Breeding for naturally hornless (polled) cattle eliminates the need for painful dehorning. The genetic solution to a welfare problem is increasingly accessible with DNA testing.
The polled breeding solution represents an ideal approach to a recurring welfare problem: rather than repeatedly performing a painful procedure to manage a breed trait, genetic selection eliminates the need for the procedure entirely. Dehorning causes acute pain in calves regardless of whether analgesia is used - it is a painful procedure that remains a welfare harm even with pain management. Breeding for polled eliminates the need for dehorning entirely, removing a recurring welfare harm from the entire herd permanently. The increasing availability of polled genetics within high-genetic-merit populations eliminates the historical argument that choosing polled would compromise production performance.