove horns from the carcass before skinning.”
Many countries follow the same guidelines as Canada. In the UK, disbudding with a hot iron is the preferred method of removing horns. In Australia, dehorning without local anesthesia or analgesia is restricted to animals less than 6 months of age.
