Calving... not cancelled due to Coronavirus...

[stealthn]

Great pictures!

[93nav]

Nice looking calves, whats with the horns?

[unclebilly]

Most cattle breeds are horned. Some breeds are polled where they are bred to not have horns (the angus and shorthorns I have are polled but my Herefords are not).

Often people put weights on the ends of the Hereford horns which cause them to curl down but they eventually can curl into their face. Another option is to dehorn them (I have dehorned my Hereford calves this year). For dehorning calves, you can either put a small amount of caustic paste on the horn buds when they are a few weeks old or your can use an iron (like a branding iron) to burn around the horn buds. I have also used a castrating band around the base of a horn to remove horns on older cows before but this can be dangerous as the resulting hole in the skull is close to the brain. Normally if you cut off horns, you leave 3-4” stubs. I hate this approach because they bleed like crazy and it is hard on the animal. Their sinus cavity is connected to the horns so this can be pretty traumatic. I have only ever done this twice, both times on animals that broke the horn on the other side.

Our favourite friendly cow has horns and she has become a bit of a jerk to the other cows this spring... she might get her horns bobbed this summer...