Dehorning and disbudding of cattle are among the most common painful procedures on farms. Improving pain management is a priority for cattle welfare.
Dehorning and disbudding are welfare-significant procedures that are performed on a massive scale with inadequate pain management globally. The acute pain of hot iron disbudding is well-characterised: cortisol spikes, pain behaviours, and altered feeding are all documented. Effective multimodal analgesia combining local anaesthetic nerve blocks with NSAID treatment substantially reduces suffering. The most welfare-positive solution is transition to polled genetics, which has advanced significantly in cattle breeding programmes. Until polled genetics are universal, pain management protocols must be adopted as standard of care for all dehorning and disbudding procedures.