Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-05-09
ABOUT DEHoRNING CATTLE.
The Best Method of Performing the
Operation With the Least Pain.

In las Timely Hints for Farmers
dated May /, the Agricultural Expert
ment station of the university of Ari-
iona the following in reference to
dchorning cattle is given:
The thought of saying something
upon this subject was suggested To
the writer by seeing promising
Young bull suffering the loss of his
horns by what seemed TO be most
barbarOuS method. The poor brute I
had been thrown and was lying with 4
three feet tied together, his head
fastened to one post and one hind
foot drawn back by pulley and tackel
to another Three men and a boy
were working about his head helping
10 saw off the horns. The dry
powdery manure of the corral was
used to stop the flow of blood. The
operation of dehorning must cause
some pain, but it need not be accOmp-
anied by such rough handling as to
endanger the future usefulness of the
animal dehorned.
There are few men, If any, who
have handled hornless cattle that do
| not appreciate the advantages of de
hOrning and who do not strongly ad-
vocate its practice Not only is danger
|
| the animals are more quiet and peace
able. giving better results in the milk
| ing corral and the feed lot. With
the loss of their horns they seem to
lose the desire to fight. 1t is no longer
a question as to whether cattle shall
be dehOrned or not. but 4 question of
when and how to do it.
The old original method of dehOrn-
| ing was by use of the saw. 1t IS still
advocated by some and has the adj
vantage of taking off the horn where
other means sometimes fail Clippers
designed for the purpose are more CON
venient and as Il rue more efficient.
In the case of old animals net only do
the horns themselves become very
hard. but the so-called pith assumes a
bony character such that it is some
| times impossible to cut them with
clippers. In such cases the use of
the saw must be resOrted to. The
mistake of saving off the horns some
distance from the head IS sometimes
made. the idea being that it is less
painful to the animal than taking them
off close. Not only is the operation no
less painful but the remaining nuhs
detract from the appearance of the
lanimal and sometimes grow, thus de-
feating the object of dehorning. Whe-
Their the saw or clippers are used the
horns should come off close TO the
skull. always below the line where the
skin grows about the base of the
horn. There is sometimes n consider
able loss of blood which may be less
aned or entirely stopped by 4 simple
method of tying the arteries. These
arteries lie mostly on the side of the
| tlRs. flT-.lVX
ing 4 string tightly aroung both horns
, and tying. pressure is brought to bear
on the blood vessels and the flow of
/, blood is stopped. After the string has
been tied the pressure may he in
creased by bringing the front and back
strands together over the top of the
head and fastening them. In some
cases cutting the horn close to the head
makes an opening into cavity of the
, skull. In such cases it is we'll to put Il
| lii,le medicated cotton over the open
ny to keep out flies and dirt Should
the animal in 4 day or two give evil
dence of pain by shaking its head
an opening should he made in the cot
ton to allow the escape of matter
which is sometimes formed inside.
When a saw is used it is almost neces-
sary to have n chute in order 10
properly hold the animal during the
saving operation. If clippers are used
the use of a chute win save time but
is not necessary. While the horns of
young animals are more easily cut
than those of old ones the operation
is more painful and usually accompa
MED by greater loss of blood on ac-
count of there being more sensitive
tissue and greater supply of blood
D vessels in the soft growing horn.