Scurs

El_Putzo · Jul 21, 2006

As we were moving cattle last night, we had noticed that one of the steer calves had developed nubs on the top of his head. So as we were passing the corral, we ran him and another calf that needed treatment for pinkeye in the chute. They are definitely scurs as the are not attached to the skull. They are currently about an inch long and the calf is about 250 lbs. My question is, do any of you remove scurs on your commercial calves? If so, what method do you use? I know Cert had posted about this not long ago, but that was a little different as I believe her question was about when to remove them for registration purposes.

Back when we were using a couple of fleck bulls, we would get a few horns, mostly because some of our cows had some horned herford influence at the time, and we'd just remove them at weaning. But since we had switched to Angus back about '90 we obviously hadn't had any horns since. This is our first crop out of the 2 black simme's we currently have and also the first case of scurs that I'm aware of.

mnmtranching · Jul 21, 2006

I don't know why anyone would go through the trouble of removing scurs? What is the longest scurs get? When I raised Gelbvieh cattle I had calves with scurs, only got to an inch or two long and I didn't worry about it in the feeder cattle.

mnmt

cfpinz · Jul 21, 2006

I don't mess with them on feeders or cows. But maybe I'm just lazy... The cows will knock them off themselves in time.

cfpinz

randiliana · Jul 21, 2006

The problem we run into here is that we get docked for horns on our cattle at the auction. And, the guys at the auction aren't going to check if they are really horns or if they are actually scurs. I would definitely remove them as soon as possible, but if you don't get docked for horns then I wouldn't worry about it. I would just cut them off.

Susie David · Jul 21, 2006

Have a Lim cow with scurs, seem to fall off every year and grow back...no problem for us and plan to leave them alone.
DMc

Howdyjabo · Jul 21, 2006

Right now there isn't much of a discount for anything-- and seems like there is no end to that in sight.
So quit cutting them(they add weight), grow that hair out(it adds weight), leave horns on(they add weight) founder them just a little(the extra hoof weighs more) grow some warts(add weight) and
get them a little on the fat side.
And roll the bucks in

Lammie · Jul 22, 2006

I was wondering about this myself. I have two calves with scurs and I am afraid that they will be discounted at sale. I didn't know if there was anything to do about them or leave them be. They make the calves really ugly.

Diehard40 · Jul 25, 2006

to remove scurs just use a set of barnes dehorners but don't go as deep as you would when removing horns. just clip them off right under the scur. Or just use a good sharp knife.