Horns, trimming and dehorning

[Glenvale]

I found this article about horn training:

http://www.hereford.org/static/files/03 ... cience.pdf

In Australia, for the last 35 years that we've had horned herefords, and for as long into the past as I am aware, Australians always relied on trimming horns in the right direction rather than using weights. Have North Americans really only used weights in the past until recently? I try to trim horns so they curve downwards and slightly forwards of the nasal axis so there is no chance of horns curving back into the skull when a cow might get to 10 years or older. It's true that every horn on every individual is unique though.

I also can't imagine that the common horn trimming proceedure results in the 100 day setback quoted for complete dehorning, beyond 7 months of age.

It's interesting that the article says that horned animals potentially have 50% more bruising than their polled equivalents. In people's experience, do you think this includes animals with trained horms or relate only to untrained horns?

 

[alacattleman]

i think Debters, have been sloping horn;s for some time now

 

[1914 Hereford]

We have been sloping horns for at least 20 years. When we have a bull that we think we will use, as our herd bull, we will use horn weights . On the females, that we know that we will sell after weaning, we use a hot iron to dehorn them, on the females that we add to our herd, we will use weights. Often, we will have weights on a three year old cow.

 

[Suzie Q]

Why do you keep horns on cows you are keeping 1914 Hereford?

Is that for protection against predators that we don't have here?

 

[Idaman]

In 50 years with horned Hereford cattle we have never put a single horn weight or sloped the horns on a female. It works great in that they learn at an early age to just give one another a little more room. Horned cattle like this you NEVER witness fighting with each other. Their differences are settled early and quickly.

Another big advantage for us in running on the open range is anytime when our cattle get mixed with others they are very easy to spot, even from the air. Also whenever any neighbor sees those trophy heads they know exactly who they belong to. They are much easier to spot than a brand.

You want to see much more fighting then go ahead and dehorn or runs polls. Even females with trained horns fight a lot more than trophy heads.

 

[1914 Hereford]

Why do you keep horns on cows you are keeping 1914 Hereford?

Is that for protection against predators that we don't have here?

Yes, that is part of it, but mostly we just like them. We love to horn brand them and the horns give each cow her own identity. It is easy to spot a certain cow from a distance, and since we don't usually sell cows, we figure that we should have them to our liking. We really horn weight very few cows. Only those that are going to be pretty wild looking, as we still like a uniform looking herd. I have, however, seen one of the horned cows run a coyote until he just gives up and leaves the cattle area where there are several new calves.

 

[1914 Hereford]

Thought that you might be interested in how we horn brand. We put her own number on the right horn and her sire's code on the left horn.

The end result.

 

[Suzie Q]

We brand for identification if the beast gets stolen.

I can see thieves cutting off the identification on the horns and not caring if it harms the beast. JMHO.

 

[1914 Hereford]

We also hot iron brand on the left hip for ownership, but the horn brands show up all year around-even when we have a thick hair coat. The horn brands are only individual identifications within our herd. The first digit denotes the year.When showing our cattle, it makes us seen really intelligent , by saying this is a 5 year old daughter of Adv Red 11

 

[ANAZAZI]

In 50 years with horned Hereford cattle we have never put a single horn weight or sloped the horns on a female. It works great in that they learn at an early age to just give one another a little more room. Horned cattle like this you NEVER witness fighting with each other. Their differences are settled early and quickly.

Another big advantage for us in running on the open range is anytime when our cattle get mixed with others they are very easy to spot, even from the air. Also whenever any neighbor sees those trophy heads they know exactly who they belong to. They are much easier to spot than a brand.

You want to see much more fighting then go ahead and dehorn or runs polls. Even females with trained horns fight a lot more than trophy heads.

Agree. I have bred swedish reds with natural long horns and have had no problems but gotten a lot of comments from people who where afraid of them. I usually remarked that either they are not that dangerous; or I am really tough milking them twice every day!