So you want to dehorn your yearling?

Ah, horns. Most cows have them. There is a common assumption that only bulls have horns. Let me squash that my city friends.

Honey With Horns about 9 months old

The truth is all male and female bovines have horns except:
- Angus
- Red Angus
- Brangus
- Red Brangus
- Galloway
- Belted Galloway
- Red Poll
- Black Maximizers
- Speckle Parks
- British Whites
- Amerifax
- Senepol
- American White Park (though 3 to 5% are horned)
- Murray Grey
- Jamaica Black
- Jamaica Red

These breeds are naturally polled. They were not bred that way, they are created that way. That's a lot of breeds you say? Well,many more are horned. The only somewhat common dairy breed on this list is the Belted Galloway, which is more of a dual purpose breed. We have dairy cows, they were born with growing horns.

When we got our heifers we had every intention of letting those God-given horns stay. They were just little nubs at the time. No harm.

As the horns continued to grow we loved them even more. They gave Honey such character and personality. The decision to dehorn them was last minute and not really thought out. But, it's one such decision where there is not a right way or a wrong way, and it really depends on your way of life with cows. These are family cows. Things may look a bit different if we were running several hundred head.

A lot of my mommy friends would say "the horns gotta go". It's a safety issue. I haven't met someone yet who has dehorned for any other reason than safety. Of course there is always the fact that they sell better... because the person buying them feels safer without the horns. And we have children and cows are big and yes, the horns gotta go.

If you happen to be like us and waited until your heifer or bull was nearing the 1 year mark, this post is for you. Here's how it went:



Go to a vet! When horns get this developed the dehorning paste doesn't work well, and disbudding requires surgery because they're not really buds anymore. Plus, this hurts. You don't want her to associate you with this kind of pain. If this is your family cow, go to a vet.

 The vet puts your 500+lb cow in a headlock/chute. He then puts nose tongs on and ties her head up to one side. She can't move but she can see, so I would suggest that you (as the owner) stand behind her. Doc will shave around the horns to make sure the cut is good. He takes a tool that looks like giant hedge clippers and puts it directly over the horn. Chop. There are nerve endings in horns and when they're this developed blood spews everywhere. Your cow may scream at this point. I'd imagine it hurts.

dehorning clippers

nose tongs

Be aware that she'll now have a giant hole in both sides of her head. And she'll be bleeding down the side of her face. The once precious cow you loved will now look very different. It'll take some time getting used to, and if she is a family cow like ours, it'll take a bit longer.

It sprays black

So, now what? Some will say to just leave them. I will NOT say that. Sure, they could probably heal fine on their own. Everything will eventually close up, scab over, and be good as new. If it rains and your cow is outside; however, she will get water in those giant holes. That will cause infection. That will not be pleasant. The way we did it? Pack the holes with a cotton ball. Keep her tied up and have a helper, she won't like this part any more than she liked her time with the vet. Once you have a cotton ball over the hole enough where it won't fall out, spray the area with auto undercoating. You can find it at most autopart stores. This will keep the cotton ball in place and the holes covered, but it will still be able to be removed or dislodged when the area is almost done healing.

Bella's Ooziness

After the cotton was removed

After 3 weeks we noticed Bella had some puss oozing from under the cotton ball. We went ahead a pulled off the cotton ball to discover a bit of drainage. We left it uncovered and sprayed with Vetricyn to keep away any infection that may develop from flies or other bugs. Notice it looked bad with the cotton still on, but once we uncovered it we saw it wasn't bad at all. It did smell a bit but wasn't even cause for antibiotics.






NOTE: DO THIS IN THE WINTER. FLIES WILL LAY EGGS IN THE WOUNDS DURING THE HOTTER MONTHS AND YOU'LL HAVE A WHOLE NEW PROBLEM ON YOUR HANDs.

Cassie Perfectly Healing

At 4 weeks we removed all cotton from the 3 cows. Bella had the shortest horns so naturally the holes were pretty much completely closed. Cassie and Honey were still a bit hollow but were definitely healing. You can choose to leave the cotton balls in until they come out on their own, but we noticed Cassie had some draining too so we just took them out. We kept Vetricyn on the day we removed the cotton to help with the healing. If you use essential oils then a blend of frankincense and melaleuca sprayed would do great as well. I don't have a glass spray bottle so I took the easier route.





And that's it. I would recommend not waiting until they are older if you can help it. If you get a family cow older than this then leave those horns. The stress from becoming a new family member is enough for her. And if she's in milk, I think the adrenaline and stress from dehorning would definitely affect milk production. Get those horns when they're young. Ideally 2-4 weeks old is key.

Good luck~

The New Honey sans horns. 1 year old.