Dishorning Cattle.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 174, 16 October 1886, Page 3 (Supplement)

Dishorning Cattle.

Thk practice of sawing off the horns of adult cattle close to the head cannot be otherwise than barbarous, a 9 much so as it would be to cut off their tails close to the roots, and "would blemish the cattle equally as much in their appearance. The better way, says the Breeders' Gazette, is to saw off the points of the horns of the * c boss " cattle just where the hollow begins (or rather where the' horn bone ends), then round off the horns with a blacksmith's rasp, and the cattle will look respectable and not like hyenas, as dishorned oattle do. If they should continue to master the timid cattle (which is seldom the case), file the horns of the latter sharp, and they will get even with the "bosses" and have their share of feed and sheds. In regard tocutting off the button of calves ■when ten or twelve days old, as some one has advocated, that does not amount to anything, unless the button is shaved down to the skull bone, and the skin around the button cut out the size of a quarter of a dollar, as there is a calloused skin around the roots of the horn that will cause the horn 4o grow right along if not destroyed, Another way that calves ab three or four months old can be prevented from growing horns, is to take a piece of gaspipe one inch in diameter, heat it hot, slip it over the horns, and sear the skin around the horns. When the wounds heal cut the horns off dose. But there is some danger in losing a number of calves with brain fever if the "Weather is unfavourable. The horns of Cattle can be grown harmless by cutting around the upper side close to the root of the horns of the calves, at the age of five or six months old, while the horn is soft. This will cause the horns to grow down and the points to nearly touch the cheeks like Irish ** knock-down ', horned cattle, as described by Youatt in his history of English breeds. [With reference to the above we cannot think the Breeders' Gazette is by way of recommending the hot iron process, than ■which the sawing off of the horns of adult cattle close to the skull would not be more barbarous. The agony and distress caused by applying a red hot iron to a part so near the brain must be frightful, and we need not wonder that it often produces brain fever. A plan of dishorning we have seen described in an Engbsh agricultural journal is the following. When the calf is about