Routine feedlot procedures including branding, castration, and dehorning cause significant pain. Evidence-based pain management dramatically reduces welfare harm from these necessary procedures.
Routine painful procedures in beef production have historically been performed without analgesia based on assumptions that calves do not feel pain as intensely as older animals, or that pain management was not economically justified. Both assumptions are false: calves show robust pain responses to castration and dehorning, and research shows pain management improves weight gain sufficiently to offset or exceed medication costs. The welfare case for mandatory pain management in these procedures is strong, and an increasing number of welfare certification programs require it. Performing painful procedures without analgesia when effective options exist represents an avoidable welfare failure.