Removing the horns or horn buds of cattle is widespread in dairy and beef production, but causes significant pain. Understanding best practice and policy developments helps advance cattle welfare.
The welfare case for pain mitigation during dehorning is unambiguous: the procedure causes documented acute suffering, and effective analgesia exists. Yet surveys consistently show that a significant minority of farmers do not use local anaesthesia routinely, particularly for young calf disbudding. The argument that calves recover quickly does not reflect the physiological evidence: pain behaviours and elevated cortisol persist for hours after the procedure. The longer-term solution is breeding polled cattle, which eliminates the welfare problem at source. Polled genetics are available across major dairy and beef breeds; the welfare benefit of widespread adoption would be enormous. Policy reform requiring mandatory analgesia and incentivising polled breeding represents the most achievable near-term welfare improvement.