Guest guest Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 I have a milk cow that has horns, I would never think about cutting them off. I do disbud the calfs but I also put lidocane(sp?) cream on the area first to numb the skin. It is the same cream I got from the doctor to numb my son's penis when he went in for his circumcision. I am not cruel to these animals but need to be safe in the pens/ pasture. I have been charged a couple of times by my moms when a calf has gotten out and went into the moms side. They do not even want me to go near them, not because I'm hurting the calf but because it is theirs and they want it to nurse. It is much easier to deal with when I can turn around and bop them on the nose to show I am alpha female vs. jumping over the fence(if i'm close enough) to avoid the horns. sorry but I will continue to debud my calfs. Thank you for the detailed website about debudding. I bought my electric debudder and it came with no instructions. Annelisellenussery wrote: when we kept goats, I would hold them while my husband burned the hornbuds. They yelped for the duration, but it was only l0 seconds or so.Afterwards they were immediately on their feet acting as if nothinghad happened, nipping at my nose and hair and leaping about. So Icannot believe that they were traumatized in any permanent way. Ithink the trick is to do it very young...just a few days...as soon asyou can feel the horn bud it is time .With the way goats behave I cannot imagine keeping the horns in mostdairying situations. Someone, goat or person, would very likely toget hurt, especially if they are going into any kind of shelter andthere is more than one goat. It is not like keeping a flock intotally open fields as in Biblical days. We have to deal with realityas it is now.I appreciate the Biodynamic point of view. I believe there aresubtle energies that most of us are too insulated from by modern lifeto accept as possible. Just as I now know and feel in my gut thealiveness and benefit of raw milk, and more recently have come toknow on a gut level the benefits of that raw milk coming from theneighborhood rather than the next state or county, I hope to becomemore in tune with other subtleties of nature. However, I am not thereyet. If you are, Will, I am glad. Just don't set yourself up forfrustration by expecting the rest of humanity to make a blind leap. Just as it was a process to get this removed from nature it will be aprocess to get back.EllenPLEASE BE KIND AND TRIM YOUR POSTS WHEN REPLYING!Visit our Raw Dairy Files for a wealth of information!http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RawDairy/files/__________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 We keep horns on horned animals, claws on cats, teeth on dogs...all dangerous things just stay put around here. Belinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 Thanks for all the great opinions on this topic! I am hoping to get my first dairy cow in the next year, and it is nice to hear different points of view on the horn issue. Sara Washington State Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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