Horn banding - pics

[Taurus]

I've dehorned everyway imaginable... and then some. This is by far my least preferred way of doing it. You're lying to yourself if you think that after awhile it goes 'numb.' Not only is it the least humane way, IMO it leaves the least desirable look -- especially since you have not got the horn bud completely out, they will grow back to an extent and look like scurs. That's a shame you did that to the Hereford as some horn weights would have shaped them perfectly. I've had Holstein steers literally lay flat out on theirs side clearly in agonizing pain for a good while after putting bands on them. I haven't seen it to that extent in beef calves-- don't know what the difference was-- but there are better options than something that takes WEEKS of discomfort to accomplish.

Hello Gassey135, I have no idea that you did dehorning on cattle before. I've seen bad results of horns being saw off that could result into a death due to infection and blood loss. It will takes days or possible weeks for the cattle to recovering from that and they usually lost some weight from that. It is very painful procedure for most cattle. Banding on other hand, just how many cattle that died from the banding on horns? It is painless procedure and I has yet lost a cow or calf from banding on horns. They hasn't lost some pounds from this procedure.

 

[RoanDurham]

You have zero experience w/ that which you type. And that is the primary problem w/ the majority of your post- I'm sure you have good intentions, but if you wouldn't mind reserving your opinion to eye-witness accounts, those here trying to learn would be greatly benefited. There are people here w/ tremendous knowledge: Doc, TB, Knersie, 3way, ALA when he's not being snide- these people have a lot to offer in their own area of expertise and your experience-less input is nothing but a distraction. I admit I get hot headed at your distractions and lose focus of my goal: to expand my general cattle sense, thus, this will be the first and last time I address you on here as you literally have no information that is of any use to me. Any cow you 'seen' bad results, such as death, due to blood loss from horns beings sawed off 1) should have never been dehorned that late in life 2) due to the size, bands wouldn't have been an option on those cattle anyway. Your assertion that banding is a 'painless procedure' further solidifies the fact that you have ZERO experience dehorning cattle via bands as anyone whose engaged in the practice will tell you this just isn't true.

 

[Taurus]

You have zero experience w/ that which you type. And that is the primary problem w/ that majority of your post- I'm sure you have good intentions, but if you wouldn't mind reserving your opinion to eye-witness accounts, those here trying to learn would be greatly benefited. There are people here w/ tremendous knowledge: Doc, TB, Knersie, 3way, ALA when he's not being snide- these people have a lot to offer in their own area of expertise and your experience-less input is nothing but a distraction. I admit I get hot headed at your distractions and lose focus of my goal: to expand my general cattle sense, thus, this will be the first and last time I address you on here as you literally have no information that is of any use to me. Any cow you 'seen' bad results, such as death, due to blood loss from horns beings sawed off 1) should have never been dehorned that late in life 2) due to the size, bands wouldn't have been an option on those cattle anyway. Your assertion that banding is a 'painless procedure' further solidifies the fact that you have ZERO experience dehorning cattle via bands as anyone whose engaged in the practice will tell you this just isn't true.

TexasBred, Knersie, 3waycross, ALA and other respectable posters have questioned your experiences in the past and all you came up with bullshyt and your stories doesn't fit on your experiences. That is why you got banned from this forum multiple times. I gave this exact advice to GlacierRidge many months ago because I have some experiences on dehorning on cattle via banding and the banding is less messy and painless. No infections, no death and it is very painless. We tried the saw methods and it always resulted into bloody mess, infection, vet bills and weight loss. Not mentioned that it is very stressful on the cattle.

 

[dieselbeef]

looks to be a very common practice if ya google banding cattle horns....lotta people doing it

 

[RoanDurham]

looks to be a very common practice if ya google banding cattle horns....lotta people doing it

a lot relative to the number who use different means such as keystones or a pair of barnes?

I'm not condemning those who do-- I'm merely saying that because it 'appears' less invasive, doesn't mean it's any less painful. And in my experience, animals show discomfort much longer after dehorning w/ bands than they do when dehorned w/ keystones.

 

[Taurus]

looks to be a very common practice if ya google banding cattle horns....lotta people doing it

a lot relative to the number who use different means such as keystones or a pair of barnes?

I'm not condemning those who do-- I'm merely saying that because it 'appears' less invasive, doesn't mean it's any less painful. And in my experience, animals show discomfort much longer after dehorning w/ bands than they do when dehorned w/ keystones.

It's hard to take your posts seriously since you always change your stories or when your story doesn't fit with your experiences such as dehorning. Also according to GlacierRidge, her animals do not appeared to be discomforted after the bands were put on.

 

[Ohrmundt Simmentals]

We've done some banding in the past with pretty good results. it seems to be by far the lesser of the evils when it comes to horn removal. Some up front discomfort and very little blood. Works good for horns and large scurs. We had a young bull that had a 4" long scurs that ripped it off by hitting on the feeder, that's when we started banding. The only pain free horn removal is with polled genetics but that's just not realistic all the time. For the horns their dealing with.... Very nice results GlacierRidge

 

[Bigfoot]

Are you ready for this-------wait for it----------wait for it----------I agree with Taurus.

 

[JWBrahman]

You have zero experience w/ that which you type. And that is the primary problem w/ the majority of your post- .

Roan, I have a lot of experience with kids like you. You thrive on negative attention and would probably make a half decent cattleman if you would ease up on the confrontational crap. Lots of people do things different from you and I and that doesn't make them wrong. Lighten up, this is not a zero sum game of one person winning and the other person losing.

 

[RoanDurham]

I thrive on accurate information. Those who know better, meaning those who actually walk the walk as opposed to those, like Tauris, who just regurgitate that which they've read, have an obligation to point out when misinformation is being spread. I'll make a concerted effort to be less controversial; tact has just never been my strong suit.

 

[Taurus]

I thrive on accurate information. Those who know better, meaning those who actually walk the walk as opposed to those, like Tauris, who just regurgitate that which they've read, have an obligation to point out when misinformation is being spread. I'll make a concerted effort to be less controversial; tact has just never been my strong suit.

At last some posters are enjoying to read up some of Massey135's posts in the threads that just brought up. They would know which one of us are more accurate. By the way, hows your color-changing heifers doing?

 

[dieselbeef]

well..no point in staying sub'd to ths thread

 

[slick4591]

I'm really curious about this because I have a cow that has a horn growing towards her head. It needs to come off and as previously mention our files are really bad. She also due in August and am wondering if banding it is going to hurt anything.

 

[Bigfoot]

I banded a couple this afternoon. Never felt like I got the bands far enough down on the horns. Hope it works

 

[Lucky_P]

bigfoot,
I had one horned heifer in last fall's calf crop. Did nerve blocks and put the bands on at weaning in May; still had a little head-shaking for 20-30 minutes. Both fell off about a month out - no blood, no big open holes, no maggots... didn't get one as far down as I'd have liked, and she's gonna have a blunt scur on that side... but I'm not raising show calves, and she's probably gonna make a good mama cow, and if her scurs never gets any bigger than her granddam's did, it won't be a problem for me. At least she won't be poking holes in anybody with them.

 

[Bigfoot]

bigfoot,
I had one horned heifer in last fall's calf crop. Did nerve blocks and put the bands on at weaning in May; still had a little head-shaking for 20-30 minutes. Both fell off about a month out - no blood, no big open holes, no maggots... didn't get one as far down as I'd have liked, and she's gonna have a blunt scur on that side... but I'm not raising show calves, and she's probably gonna make a good mama cow, and if her scurs never gets any bigger than her granddam's did, it won't be a problem for me. At least she won't be poking holes in anybody with them.

I was hoping one of you guys with "schoolin" would read this. I'm not worried about the looks of these two either, I just wanted the bulk gone. I should have dehorned them when I bought them, and didn't. I boosted their tetnus, a couple of weeks ago, and went ahead and handed them yesterday. I put several wraps of duct tape on the bands, so they "hopefully " wouldn't rub them off.

 

[Bigfoot]

 

[Lucky_P]

That oughta work...
I've tried wrapping adhesive bandage tape above the bands to keep them from rolling up - didn't work very well - but wrapping over 'em like that looks like just the ticket...will follow your lead on the next one(s) if any more come out horned.

 

[Bigfoot]

That's 3m electrical tape. I went over that with gorilla tape.

 

[KNERSIE]

I've only banded horns on one heifer before, they both fell off in time, but I didn't like the result, it just looked like poor stockmanship.

What works better for me is to just cut them off flush with the head with pruning scissors and burning with a hot iron over the wound. On young calves I just use the hot iron, same applies for scurs, but I've found that you tend to get a bit of regrowth in the case of scurs.