Routine husbandry procedures including castration, dehorning, and ear tagging cause pain that has historically been managed poorly, but effective pain relief options exist and are underused.
Pain management for routine farm animal procedures represents one of the clearest welfare improvement opportunities available: effective, affordable pain relief is available and demonstrably works, yet is systematically underused. Castration without pain relief causes acute and post-operative pain measurable by cortisol elevation, reduced weight gain, and abnormal behavior lasting hours to days. Dehorning without local anaesthetic is acutely painful. The barriers to pain relief use are primarily cost perception, time, and habit — not effectiveness or availability. Welfare standards requiring pain relief have driven significant improvement in jurisdictions where they apply.