Tuesday, November 10, 2009

De-Horning


When calves get worked they are usually de-horned. This is done for a variety of reason the most important factor I believe is safety. No one wants to be around a snarky cow in the pens with horns, its also harder to move a cow thru a shoot with horns and you can't haul as many in a truck if they've got horns! In an efficient operation a calf can be run worked in less than 60 seconds if you've got a good team but de-horning adds a time to the operation. The Cooperative Research Center for Beef Technologies in Australia is actually developing a DNA test to determine if a cow will produce a calf with horns. Exciting don't you think?