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.
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.
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.
Aaron":2cy338d7 said:Never done it with a hacksaw. Wouldn't even attempt it with a mature bull.
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.. ;-)
kenny thomas":2or32mlc said:Didn't buy him from our friend in Lexington did you? :lol: :lol:
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).