DEHORNING CATTLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1470, 19 June 1912, Page 8

DEHORNING CATTLE.

' ITS ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES.

T,he,question of dehorning cattle is one that might seriously engage the attention of our dairy farmers, says Mr. 11. A. O'Callaghan in his "Dairvins in Australasia." Experience, he goes on, has shown' that dehorned cattle are much quieter and easier to manage in the stockyards than horned ones. Every farmer has witnessed horning exhibitions while the cows avo waiting in the milking yard to bo milked, and sometimes, perhaps, the. best animal in the herd gets seriously injured. If, on the other hand, a herd of dehorned milkers are viewed in the milkyards while waiting for their turn, they will be seen to he h\r more contented. There' is no lioniod httlly to master her weaker si?tors. Excitement causes a considerable waste of tissue, and this means a waste of food, besides which overy dairy farmer worthy of the name knows that.if ;\ cow is much excited slip does not yield all her milk, ond the milk which she does yield will contain less fat than usual. For. this reason alone, it .should be an economical undertaking on (.lie part of tho dairy farmer to dehorn his en I: tie.

Undoubtedly, horns set off an animal, and cows at first will not look so well, but in dairying, "handsome is as liandFomo does," and if better yields con be obtained from a dehorned herd, then by all means have them without, horns. Purebred cows would undoubtedly lose a good. deal, of their characteristic appearance by being dehorned, but, unless in special cases where an animal is very pugnacious,' it should not be necessary to dehorn tho thoroughbred cows possessed byfarmers. They could be kept in a separate paddock, or, if allowed to run with others, they could.be milked first, so as to avoid the possibility of their injuring the other cattle.

Tlio operation of dehorning is liy no moans « difficult one. Clippers somcVnnt tho 'sliapo o'f large shears can now lie purchased which would take oil' tho liorn in one operation, and all that is required then is a good crush where tho animal can bo held. TheTiorn can al=o bo sawn off close, to, the. skull, with a fine-lnoth saw. As a rule, cattle suffer very little, ami some cows even do not go hack in their milk on the day they have I>e6n dehorned.- Tho animals shpuld be taken quietly, aad. not unnecessarily, excited, or

they will bleed more than usual. Some people dehorn their cattle and apply nothing to stop the bleeding without experiencing any bad results, while others apply a. bandage of fine tnr or pitch, aftiT the horn has been sawn off, so as lo check the flow of blood. Cattle should bo dehorned on a. fine day in the early spring or late autumn, when thy flies are not. too bad.

Dehorning by prevention is the simplest method, if the calf is taken three or four days after being born, and caustic potash applied to the young horn which is forming, it will be destroyed, and further growth will be preventwl. The application of the caustic potash is very simple, but it requires to be carefully j done if a good job is to be made. The hair should be cut away from round the young horn, so (hat tlie potash can be rubbed on the little button which is forming. The oily substance found round the horn shonld be washed off with water containing soap or a little ammonia, witli'ont wetting the parts that are not to be touched with the caustic potash. Hub the caustic on the little button which forms the ,voung horn until the skin begins to start, taking care thnt the whole of the little horn is treated. It will not do to rub on the centre; it should bo rubbed round the skin on' the outside of tho. button, and if this is not done at least an imperfect horn will grow. . Mr. It. H. Dangar, of Nootsfield, has dehorned all his dairy cattle, and he lias informed me, Sir.. O'C'aUaghan adds, that he would not now think of having a horned cow in his .herd. Sir. Dangar has had rather a unique experience with hornless cattle, and he has perhaps the only herd of polled Jersey? in (he State. Mr. Dangar has some polled Jerseys in which it is .impossible to find any appearance of a cross. It is'rather interesting (o follow their breeding. Oxt of fifteen polled heifers which I inspected, seven,were out of dehorned cows by a dehorned Jersey bull. Mr. Dansrnr says: "Though I have not kept a record, I am sure most of tho polled dams are caustic polleys—that is, they were dehorned with eau's'ic potash when calves—while all the dehorned dams save. two. pure Jersey?, are bought cows, and go bark to homed stock." The inference to Im drawn from this is that it is possible to set real hornless calves by a dehorned bull from cows that, were dehorned in their youth. Of course, it. is possible that some of these rows' may run back originally to a polled strain, and those- having any experience of polled cattle will know (hat they are very prepotent, and that a polled bull will i>c.i. nearly, if nof nil. polled cattle from horned cows. AVfi know that in America there are herds of polled Jerseys and polled Durhams at the present, time. Some records have been kept by (lie American experiment stations of the' yield of milk of cows before and after dehorning—that is, after tho horns h.v.l own cut off from mature cows. At the 'Wisconsin station t?n cows showed a loss of Iβ per cent.'in' milk yield when the four liijlkines aftor dehorning were compared with the. four milking; immediately previous to dehorning; (he milk also tested lower, but tho test then gradually increased until it was higher than if had been previous to dehorning, and the actual amount of butter-fat produced by the cows was at least equal to the quantity produced had the cows not been dohorjicd. At another station nine cows made an actual gain in milk yield tho .day after dehorning. It would appear to be the general experience that cows return to their average milk fiow about four days after being dehorned, so that the effect, of dehorning on the milk yield is very temporary.

/'A flow of words is no proof of wisdom " but it is a positive fact that the flow of whey which takes place -when cheese factory managers use.. "Victor" Vats tends to tile improvement of the cheese. , Full particulars and copies :of testimonials from the maker, -.\. J. I'arton, Registered Plumber, Cnrterton.