WINNEMUCCA - Fall roundup time is near and ranchers will be gathering up their cattle, weaning calves and sending them to market. Many of these feeder calves will be sent to feedlots, where they will continued to be fed and grow into finished beef. Many of the cattle raised on western rangelands are cattle with horns. This is mainly a factor of the purebred breeds or composite breeds raised by ranchers, which do well on rangeland forages and in rangeland environments.
A recent study was done by a faculty member of Kansas State University, where they compared the effects of three different dehorning techniques on behavior and performance of feeder cattle. Removing the horns of cattle when they arrive at feeding facilities is a common practice to reduce injury to other cattle.
When cattle with horns are housed in feedlot pens, a significant number of carcasses with bruises have been documented at the processing plants. This carcass bruising is reflected in the horned feeder cattle markets, where in 2005 horned feeder calves receive an average discount of $3.23/cwt, giving producers the incentive to dehorn their cattle before marketing.
Three common techniques (tipping, dehorning, and banding) are utilized in the field to remove or reduce horn length in beef cattle. Tipping is the practice of removing the tip of the horn such that the diameter of the horn is approximately 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Mechanically dehorning is cutting the horns off at the base of the horn near the head. The use of high-tension rubber bands to dehorn cattle has recently been implemented in some cattle feeding facilities. The band restricts blood circulation to the horns, resulting in necrosis, and the horns eventually fall off. This study looked at the effects of tipping, mechanically dehorning and banding on the behavior and performance of feeder cattle.
Forty crossbred horned steers and heifers were used to determine the effects of dehorning methods on cattle behavior and performance. A vocalization score and information on chute behavior were recorded during the dehorning process. Vocalization scores were assigned based on behavior: 0 = no vocalization; 1 = low volume and 2 = greater volume intensity. Behavior was evaluated and recorded daily for depression, gait, and posture and lying for 28 days following treatment application.
Success of the banding technique over the 4-week time period was poor to inconclusive during the trial. Four of the bands fell off without removing the horn in the first 4 days of the trial. During the trial, only 3 horns that had been banded fell off during a 28-day period, leaving 13 out of the 20 horns at the end of the 4-week trial with the bands still attached.
Mechanical dehorning and Banding had greater vocalization scores than the tipping procedure. Cattle with the mechanical dehorning treatment had the most extended vocalization, indicating the greatest discomfort during the procedure. The banded group had lower vocalization scores than the mechanical group at the time of dehorning but greater vocalization post-procedure. Vocalization scores for cattle treated with the tipping procedure compared to the control group (no dehorning) did not differ.
Cattle from the Band group tended to have higher depression scores than cattle from other treatment groups. No other differences were measured in depression scores in cattle dehorned by Tipping, Mechanical, or in the Control group.
Cattle in the Banded group tended to exhibit higher gait and posture and higher abnormal lying scores than cattle in other dehorning treatment groups. Indicating the Banded cattle displayed more discomfort during the testing period. In addition, the amount of weight gained by cattle in all four dehorning treatment groups was similar across treatments.
Based on treatment effects on vocalization, depression, abnormal gait and posture, and abnormal lying, banding appears to be a relatively painful process that has lasting effects. Mechanical dehorning is correlated with increases in vocalization at the time of the procedure, which can be associated with an increase in pain response. Tipping the horns had the least amount of pain-associated behavior observed throughout the trial and was similar cattle not dehorned; however, no difference was detected in performance between the different dehorning procedures.
Other than vocalization during dehorning, mechanical dehorning caused no differences in behavior post-procedure compared with tipping or no dehorning, and tipping was not different than no dehorning with respect to behavior measures.
In today's cattle industry, dehorning is still preferred by the feedlot and processing facilities. Bruises on fed steers and heifers cost the beef industry $1.00 for every animal marketed. This adds up to a loss of $22 million per year for the fed beef industry. The reason the beef industry has failed to stop this shocking loss is due to a lack of accountability. As long as bruise losses can be passed on by the producer into the packing plant, there is no motivation to reduce them.
Hopefully, in the future genetic science will develop polled cattle (cattle without horns) that will perform as well as horned cattle in rangeland conditions. Until then, ranchers are encouraged to dehorn their feeder calves.
Although, it is realized that cattle raised on rangeland are much more difficult to manage at a young age, Dr. Temple Grandin, Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University., strongly suggests that, "Horns should be removed from baby calves before the horn buds grow. Cutting horns off of older animals will cause severe stress and setback in gains. There is no excuse for not dehorning very young calves. There are several very good heating devices which will destroy the horn button on a calf."
Source: Comparison of the Effects of Three Different Dehorning Techniques on Behavior and Performance in Feeder Cattle in a Western Kansas Feedlot, C.D. Neely, D.U. Thomson, C.A. Kerr, D.E. Anderson, and C.D. Reinhardt from Kansas State University
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