Dehorning and disbudding of cattle is one of the most common painful procedures in livestock farming. Evidence strongly supports early disbudding with anaesthesia as the welfare-preferred approach.
Dehorning without pain relief is an acute welfare problem performed millions of times annually. The barriers to improvement are largely attitudinal and economic rather than technical — effective local anaesthesia costs pennies per animal and takes a few minutes to administer. Polled genetics offer a long-term solution that eliminates the procedure entirely, but uptake requires breed societies and AI companies to prioritise polled sires in selection programmes. Regulatory requirements for analgesia, where implemented, have driven rapid adoption.