Dehorning and disbudding of cattle causes significant pain. The development and adoption of polled (naturally hornless) genetics offers a route to eliminating this welfare impact across the industry.
Disbudding and dehorning cause acute pain (burning of horn buds or cutting of developed horns) and ongoing pain during healing. Even with anaesthesia and analgesia, the procedures cause measurable physiological and behavioural stress. Polled genetics offer the prospect of eliminating this welfare harm entirely from the population through selective breeding rather than surgical intervention. The transition to polled herds takes multiple generations but represents one of the most significant welfare improvements achievable in cattle farming.