Horns
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greatgerts
Well-known member
Really, you should dehorn them....ALOT safer.
Jake
Well-known member
if your keeping him a bull deffinately dehorn him not just curve the horns....
certherfbeef
Well-known member
almfab":mwrvlpo0 said:
I like to wait till they get to the tip of the ears. Start with light weights then put heaver ones on later. The weights came off my bull once they broke past half. Just put 1/2 pounders back on to turn them a little faster. He will be 2 in late march. The base of the horns are probably 8 inches around.
greenwillowherefords
Well-known member
Alan":20aij5ka said:
To curve them around where there is less chance of damage to those around them, accidental or otherwise.
greenwillowherefords
Well-known member
Chuck":wl6brbhb said:
That's OK. You had a better way of saying it anyway!
Yup, Dun is about right on. We wait until the horns are between 4 and 6 inches long. He left out a few things though.
I use half pound "bolt on" weights that have a small spur inside the horn tunnel. Older animals with bigger horns get the full one pound weights. You can turn horns on animals up to two years of age for sure - maybe older - I have not done them on anything over two. But I do know weights can be had up to five pounds in weight - never seen them - just remember reading I could order some from "some place"
Do not ask me when to take them off. There really is no set time for this. I usually eyeball the look of the horns - making sure that they come down .... how do I describe this ...... I stand beside the animal and look across the forehead ... lining up the horns. When I figure they will curve in and be ABOVE the eye line - so as to NOT eventually curve into the skull ... then I remove the weights.
Do this enough and you will get good at it. If the animal loses a weight - and this WILL happen once in a while. Well, now you have to try and even up the horns using weights and different lengths of time on each horn. You may mess up once or twice, but you'll get good at it - and the animal does not seem to mind the weights at all. All of this is easy if you keep them penned up - we let ours go in the pasture - still have some weights out there somewhere.
Wife tells me just now that we average around 6 weeks before we take them off the youngsters - so now you even have a target date / time.
If you look at our herd, you can actually see the animals that I learned on - and they do not have the symmetry that the newer models have. After some years I have got pretty good at it - the animals do not seem to hold it against me tho'!!
Make sure you put them on right. The hole is bigger on one side of the weight than it is on the other. I know that this sounds pretty basic, but it is easy to make the mistake of putting them on wrong. The side with the big hole goes toward the head.
The other thing we do is make sure we do not put them on too tight. The horn grows in diameter as well as length. So there should be about an eight of an inch of slack between the horn and the horn weight. The spur inside the horn tunnel will still bite into the horn fairly well, as to keep it from slipping off. If you do not do this, you will have an animal with a funny narrow spot on the horn - usually near the end of the horn after it matures. (Voice of experience talking!)
If you put the weight on the horn - too far down the horn and too close to the head - and if the weight is brand new - well, the spur is pretty long and once in a while you might punch throught the horn and nick the "quick". If you are in fly season or the weight has a bit of dirt on it - there is a chance of infection. The animal may very well rub the horn so hard against a tree or post that they will actually wear the horn down and either rip it off, or damage it to the point that it will come off. Much like you or I might scratch an itch until it gets infected.
Keep the weights clean and rust free prior to mounting on the horn. Make sure the horn is clean - I usually rub it with alcohol - just to make sure. If I think the animal has been nicked and it is a bad time of the year for flies I give it a shot of long acting penicillin to prevent infection while the hole seals up around the spur.
This I learned by watching a darned nice cow take off her right horn over the space of three days - we still have her - nice cow - called "One Horn".
Anyway, the classic look is pretty nice - even if there are those who do not like horns.
I think I have hit most of the important points - let me know if you have any questions - I'll do my best to give you some help via the keyboard.
:cboy:
Regards
Bez
I use half pound "bolt on" weights that have a small spur inside the horn tunnel. Older animals with bigger horns get the full one pound weights. You can turn horns on animals up to two years of age for sure - maybe older - I have not done them on anything over two. But I do know weights can be had up to five pounds in weight - never seen them - just remember reading I could order some from "some place"
Do not ask me when to take them off. There really is no set time for this. I usually eyeball the look of the horns - making sure that they come down .... how do I describe this ...... I stand beside the animal and look across the forehead ... lining up the horns. When I figure they will curve in and be ABOVE the eye line - so as to NOT eventually curve into the skull ... then I remove the weights.
Do this enough and you will get good at it. If the animal loses a weight - and this WILL happen once in a while. Well, now you have to try and even up the horns using weights and different lengths of time on each horn. You may mess up once or twice, but you'll get good at it - and the animal does not seem to mind the weights at all. All of this is easy if you keep them penned up - we let ours go in the pasture - still have some weights out there somewhere.
Wife tells me just now that we average around 6 weeks before we take them off the youngsters - so now you even have a target date / time.
If you look at our herd, you can actually see the animals that I learned on - and they do not have the symmetry that the newer models have. After some years I have got pretty good at it - the animals do not seem to hold it against me tho'!!
Make sure you put them on right. The hole is bigger on one side of the weight than it is on the other. I know that this sounds pretty basic, but it is easy to make the mistake of putting them on wrong. The side with the big hole goes toward the head.
The other thing we do is make sure we do not put them on too tight. The horn grows in diameter as well as length. So there should be about an eight of an inch of slack between the horn and the horn weight. The spur inside the horn tunnel will still bite into the horn fairly well, as to keep it from slipping off. If you do not do this, you will have an animal with a funny narrow spot on the horn - usually near the end of the horn after it matures. (Voice of experience talking!)
If you put the weight on the horn - too far down the horn and too close to the head - and if the weight is brand new - well, the spur is pretty long and once in a while you might punch throught the horn and nick the "quick". If you are in fly season or the weight has a bit of dirt on it - there is a chance of infection. The animal may very well rub the horn so hard against a tree or post that they will actually wear the horn down and either rip it off, or damage it to the point that it will come off. Much like you or I might scratch an itch until it gets infected.
Keep the weights clean and rust free prior to mounting on the horn. Make sure the horn is clean - I usually rub it with alcohol - just to make sure. If I think the animal has been nicked and it is a bad time of the year for flies I give it a shot of long acting penicillin to prevent infection while the hole seals up around the spur.
This I learned by watching a darned nice cow take off her right horn over the space of three days - we still have her - nice cow - called "One Horn".
Anyway, the classic look is pretty nice - even if there are those who do not like horns.
I think I have hit most of the important points - let me know if you have any questions - I'll do my best to give you some help via the keyboard.
:cboy:
Regards
Bez
Ryder
Well-known member
Had ligthtning knock the weight off an animal once. Burned a strip on the side of the animal but not too bad. Lightning can do strange things.
Not making a point-just remarking.
Not making a point-just remarking.
Bez":3hw9nucn said:
From Drew Conroy, a real oxen GURU
The procedure is quite simple: with a knife or other sharp instrument, shave or scrape the horn shell on the opposite side from the direction in which you wish the horn to grow.
If you wish to make a horn more upright, shave the back side. If you wish to widen the span, shave the insides of both horns. If you wish to narrow the span, shave the outsides. For a minor correction, one thinning may do the trick. For horns that are seriously imperfect, continue thinning until they shape up.
Remove about one-half of the shell's thickness, more or less, depending on how much you want to alter the direction of growth. If you shave too much, the horn will bleed, may become dangerously weak, and could possible break.
Since shaving does weaken the horn, shave only the part you wish to bend. If you weaken the entire shell, the horn will droop. Always leave the shaved horn perfectly smooth, then apply mineral oil to replace the natural protection you have removed.
Shaving works well, but doesn't allow the same control as using pressure or weights. With the latter, when the horn reaches the desired shape, you remove the pressure or weights. But after you have removed part of the animal's horn, you cannot replace it. So shave a little at a time and wait a few weeks to see what happens.
Since a young animal's horns change a lot over the first year, wait until your cattle are at least a year old before making any adjustments. Horn growth is especially dramatic in long-horned cattle, so don't be too quick to change the shape of your steer's horns.
certherfbeef
Well-known member
A question for the horn GURUS.
Have a heifer that was just about ready for weights (by my standards) and managed to knock the cap, or that outer shell, off one horn. Lots of blood but no big deal. What do I do now? One horn is ready for a weight and the other is now almost 2 inches shorter. NO I am not going to dehorn her.
Have a heifer that was just about ready for weights (by my standards) and managed to knock the cap, or that outer shell, off one horn. Lots of blood but no big deal. What do I do now? One horn is ready for a weight and the other is now almost 2 inches shorter. NO I am not going to dehorn her.
sidney411
Well-known member
If I understand right - horn weights make the horns curve downward, right? How do the rodeo bull producers make some of the bulls horns go strait down the sides of their faces with no curve?
Great topic please keep going "horn guru's". do you want the horn to curve down (straight down the head) or in front of the eyes? Is this done for all horned breeds or just the breeds with longer horns?
Thanks,
Alan
Thanks,
Alan
sidney411":vqqxhosp said:
My experience with cattle with the horns that come straight down the sides of their faces, they just grow that way or have been broken. We've always called them banana horns.
But again, just my experience.
