Dehorning and disbudding of cattle causes significant acute pain and is one of the most common painful procedures in the industry. Better pain management and genetic alternatives are available.
Dehorning and disbudding cause significant acute pain in cattle, yet pain management remains inadequate in many commercial settings. Best practice requires local anaesthetic before the procedure, sedation to reduce stress, and post-procedure systemic analgesia with NSAIDs like meloxicam to address the pain that persists after local anaesthetic wears off. Research demonstrates that combining local anaesthetic with systemic analgesia produces substantially better welfare outcomes than either alone. The most effective long-term welfare solution is genetic: selecting polled (naturally hornless) animals eliminates the need for dehorning entirely. Polled genetics are increasingly available in most major cattle breeds and can be bred into herds over several generations.