Stone Hill Homestead

Of Horns and Hooves

Published by

Lisl

on

Of Horns and Hooves

A rambling record of the dehorning process for my own benefit—don’t read it if you’re tender of stomach. It involves some blood. You were warned.

They had to go. I liked the picturesque idea of a cow with horns. But the reality was shaping up to be not-so-picturesque. It’s not that she’s aggressive. She’s just super friendly and periodically frisky. The chances of an accident didn’t sit well with me or Dru. Dru was definitely for taking them off, it was Jube who was NOT for it. But in the end, I’m the Mom. How handy is that?

So when I was told by the neighbor farmers who allowed me to put Freyja in with their bulls the other week that I could band her horns, I did it. It was the method available to me.

I did some research and people tend to think it’s less bloody and traumatic for the animal. I’ve never done it the traditional cutting it off cold turkey way, so I don’t know if I can actually have an opinion on it. I’m happy with how this turned out.

I wish I had thought to to take a picture as Jube was putting the bands on. I was lent the tool and it was relatively simple, although it took us a bit to figure out how the band was supposed to sit on the horn.

On top it basically just sits on the horn, and underneath the horn there is a groove it sits in. Get the band in that groove and it’s secure.

Top and front of horn.
In the groove. You can see where I nicked her when we were shaving the area. I was following directions here, but we skipped that step on the second horn.

About three and a half weeks the bands began to disappear—the process was definitely working as the bands began to dig in.

Disappearing band.

And by five weeks it was looking like this:

This is very close to falling off—which it did the next day. You can see there is some blood here, I’m assuming she bumped it on something.

Then they were gone. They fell off three days apart from each other. I saw her flick the last one off when she bent forward for her grain and caught a glimpse of it barely hanging there. The process had taken just over a month.

It did bleed a little. Enough, in fact, that when she lost the first one, I was sure to tell the kids that the horn was off and there was blood but not to be alarmed. It didn’t bleed long. I sprayed it with a antibiotic spray, and that was it.

Probably the most terrible picture I have of her. If this bothers you too much, I will tell you that the bleeding has stopped here and only a very small few drops even hit the ground. This so much better than me, my man, or one of my kids getting gored accidentally. The second side bled less than this.
First horn off. Autumn has been lovely this year. Also—perfect for the dehorning process, just cool enough that the flies are gone. Except for in my kitchen—what’s that about?

So, I’m glad they’re off. But I wish we would have done it when she was a calf. I’d been told that if she did have horns they’d probably just be scurs. The process of taking them off took a month and, honestly, I didn’t know if she was acting quiet and depressed because of the dehorning or because of her pregnancy. She’s starting to play again now. It’s slightly terrifying to have a heifer cow lolloping about like a puppy dog, but I’m glad she is.

As for her horns—Jube has claimed them. What he plans to do with them, I am not sure. For now they’re out in the garage drying out. How nasty is that?

See? Here is one of them. I put it here the other day when his hands were busy with something else. He picked the other one off the ground himself and I don’t know where he has it. With a different nasty collection, most likely.
She didn’t really want to pose. For one thing, she wasn’t too sure about the silly duster I was wearing—she doesn’t always approve if I wear clothes she’s not familiar with—and furthermore, she doesn’t like when I stick a phone in her face.

So that’s all good, but I felt truly clever when I discovered I could clip her hooves when she was laying down. It just a took a couple days and catching her laying on the other side a couple days after doing the hooves on the first side.

They didn’t need much, it’s just that her toes nails were getting long. And now I’m looking at that rear hoof and wishing I’d have trimmed it a bit more. Her toenails aren’t crossing anymore though so we’re good.

Not a professional job but good enough. I figure if she’s able to romp and run, she’s good to go.

Leave a comment

The Garden that Isn’t

It was never about the food. A garden holds its own romance but in the end, the animals won out. Half of my original garden space now belongs Cookie Dough and Oreo for their winter quarters. The other half is presided over by Freckles and Wilma who magnanimously allow Aggie, Sid, Eddie, Smoke Tail, and…

Lisl's avatar by Lisl

Just so you know…

Your three year old will not always draw little whales and birds on his bed sheets. He will graduate to dragons and creatures of the dinosaur age. Then he will begin artwork for his own fantasy novel that he spends his teenage years writing.  Tonight he says, “And I have to go take my shirt…

Lisl's avatar by Lisl

Being Thankful

I spent two hours on the phone Monday with my mom. I asked her, how do you know when  something is a non-negotiable you need to factor into a decision making process, or when that thing is something you just give up to the Lord with open hands? How does one deal with the reality…

Lisl's avatar by Lisl

Hello,

I’m Lisl

Herein lie the events, ponderings, people, and animals that make up the cacophony of our life.

Pictures of farm and family

I blogged. A few times. Maybe I'll keep it up. Link in bio. Just happy things. First pic is Rennie helping his dad with opening an old floppy desk using Rennie's raspberry pi computer. The next one was last night while Dru took the rest of the kids skating Rian and I watched Ruthanne Zimmerman make egg noodles while we ate soup in mugs. It's been a very full and happy Christmas season. I didn't take pictures consistently. I miss doing that and want to try harder. I don't have any pictures of my own family's gatherings. But here is a smattering of photos from our busy holiday. My favorite is of Ray sneaking ham to the cat in the kitchen at my Mother in law's house. No, actually it's my boys playing together. The giraffe at the mall, wondering why he is sharing this little bench with a grown man, also cracks me up. I feel like I've learned how to burn coal in my cookstove. There was the day I was rather discouraged about it and put the project on hold for a weekend--it was a warm weekend anyway. It's a different animal than burning wood and I'm still figuring it out. How big I had planned for Freyja's "patio" versus how big it became when too much concrete was ordered. Nobody heard me complaining about it. Somewhere Dru has more pictures of the concrete operation but I was busy running circles that morning. Super thankful for Havilah and Jube helping me hold down the fort while we babysat and did projects all weekend. The men in my life are distracted by a new game. So much so that when we took the male pigs to the vet for castration (I won't do it myself when Dr. Metcalf will do it for 25 dollars and some odd cents) Rian brought the instructions along to read. And Jube had to be planted next to the cookstove to study because sitting in Dru's chair was way too close to his brothers playing the new game and was very distracted. And then Dru came home with intentions to turn in school evidences to Hacil but they had the game set up and here we are. Gleanings from the flower beds. Picked yesterday. Tonight I think we will have a killing frost. Big week on the farm. Two new pig families. And that's me after pulling an all nighter with one of the new mammas. And that's my hill billy barn there. Someday I will do better than cardboard. But for now I embrace hill billy. And I still have flowers ... Not complaining. Tonight it freezes. I picked flowers til I couldn't see anymore. The cats were not helpful. Clingy with a side of zoomies.