Dehorning cattle causes significant acute pain and is one of the most welfare-relevant routine procedures in beef and dairy production. Better alternatives exist.
Cattle dehorning and disbudding causes acute pain that is preventable through better pain management and, ultimately, through genetic selection for naturally hornless animals. Hot iron disbudding of calves causes immediate pain and thermal nerve damage that produces ongoing post-procedure pain for days. Local anaesthetic and NSAIDs effectively reduce but do not eliminate pain. The veterinary and welfare consensus is that pain relief should be mandatory for all dehorning and disbudding — a standard not yet universally achieved. The longer-term solution is polled genetics: breeds that are naturally hornless require no dehorning. The availability of polled versions of major dairy breeds, combined with genomic selection, makes transition to polled herds increasingly feasible over a generational timescale.