Dehorning is performed on millions of dairy and beef cattle annually to reduce injury risk in confined spaces — but the procedure causes significant pain that is preventable through early disbudding with analgesia or polled genetics.
Cattle dehorned without pain relief experience acute pain from the procedure and prolonged inflammation lasting days. Behavioral and physiological indicators — increased cortisol, reduced feeding, altered posture — document pain that owners and veterinarians sometimes minimize. The irony is that dehorning is performed to reduce injury risk in crowded confined systems — the solution to one welfare problem creates another. Polled genetics offer a path to eliminating the need for dehorning entirely, avoiding both the injury risk and the procedure pain.