De-Horning

[westernvendor.com]

I missed a couple of heifers this Spring and was wondering what the latest you could use the hot-iron (brand a circle around the base of the horn) to de-horn them was? I know the recommendation is 4 months, and I would imagine it depends on the size of the horn.

These are 6 months old, probably have about a good 1-2 inch horns already, and are probably just under the size of a quarter at the base of the horns.

Anyone have luck using the hot-iron approach this late or do you think I'll need to cut 'em off?

 

[Lucky_P]

No longer have access to a dehorning iron.
Have taken horns off of 6-8 month old Simmental heifers by placing 2 elastrator bands(the little green cheerio) down at the base of each horn, as far down as I could get 'em, and about 6 weeks later, they fell off. No blood, no flies, no maggots, no open hole into the sinuses; yeah, they ran around shaking their heads for 30-40 minutes after band placement, but other than that, no problems. Made sure I'd given a clostridial bacterin with tetanus toxoid two weeks before I put the bands on - and boostered the tetanus toxoid at the time of band placement.
Only have one dehorned cow left in the herd, and she's one that was dehorned with elastrator bands - we call her "Ol' Square-Head"; she's got some scurs, 'cause I didn't get all the germinal horn tissue, but they're short, blunt, and really don't seem to be growing or getting any bigger, even though she's 5-6 years down the road from being dehorned. Several cows in my herd probably still carry the horn gene from horned &/or heterozygous polled bulls we used in the past; but so long as I keep using homozygous polled bulls, I won't see any horns again.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I missed a couple of heifers this Spring and was wondering what the latest you could use the hot-iron (brand a circle around the base of the horn) to de-horn them was? I know the recommendation is 4 months, and I would imagine it depends on the size of the horn.

These are 6 months old, probably have about a good 1-2 inch horns already, and are probably just under the size of a quarter at the base of the horns.

Anyone have luck using the hot-iron approach this late or do you think I'll need to cut 'em off?[/ quote]
yep, but i used a keystone dehorner then use the iron to cauterize the bleeders if you do use a blade type dehorner at that age or older be sure to do it gradually and rotate the blade back and forth cutting and snipping as it can crush their skull with the pressure of the single cut... a wire saw is great

 

[KNERSIE]

At this late stage I cut them with pruning scissors as close to the head as possible and then use the hot iron to kill the tissue around the wound.

 

[fargus]

Man are we backwards then! 1-2" horns are a pain, I like letting them get a bit bigger and then using gougers. If they are that size or smaller gougers don't do a real good job, if you can get away with a dehorning iron I would do it. We don't cauterize when we cut except as a last resort. We pull arteries, and so far haven't lost a one to bleeding.

We also continue to use more polled genetics, as dehorning is one of my least favourite jobs.

 

[oscar p]

I dehorned 7 cows and 4 calves last saturday. Used the keystones,on the cows. I used the bigger scoups on the the calves horns.Used the hot iron afterwards. I tipped my Braford bulls horns with gigley wire. That is the way to go on bigger horns, If your arms can stand it. Thought my arms were going to fall off. After I tipped his horns, I wished I had'nt. Just doesn't look the same.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I dehorned 7 cows and 4 calves last saturday. Used the keystones,on the cows. I used the bigger scoups on the the calves horns.Used the hot iron afterwards. I tipped my Braford bulls horns with gigley wire. That is the way to go on bigger horns, If your arms can stand it. Thought my arms were going to fall off. After I tipped his horns, I wished I had'nt. Just doesn't look the same.

does his horns turn up or down you can train em to turn down by tipping at a angle.. '' gigley wire'' i forgot about that name :cowboy:

 

[westernvendor.com]

gigley wire? I'm not real familiar with that one.

I've used the keystone before, but I was hoping to avoid cutting these. One of my least favorite jobs, too. Thanks for all the input!

 

[dun]

Seems like someone posted one time about using a battery recip saw for knocking off horns.

 

[KNERSIE]

gigley wire?

obstetrical wire

 

[Angus Cowman]

Seems like someone posted one time about using a battery recip saw for knocking off horns.

have used them for tipping horns before and they work great

 

[ALACOWMAN]

gigley wire? I'm not real familiar with that one.

I've used the keystone before, but I was hoping to avoid cutting these. One of my least favorite jobs, too. Thanks for all the input!

grew to be mine to, especially my son's he hated it with a passion... like the old saying goes,, best dehorner you can buy is a polled bull

 

[dun]

gigley wire? I'm not real familiar with that one.

I've used the keystone before, but I was hoping to avoid cutting these. One of my least favorite jobs, too. Thanks for all the input!

grew to be mine to, especially my son's he hated it with a passion... like the old saying goes,, best dehorner you can buy is a polled bull

Homozygous polled! We used a hetero polled hetero black bull on a Polled Hereford cow. Last year we got a Polled RWF bull, this year we got a horned BWF heifer

 

[fargus]

gigley wire? I'm not real familiar with that one.

I've used the keystone before, but I was hoping to avoid cutting these. One of my least favorite jobs, too. Thanks for all the input!

grew to be mine to, especially my son's he hated it with a passion... like the old saying goes,, best dehorner you can buy is a polled bull

Homozygous polled! We used a hetero polled hetero black bull on a Polled Hereford cow. Last year we got a Polled RWF bull, this year we got a horned BWF heifer

Amen!

 

[ALACOWMAN]

well you know how old sayings are,, there bad not too go into detail :cowboy:

 

[oscar p]

I dehorned 7 cows and 4 calves last saturday. Used the keystones,on the cows. I used the bigger scoups on the the calves horns.Used the hot iron afterwards. I tipped my Braford bulls horns with gigley wire. That is the way to go on bigger horns, If your arms can stand it. Thought my arms were going to fall off. After I tipped his horns, I wished I had'nt. Just doesn't look the same.

does his horns turn up or down you can train em to turn down by tipping at a angle.. '' gigley wire'' i forgot about that name :cowboy:

His horns turned up. I guess I wasn't really thinking about training them, and I guess I did a little more than tip them. I have alway's used gigli wire. It's good for cutting big horns. It's a little bit of work, but it works.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

the only time ive used it was at a field day years ago.... its a good clean cut

 

[iowafarmer]

Nicest job I have ever seen was the vet using a sawzall with a steel cutting blade in it. They got it right down to the base. Then they used a hot iron to seal them shut afterwards.

 

[Lucky_P]

Back in the day, I've used Keystones, Barnes, dehorning iron, OB(gigley) wire - and still prefer the OB wire saw for the 'nicest look' on big horns - but it's a workout, 'specially on those big-based Brahman-influence horns.
Had a dairy client who never dehorned his cattle, but one day one of the cows opened up the bag on their 'favorite' cow with a well-placed horn, and that was it - they had me and my assistant out to dehorn the entire milking herd the next day. We were worn slap-out by the time we finished sawing the horns off of all 40+ of those cows; I'd do one or two, then my assistant would do one or two.
I'm betting milk production plummeted after that little session. But I always suspected that this dairyman probably made more money growing and selling marijuana than milk.

 

[westernvendor.com]

Great ideas everyone.

I just finished up a day helping a neighbor who had a neat little saw. He was only tipping, but it got through them in a hurry.

I don't mean to break rules, but I googled it to see if I could find a picture. This looks pretty close to what he was using. http://www.enasco.com/product/C14529N Too much money for me, but it did cut well.