Dehorning Cows and Trimming Cows' Feet

Reader Contribution by Faith Schlabach
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Dehorning Cows

We had a dehorning and RE-castrating day at the farm today. We had to make the very difficult decision to dehorn three heifers that had not been properly dehorned as babies, which is when this should be done. They were using their horns against the smaller animals and our goat, Cranberry, is due to have babies in a couple of months. Most of our purchasers are purchasing their first cow and are extremely intimidated by horns and/or have smaller animals such as goats as well. I almost had myself convinced that we don’t need to do them and then Fern, who is sweet as can be except with herd animals, aggressively pinned the pregnant goat against the stall wall. Even the little girls use them to control the much bigger calves that have no horns. Therefore, with heavy heart, we had the vet give them pain control topically and internally that will last two days. If they seem to be uncomfortable at all, we will give them some more when that wears off.

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