Stone Hill Homestead

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.

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

And by five weeks it was looking like this:

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.

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?

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.

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