Dehorning Jersey Calf

[cjc]

Dehorn him! I've seen some mighty gruesome results from horned cattle. They don't need to be trying to hurt you, just playing, and can cause some awful damage in an instant. Believe me, as an EMT, I know what can happen.

We did it. Your words stuck with me. I had a friend come over and he removed them. God it was gory though but I just have a weak stomach. He used some sort of tool to cut them off then burned it. He knocked him out thank goodness. But wow, I would not do that on my own. I think that just cured me of all horned breeds! Just felt bad for the little guy but as soon as he woke up he was up on his feet and ready to go back out to the pasture. He is acting totally normal now.

 

[OneFineAcre]

We were at some friends when they disbudded a jersey.

I forgot I had Pictures.

 

[cjc]

Oh god I hate this! I am way too much of a softy! I even laid our sweet jersey calf down on a blanket when he was out cold. The guy laughed at me but I felt terrible.

 

[jhm47]

NOBODY likes to cause pain or harm to their animals! The fact is that we must be responsible for the safety and well-being of ourselves, our family and our animals. I know how I would feel if one of my cattle were to injure one of my children or grandchildren. The simple fact is that cattle are incredibly strong, fast, and often unpredictable. These characteristics make them a danger to themselves and the people around them. Eliminating horns doesn't make them perfectly safe, but it does eliminate one element of danger, much like wearing a seatbelt while you're driving. Good job! You are a responsible person in my opinion!

 

[cjc]

NOBODY likes to cause pain or harm to their animals! The fact is that we must be responsible for the safety and well-being of ourselves, our family and our animals. I know how I would feel if one of my cattle were to injure one of my children or grandchildren. The simple fact is that cattle are incredibly strong, fast, and often unpredictable. These characteristics make them a danger to themselves and the people around them. Eliminating horns doesn't make them perfectly safe, but it does eliminate one element of danger, much like wearing a seatbelt while you're driving. Good job! You are a responsible person in my opinion!

Yes I totally agree. I am also not the most sophisticated cattle handler so it was the right choice. But to avoid this in the future there will likely be no more jersey calves for me haha! I am going to breed his mother to a black angus but I was told it is still a 50/50 chance for horns.

 

[farmerjan]

No, the chance is not 50/50. The polled gene is dominant so you are most likely to get a polled calf. Every one of my jersey angus x calves is polled. If you want a jersey calf, simply use a polled jersey bull. Again, the chance of a horned calf is like 1% or less. I bought several jersey bull calves off a farmer several years ago, all out of a polled jersey bull, AI bred, and every one was polled. There are ways to get around the horns.
That said we have several longhorn crosses and WANT the horns. The horns are also more popular in areas where there are large predators to deal with, like wolves, as the cows will get defensive as they should. In an all horned herd, the cows seldom use the horns against other cows as they know they can get jabbed back.. The problem being that a few with horns will use them on the ones without. Have 3 that will get dehorned here soon as they are using them against the polled herd mates. Boy do they get a come uppence when they go to use them and there are no horns....I laugh.....and then they sometimes get some push backs, so serves them right.

 

[jhm47]

If you use a homozygous polled bull of any breed, you will get 100% polled calves. If you use a heterozygous polled bull on horned cows, you will get 50-50% polled/horned. All registered Angus bulls are homozygous polled, as are many bulls of other breeds. Personally, I use only homozygous polled bulls, and never have to dehorn a calf. My cousin is less careful in his bull selection, and gets about half horned calves. I hate it when I have to help him work his calves. He just bought a bull calf from me, so hopefully he will be getting fewer horned calves.

 

[Green Acres Farm]

No, the chance is not 50/50. The polled gene is dominant so you are most likely to get a polled calf. Every one of my jersey angus x calves is polled. If you want a jersey calf, simply use a polled jersey bull. Again, the chance of a horned calf is like 1% or less. I bought several jersey bull calves off a farmer several years ago, all out of a polled jersey bull, AI bred, and every one was polled. There are ways to get around the horns.
That said we have several longhorn crosses and WANT the horns. The horns are also more popular in areas where there are large predators to deal with, like wolves, as the cows will get defensive as they should. In an all horned herd, the cows seldom use the horns against other cows as they know they can get jabbed back.. The problem being that a few with horns will use them on the ones without. Have 3 that will get dehorned here soon as they are using them against the polled herd mates. Boy do they get a come uppence when they go to use them and there are no horns....I laugh.....and then they sometimes get some push backs, so serves them right.

I don't know anything thing about cows, but what if the cow she is talking about is heterozygous for the polled gene? That would be 50/50 chance if breeding to a horned one, right?

 

[greybeard]

An animal can have one of three combinations for the polled/horned gene:

PP = homozygous polled means this animal has no horns, an all offspring from the animal will be born without horns
Pp = heterozygous polled means this animal does not have horns, but offspring may or may not have horns depending on their mate
pp = born with horns

If you’re starting with only horned animals in your herd, the figures below demonstrate your results mating cows to a polled sire. The table #1 illustrates that a homozygous polled bull bred to a horned cow will result in 100% hornless offspring. The table #2 illustrates that a heterozygous polled sire bred to a horned cow will result in only 50% polled offspring.
#1

#2

But, just because a sire (or dam) is polled doesn't mean either is Homozygous polled.

 

[farmerjan]

I wasn't thinking about the homo- hetero- zygous aspect when I wrote my post. Since cjc has angus, they are homozygous, the calf will be polled if bred to the jersey. If she breeds to a polled jersey, it should be polled. I am pretty sure they are also homo but haven't followed up on that so maybe not all are. But every calf that I have seen, and had, from a polled jersey bull breeding, has been polled when used on a horned jersey cow. Unless you do the testing then a horned animal is assumed by most to be homo for the horned gene. Now if you have two heterozygous animals, IN THEORY, you will actually get 25 % polled homo, 50 % horned hetero and 25 % horned homo. So 75% will have horns but not all will pass on the horned gene. It gets even more complicated than that in the ensuing generations.
Same as for sexed semen; in theory you have a 90% + chance of getting a heifer calf if you use sexed semen. Tell that to people like me who are walking Murphy's Law. Bred one jersey to sexed semen....3 out of 4 calves were bulls. Bred another to sexed semen, all 3 were bulls... I get everybody else's 10% bulls LOL....
The rule of thumb is that if the cow has horns, she will have a horned calf unless bred to a polled breed. AI catalogs will state if a bull is homo or hetero for the polled gene and also the big thing is homo or hetero for the black gene since so many in this country are so "black cattle" oriented. That whole thing came from anything black being called a "black angus" to capitalize on the "angus beef" thing. There never used to be black limousins, or black simmentals and now there is black in everything. Even black herefords.... I prefer the red cattle for grazing in the heat, they can withstand it better, but black sells here better and believe me it is heartbreaking to see a really good red calf bring .20-.30 less per pound because it is red. And bad for the bottom line when 2 side by side cows, one is making you $100 to $200 less because one has a red calf and the other a black calf.
And then there is the whole tenderness thing and that is another selling point for some of the "colored breeds" but if you market cattle in this area, it's got to be black regardless of anything else....
All that said, there are those who also believe we are losing some of the vigor in some of the breeds by only using polled animals; ie: herefords. We are narrowing the available gene pool by restricting some of the available genetics by only using polled animals. Most Horned herefords that I have seen are more massive than the polled ones. And alot of people don't realize that charolais also had more horned animals, and they weren't all white but also a tan/creamy/red color.
Horned cattle are more popular on ranches where there is more land/acres PER cow rather than more cows per acre/land.