Horns??

[Davis Shorthorns]

I have a steer that has horns he is almost 6 mo old and I need to get rid of them.  He is going to be sold as a show steer, and I would like your opinions about what is the best way to get rid of them with out looking bad in the ring?  Thanks
Matt

 

[stumpy]

The best bet is to find someone who is good at surgicly(sp?) dehorning. Even at that age someone who is good can make them look almost polled. Ask Ryan Briener at the KSU PB Beef unit if he knows anyone. He may know who to ask. Good Luck!

 

[shortyisqueen]

I'm with Stumpy on this one! We usually surgically dehorn the ones we are going to show at about 5 months of age, so the sooner you can get him to a good vet, the better. If the vet knocks him right out, he won't remember a thing and won't be head-shy later. The vet can also file the sides of his skull down to make him look polled.

Our vet that does this explained that the horn grows out not from the skull, but from the skin cells surrounding the horn. We've had vets take too small of patch out with the horn, and had them grow back scurs, so sometimes it is better if they make a pretty good incision and then let the whole thing heal over. If they make a very large incision, sometimes they wrap the head to prevent any dirt getting in there. We fly spray to keep the flies away until they heal, and have never had one get infected.

 

[OH Breeder]

Alot of the vets in our area will do a "cosmetic dehorning" for show calves. They will shape the poll and open the head using anesthetics. I like the way it looks and usually turns out pretty nice. It is costly but they look nice. Find a vet that does surgical dehorning.

 

[Davis Shorthorns]

I was thinking about surgury, but it isn't worth that much to me to have it done.  I mean he is a nice steer, but not that nice.  I was thinking the past, or the iron.

 

[bradycreek]

There is no doubt that getting a vet to surgically dehorn is your best bet. If you mess up you may take an average steer with horns that can be sold to show in the county fair to a steer that is sold at the local sale barn.  Could be quite a differnce.

If not wanting to spend the money to dehorn an average---I am not calling your steer average only refering to my own situations----show steer I will give a topical anestetic in several shots around the skin of the horn.  Give a few min (5 min) to set in then use a scapel to cut around hair line and skin (peel back) skin to base of skull. Remove horn at base of skull with normal dehorners. Pull leaders if any bad bleeders with forcepts. Usually in worst situation only have to pull 2 leaders at most.  Normally there is only 1 bleeder that needs pulled if any at all.
Place skin back over head and sew shut with large curved needle and dental floss. Spray head good with fly spray. Spray for flies twice a week and after 2 weeks should be able to remove stitches.
Some things to keep in mind--you can learn to sugically remove the horns yourself but you should watch it done several times, find a vet that will work with you and sell you some of the topical anestetic (like laticain). And then you will need a good way to hold the calves head still I prefer a squeeze chute, head catch, with a nose chain or head bar. A calf head table attached to the chute works really good to. Hard to do by yourself you will need a helper.
You can always just chop them off as even with the skull as you can.
I've also heard of selling the steer with the horns and let the buyer deal with the dehorning. Usually this type of steer sells for less but it can be easier for you.
dh

 

[Davis Shorthorns]

I think that for the time being I am just going to try to sell him and let someone else decide what they want to do with him.  Thanks for all the suggestions. 

 

[Jill]

We used to surgically dehorn most of our show calves and have kind of quit doing it, not a big difference in cost, our sugicals are 35, but just don't see that it makes that much difference in how they show, have never heard any judge make a comment on horn or no horn, we burn them off.