[Reprints of Bulletins issued in 1898.] 



Bulletin Xo. 41. 



DEHORXIXG COWS. 



G. M. GowELL AND F. L. Russell. 



In this country dehorning of cattle has been practiced to a 

 considerable extent for about ten years and in England for a 

 longer time. At first the methods used were very crude. The 

 animal had to be closely confined and the horns were removed 

 with a saw, which required considerable time and must have 

 .been very painful to the animal. Occasionally even now horns 

 are removed with a saw but the common practice is to use 

 specially constructed clippers, which do the work better in every 

 way. Almost no apparatus is required to confine the animals 

 and one stroke of the clippers removes a horn, frequently in a 

 single second of time and with comparatively little pain. The 

 operation has become so simple, that, in view of the very mani- 

 fest advantages resulting from it, it is not strange that it is 

 coming to be very generally adopted. Horns are no longer 

 needed by cattle as weapons of defence against natural enemies 

 and serve no good purpose. 



expert opinion of dehorning. 



Dehorning is practiced at several experiment stations in this 

 country and the published results indicate that the pain suffered 

 by the animals is not to be compared with injuries which cattle 

 inflict on each other with their horns. The Texas Station finds 

 "that a drove of the wildest dehorned cattle may run loose 

 together in a building like a flock of sheep, and they will fatten 

 faster after dehorning than before." 



