J is still trying to keep up with the Herefords. I've given up on registering them because there is just no point in trying to sell one around here. If the cattle aren't black nobody wants them.
Anyway, with the bulls, you want the horns to grow out then down. This helps eliminate problems later with hay rings, chutes and alleyways. It's also safer when the bulls are kept together. People use to put weights on the horns to make them grow down, but now it seem most producers slope the horns.
I first did a nerve block.
Then a halter to steady the head.
V even came to the barn to help out. She held the halter while J used the saw.
There is a little blood with this procedure,
but that is quickly cauterized with the soldering iron.
After the horn is cut at about a 45 degree angle it is suppose to start growing downward. At least he got to be hauled out and put with a group of cows afterwards.
Our last steer was a holstein/hereford cross...we breed cows that don't settle to a cross breed. For some reason that seems to work! Anyway...we'd choose that cross again!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a cow type guy, but why would you want the horns to slope down? It seems like a lot of work for ???
ReplyDeleteI find this disturbing...I think it is unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteAs you know horns don't bother me...
Whew! That looked like hard work, and I hope it works!
ReplyDeletewe have polled cattle now , I sure don't miss dehorning , we did try to "debud the calves but that didn't always work . never really did much to leave tem on and grow down, we used weights on the few that we did leave
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I used to help out on my uncles farm. We were always de horning the cattle! hard work, but safer in the long run.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like the black angus are taking over the cow world. I would love to have some "oreo" cattle or highlanders someday.
ReplyDeletewe mostly been raising red angus around here, but I sure like the white faces the herefords put on them. A lot of black cattle around here too.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the whole black cattle thing! In our neck of the woods, black cattle always get the highest prices, even when they're junkie. It blows my mind! We had some GORGEOUS Charolais crosses and Herefords of waaaay better quality, but our Angus and Angus crosses always brought more money. We finally gave up and started breeding Angus into our herd merely for the color, and we always get the highest prices at the sale. As a former livestock judge, the whole thing really torques me.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I never thought about them bleeding like that.
ReplyDelete