Dehorning and disbudding of cattle are among the most painful routine procedures in livestock farming. Pain management practices vary widely and reform is urgently needed.
Disbudding and dehorning cause significant acute and chronic pain. Calves show unambiguous pain behaviours: ear-flattening, head-pressing, abnormal gait and reduced feeding. Multi-modal analgesia combining local anaesthetic, NSAIDs and sedation provides the best welfare outcome. Sedation reduces stress during restraint. The long-term solution is polled genetics, which has advanced rapidly through genomic selection and can eliminate the need for this painful procedure entirely without compromising production traits.