Small horns on cattle.....need removing?

[tenacres]

I'm not experienced with cattle so please forgive this question.

We have a heifer with small horns about 2-3" long. She's almost a year old now and the horns havent really gotten any bigger since we got her several months back. I have a few questions:

Should we have these removed? Is it necessary or recommended? Will they get bigger?

Thanks.

 

[Scotty]

Get rid of them. They do no good.


Scotty

 

[CattleAnnie]

Horns get bigger as the animals mature.

Would recommend removing them, unless you're raising Horned Herefords or Longhorns where the horns add to the asthetic appearance of the animal.

Otherwise, they're usually hard on each other. Even if a cow has only a small scurred horn, it'll usually be quite polished up from use on her herdmates.

Take care.

 

[Bez!]

I'm not experienced with cattle so please forgive this question.

We have a heifer with small horns about 2-3" long.

Breed?

She's almost a year old now and the horns havent really gotten any bigger since we got her several months back. I have a few questions:

Should we have these removed?

Are they bothering her or you or your family?

Is it necessary or recommended?

Depends - you planning to ship her to market or leave her in the field to raise a couple of calves.

Necessary - nope.

Reccommended - maybe / maybe not - depends on whether or not they are bothering her or you or your family.

They are matural and certainly do not NEED to come off.

Will they get bigger?

Maybe - maybe not. Some grow fairly large and some do not - genetics will tell.

Thanks.

No prob,

Bez!

 

[Victoria]

Depends on her temperment. We have a few cows with small horns. They don''t used them in fights and they aren't tough cows. We won't be selling them anytime soon so for us there is no point in dehorning them. We've had cows in the past that are bullies with their horns and they lose them. As Bez pointed out, it really does depend on your situation.

 

[buckaroo_bif]

yeah chop em off the shorter the better. long handled pruning shears work great. use a branding iron to stop the bleeding if you want or it will stop by itself, eventually.
bif

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Don't count on the bleeding to stop on it's own if she's a year old and you cut them short. Have a plan before you wack em.

 

[Susie David]

Our policy with the horned herfs heifers is "use them, loose them", referring to interaction with humans. Usually don't have a problem with other cattle as they are smaller and thus lower on the pecking order than the angus or lim and just get out of the way. The steers play the young kid macho games but we haven't had an injury so the horns stay. DMc

 

[DD RANCH]

cut them off,you may need to put some cotton balls in the hole as this will expose the brain cavity and in cold weather they may get sick.If they are small just cut them off it will bleed but should be fine.We had an old cow with them the vet said if we cut them off she may abort so I just left them she was plumb mean with them.

 

[cypressfarms]

cut them off,you may need to put some cotton balls in the hole as this will expose the brain cavity and in cold weather they may get sick.If they are small just cut them off it will bleed but should be fine.We had an old cow with them the vet said if we cut them off she may abort so I just left them she was plumb mean with them.

When I was a younger kid, I have some really bad memories about two cows that my dad bought that were dehorned right before they came to us. They dehorned them way to close to the head. It was in the winter, and I had to repack cotton with medicine every day in both cows. Not for the faint of heart (to look at the brain in the cow) Now I just bob the horns good when their still young. They will have a 3 to 6" stub that they can still use against other cows, but I don't ever want to have to treat cows again like the herefords that my dad had bought.

 

[Farmhand]

Just heard an interesting idea about dehorning the other day. Wonder if anyone else has heard or done this. A guy around here is tying tarp straps around the base of the horns across the forehead and then cutting the horns off with pruning shears. He leaves the strap in place for a couple of days before removing it. Says it cuts off the veins that feed the horns so there is no bleeding. The 2 day wait allows for clotting. Anyone else hear this?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Just heard an interesting idea about dehorning the other day. Wonder if anyone else has heard or done this. A guy around here is tying tarp straps around the base of the horns across the forehead and then cutting the horns off with pruning shears. He leaves the strap in place for a couple of days before removing it. Says it cuts off the veins that feed the horns so there is no bleeding. The 2 day wait allows for clotting. Anyone else hear this?

I haven't tried that method but I have cut them off with about everthing else. Found out it was just easier to run a polled bull and dehorn at conception.

 

[Caustic Burno]

cut them off,you may need to put some cotton balls in the hole as this will expose the brain cavity and in cold weather they may get sick.If they are small just cut them off it will bleed but should be fine.We had an old cow with them the vet said if we cut them off she may abort so I just left them she was plumb mean with them.

When I was a younger kid, I have some really bad memories about two cows that my dad bought that were dehorned right before they came to us. They dehorned them way to close to the head. It was in the winter, and I had to repack cotton with medicine every day in both cows. Not for the faint of heart (to look at the brain in the cow) Now I just bob the horns good when their still young. They will have a 3 to 6" stub that they can still use against other cows, but I don't ever want to have to treat cows again like the herefords that my dad had bought.

You weren't lookin at his brain you were looking at that cows sinus cavity. Second why in the heck were you packin it with cotton just spray a little iodine solution on them and let go. The hole will close up in a week to ten days you fussin over it or not.

 

[Farmhand]

Just heard an interesting idea about dehorning the other day. Wonder if anyone else has heard or done this. A guy around here is tying tarp straps around the base of the horns across the forehead and then cutting the horns off with pruning shears. He leaves the strap in place for a couple of days before removing it. Says it cuts off the veins that feed the horns so there is no bleeding. The 2 day wait allows for clotting. Anyone else hear this?

I haven't tried that method but I have cut them off with about everthing else. Found out it was just easier to run a polled bull and dehorn at conception.

Got that right!

 

[DD RANCH]

cut them off,you may need to put some cotton balls in the hole as this will expose the brain cavity and in cold weather they may get sick.If they are small just cut them off it will bleed but should be fine.We had an old cow with them the vet said if we cut them off she may abort so I just left them she was plumb mean with them.

When I was a younger kid, I have some really bad memories about two cows that my dad bought that were dehorned right before they came to us. They dehorned them way to close to the head. It was in the winter, and I had to repack cotton with medicine every day in both cows. Not for the faint of heart (to look at the brain in the cow) Now I just bob the horns good when their still young. They will have a 3 to 6" stub that they can still use against other cows, but I don't ever want to have to treat cows again like the herefords that my dad had bought.

You weren't lookin at his brain you were looking at that cows sinus cavity. Second why in the heck were you packin it with cotton just spray a little iodine solution on them and let go. The hole will close up in a week to ten days you fussin over it or not.

We packed them so the wind would'nt blow through and give them a sinus infection.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

By the way I tried some of that "Blood Stop" Powder last time we worked ours. It didn't work worth a dang. Use the right bull and you won't get any horns. But we get em out of our purchased heifers from time to time.