Trimming Horns

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cfpinz

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Trimmed the horns on a bull this evening, first time I've ever used OB wire to cut them. That stuff is the slickest thing since sliced bread. It was probably 2" or so wide where I lopped them off and not one drop of blood. I'm sold.
 
He's about 5yo, whoever initially trimmed/weighted them botched it and his horns make a full curl around and come back into his head just behind and below his eye. I knocked about 3 or 4 inches off of each one. Last time I used a hacksaw and he was not amused.
 
And people say horned cattle are too much work?! :roll:

Never done it with a hacksaw. Wouldn't even attempt it with a mature bull. :cowboy:
 
cfpinz":12gn6cpi said:
Trimmed the horns on a bull this evening, first time I've ever used OB wire to cut them. That stuff is the slickest thing since sliced bread. It was probably 2" or so wide where I lopped them off and not one drop of blood. I'm sold.

We use this wire exclusively - 30 seconds and the job is done.

When cutting right at the skull we use lidocaine - trim off some hair and we take a bit of the skull - then we burn and spray with a wound powder. If the sinus is open on the top of the head we coat heavily with "Bleu" - one of a myriad of real good aerosol wound sprays. Keeps the flies off.

Cheers

Bez+
 
:) A few years back, I tipped the horns on a cow with a cordless sawzall. Would have been a lot easier with the OB wire, just didn't have any.
 
1982vett":2cy338d7 said:
:) A few years back, I tipped the horns on a cow with a cordless sawzall. Would have been a lot easier with the OB wire, just didn't have any.

I bet she liked that! The old herf last night seemed to stay a lot calmer with the OB wire than the last time with the hacksaw, he wouldn't even leave the chute when I was done, had to open the side door to get him out.

Aaron":2cy338d7 said:
Never done it with a hacksaw. Wouldn't even attempt it with a mature bull.

I bought a head table for our chute when we got it, that thing is slicker than snot for horn/eye work. You can bring any animal you own down here and I'll trim it.
 
That's all we use Cfpinz as well works great and if you cut high enough you won't have blood but they do grow back.

We did about 40 head one day of Holstein heifers that we had whose previous owner neglected to dehorn at birth. We had two exchange students from Holland who helped and they looked like they had butchered something they were covered head to toe with blood. We tied the horns together tight first with baling twine and then cut the horns off right at the head. Usually they only gave a slight spray but the odd one was a run away that we had to cauterize with the dehorner.

However I will go will a polled animal any day.. ;-)

BTW if you want to dehorn an animal in Holland the vet has to do it and the animal is sedated and blocked.
 
hillsdown":2g5k1wsr said:
That's all we use Cfpinz as well works great and if you cut high enough you won't have blood but they do grow back.

We did about 40 head one day of Holstein heifers that we had whose previous owner neglected to dehorn at birth. We had two exchange students from Holland who helped and they looked like they had butchered something they were covered head to toe with blood. We tied the horns together tight first with baling twine and then cut the horns off right at the head. Usually they only gave a slight spray but the odd one was a run away that we had to cauterize with the dehorner.

What's the purpose of tying the horns together? And how long were the horns on those heifers?

However I will go will a polled animal any day.. ;-)

I'd much rather have polled but I sure like those horned herf bulls. We've got two horned calves this year out of a black simmi bull that I bought a few years back. The owners told me he was homo polled, huh.
 
It acts like a tourniquet, and they were around 20 months old (bred heifers) so the horns were plenty long. The other thing you can use is the inner tube of a tire, do it in a figure 8 nice and tight (same as twine). The good thing about the rubber inner tube is that they have usually rubbed it off by the time you need to bring that back in the chute to cut it off, but the twine always needs to be cut off after a few days . Dairy cattle was easy as they are always confined but the last beefers we did really really resented going back in the chute after having their horns sawed off; they were a real b@tch and like an elephant afterwards (never forgot).
 
hillsdown":10csp309 said:
It acts like a tourniquet, and they were around 20 months old (bred heifers) so the horns were plenty long. The other thing you can use is the inner tube of a tire, do it in a figure 8 nice and tight (same as twine). The good thing about the rubber inner tube is that they have usually rubbed it off by the time you need to bring that back in the chute to cut it off, but the twine always needs to be cut off after a few days . Dairy cattle was easy as they are always confined but the last beefers we did really really resented going back in the chute after having their horns sawed off; they were a real b@tch and like an elephant afterwards (never forgot).

You can cut them at any age and if you are quick you will stop the bleeding by pulling the veins at the base of the horns and burning

We use lidocaine - they literally just stand there and you can work away as they feel nothing

I dehorn regularly - all ages - very little blood loss - never use a tourniqute - tournniquet actually increases blood pressure on the upstream side and can cause you more grief in some cases - fast and clean if you are practised - a little burn to prevent regrowth and to help scabbing and you are done.

Cheers

Bez+
 
Bez, forgive my ignorance, but burn with what?
This year was my first time being in on the dehorning. I hate to admit it, but I had to walk off one time...afraid I was about to be in the dirt. :oops:
We used some sort of powder (forget the name) to stop bleeding. I use the term 'we' loosely. I was filling syringes, writing tags and records.
 

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