We have gone to electric now for last 10 years. Going to order a new branding iron and dehorning iron this year just in case. Don't miss the roar of a torch in my ear all afternoon at all. The irons were each with what a 100 lb bottle of propane was worth when I bought them.
Dehorning nubs
- Thread starter Brute 23
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+1. Considered buying another hereford bull this year at a sale, but all the ones I liked had horns. I hate dehorning..
SBMF 2015
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Colethesteer
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You could use a dehorning paste. We use a dehorning paste when they are born and the horns typically don't grow back.
OP
OP
Got them knocked out with the small barnes deal and powder. Bleeding was not bad.
Thanks for the recommendations.
Thanks for the recommendations.
76 Bar
Well-known member
Bred the horns off eons ago. If you do them as small calves with a Barnes or similar pull the arteries with forceps and pack the cavity with Pine tar or a similar product & watch them closely to make sure they don't get fly strike.
We use a small dab of the paste, and then gorilla tape around the head when they are about a week old. (A full sized piece over the top, about 6-8 inches long, and a half wide strip around the whole head to keep it on) Remove the tape in a day or two. It keeps the rain from running the paste down their face, and also keeps it off the udders.
10 years of perfect dehorning, and less stress on the animal too
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
Ky hills
Well-known member
A problem that I see with mingling horned Herefords into polled lines is that it makes it more difficult if one is selecting for all polled cattle. The last Hereford bull we bought was supposed to be polled and papers and pedigree says he is, but we have had several horned calves from him including some from polled cows.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
I don't know how the Hfd assn. handles reporting the Polled gene - but you have to DNA test your animal before it is reported as Homo Polled - or both parents were already tested to be Homo Polled.
Your animal can be POLLED, but obviously, he is Heterozygous Polled. Any cow that gives you a horned calf, is also carrying the horned gene. The calf must receive a horn gene from dam AND sire.
The Simmental breed has been fighting the horned gene from day 1 - but there are very few bulls in the Purebred business that are carrying the horn gene.
Hopefully, the Herefords learned a lesson and will not chase 1 trait - polled. They need to keep breeding for the quality animal they now have achieved.
Funny story. Hubby & I moved to Upstate NY back in 1978 from Kansas. When we saw the Hereford herds out here, we were not impressed to say the least. They were small, light muscled, dinky. We weren't real knowledgeable about the different breeds - didn't know that all the cattle out here were Polled Herefords. We were used to seeing the big, powerful, rangy "Horned" Herefords in Kansas. We sure thought people out here must have starved their cattle and stunted them!! LOL
Your animal can be POLLED, but obviously, he is Heterozygous Polled. Any cow that gives you a horned calf, is also carrying the horned gene. The calf must receive a horn gene from dam AND sire.
The Simmental breed has been fighting the horned gene from day 1 - but there are very few bulls in the Purebred business that are carrying the horn gene.
Hopefully, the Herefords learned a lesson and will not chase 1 trait - polled. They need to keep breeding for the quality animal they now have achieved.
Funny story. Hubby & I moved to Upstate NY back in 1978 from Kansas. When we saw the Hereford herds out here, we were not impressed to say the least. They were small, light muscled, dinky. We weren't real knowledgeable about the different breeds - didn't know that all the cattle out here were Polled Herefords. We were used to seeing the big, powerful, rangy "Horned" Herefords in Kansas. We sure thought people out here must have starved their cattle and stunted them!! LOL
Ky hills
Well-known member
@Jeanne - Simme Valley according to the registration paper our bull was polled and every animal in the typical 3 generation pedigree is also listed as polled.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
I believe what you are saying - but POLLED only means the animal does not exhibit horns. It is not saying HOMOZYGOUS polled. A POLLED animal can mean they are Heterozygous Polled - 1 Polled gene and 1 Horned Gene. Guaranteed your cows are carrying at least 1 horn gene and this bull is also. Horned gene is recessive - Polled gene is dominant. Only takes 1 polled gene for the animal to exhibit POLLED head, but can carry the horn gene.
Ky hills
Well-known member
I actually don't think the bull was polled, I believe had had a good dehorning job done as a calf and was registered and sold as being polled. I'm familiar with homozygous and heterozygous polled as well as scurs, from my time with registered Charolais. When I AI bred I tried to select homozygous polled bulls, and when buying walking herd bulls, the term double polled was about as good as you could be assured and even though we did have several horned cows the only times we had horns were when we used horned bulls. The concerning thing to me is that every animal in that Herefords pedigree was registered as polled,
Jeanne is correct. I don't think you have a horned bull that had a good dehorning Job. Sounds like you have a hetero polled bull with some hetero polled cows.
If he was truly a horned bull that was dehorned, 100% of your horned cows would produce horned offspring when bred to a horned bull. If you have even 1 horned cow that had a polled offspring, that means he is a hetero polled bull, not a dehorned one.
If he is hetero polled bred to horned cows 50% of the offspring would be polled / 50% horned.
If he is hetero polled bred to hetero polled cows 75% would be polled (25% homo polled/50% hetero polled), and only 25% would be horned.
If he is hetero polled bred to homo polled cows 100% of the offspring will be polled with 50% homo polled 50% hetero polled.
If you have a homo polled bull, all cows will have polled offspring regardless of whether they are horned, homo polled or hetero polled.
When home raising bulls, or raising composites, it is important to get a blood test to confirm they are homo polled if you don't want horns.
We could go down the rabbit hole of the African horn gene, but it doesn't sound like that's an issue in your herd.
Isn't the tape hard to remove?
Ky hills
Well-known member
The bull in question was not a home raised bull and was a registered bull. All of our horned cows which aren't many had horned calves plus a few that are polled but likely heterozygous. My point is that with all listed animals in his pedigree being registered as polled, it seems very likely to me that he should be homozygous polled by way of pedigree. It's not a real big deal at this point as we no longer have the bull and will be much more careful in the future regarding the issue in breeds that have horned individuals.
Not really though. "Polled" speaks to phenotypical expression of that specific animal. You need genotype to predict what is going to happen in the offspring. Half of those "polled" sires and dams on the pedigree could have been hetero polled. Even if only one of the dams was hetero polled, and then the next 10 generations of sires were homo polled, you could still have a hetero polled bull registered. IMO blood tests for registered bulls in mixed horned/polled registry's, should be required (more importantly enforced) and at the very least it should be reflected in the registry whether they are homo polled or hetero polled. Would make all of our lives easier
OP
OP
With the genetic testing now day I dont see why it isn't.
Maybe they are trying to give people time to get their affairs in order.
OP
OP
The paste is interesting except you have to handle them so many more times.
No, you just grab it from the top, and pull over the head. You might get some hair attached...
Most we can pull off in the field, occasionally we get a calf that won't cooperate, and yes u have to bring them in to corner them
