Among the time-honored rituals of spring in Wisconsin that include children flying kites and the Green Bay Packers preparing for the NFL draft is a little-known practice on farms involving the dehorning of thousands of newborn calves that an animal rights group wants stopped.
Most young dairy calves are born with horn tissue in their heads and farmers remove it before it grows into a lethal weapon that can gore other animals or farm workers. Methods to remove the tissue — called dehorning — have been labeled by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals as cruel, gruesome and painful for the calves. PETA wants the dairy industry to take advantage of advanced genetics and breed hornless, or polled, cows. Food manufacturers like General Mills and Nestle have joined the crusade.
Some experts believe with the help of advanced genetics, polled cows are on their way to becoming the new face of the dairy industry and that they will provide most of our milk. They will be Holsteins, Jerseys, Brown Swiss and other famous breeds of dairy cows, but, thanks to science, they’ll be born without horns.
“I think we will see our herds move toward polled cows, more from an animal welfare perspective more than anything,” said Diane Spurlock, an Iowa State University animal science professor, who completed a report last year that included strategies to incorporate polled genetics in a cow herd.
“It’s something that can be changed,” Spurlock added. “But to get the majority of our cow herd switched over, we’re probably looking at a couple of decades.”
Others are skeptical because there hasn’t been any convincing evidence yet to prove that polled cows will match or surpass their horned sisters in milk production, life expectancy and other key factors. “It’s funny that in a world where everybody is against (genetically modified) foods and doing anything that’s unnatural for animals, they want a cow through genetic selection,” said Shelly Mayer, Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin executive director, which offers educational and training classes to farmers across the state.
Farmers are going to be a tough sell because they won’t invest in a cow that will lose them money in lost production and vet bills, Mayer said. If it was easy to genetically select the traits for a healthy, milk-producing cow, “everybody would go for it and we’d have way too much milk. But it’s anything but easy,” she added.
As it stands today, polled cows are a work in progress, Mayer said. She compared the genetic work to a puzzle: While the right genetic traits might lead a polled cow to increased milk production, they might not add up for strong legs needed to walk long distances or proper bone structure to deliver a calf.
“A polled animal is looked at as a fluke of nature. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s just that when everybody gets excited about one trait, you have to remind them that you have to weigh it with everything else that can come with it,” Mayer said.
Spurlock’s study showed a significant difference exists in breeding value between horned and polled cows, particularly with Holsteins. What excites Spurlock is that hasn’t diminished interest in breeding polled dairy cattle among bovine genetics companies like DeForest-based ABS Global, Inc. “The main thing is that there are more polled bulls becoming available and the quality is getting better,” she said.
Brian and Sue Crull, who own Briar Holsteins dairy farm near Monroe, can attest to that. They have been incorporating polled cows into their herd of 80 milking Holsteins for about 10 years and expect it to be completely polled in two to three years.
As of now, about half of their herd is polled and Sue Crull said they are healthy and matching the milking production of the horned cows. She added that one of the polled cows led the herd in milk production last month with an average of 120 pounds of milk per day, or double the average production of a milking cow in Wisconsin. She said the production average for the herd was about 20,000 pounds per cow last year, which is close to the state average, Crull said.
“There wasn’t an incentive to use them before because you couldn’t make money off of them. But right now they are very comparable. You don’t see a difference (in production), in the Holsteins especially,” Crull said.
Crull believes farmers will rapidly change toward milking polled cows once they see proof there is no decrease in production. “When a farmer has to make a choice about anything that is similar, they’ll always choose what is most convenient. And the polled cow is most convenient because they won’t have to deal with the dehorning anymore,” Crull said.
The Crulls’ herd and others dominated with polled cows deserve watching and studying, Mayer said. “If they all turn out great, that’s super and I’m all for it. But what happens if we all jump on the bandwagon but, down the road, problems occur that put our industry in jeopardy?” Mayer asked. “Should we all go blindly down that road just because we don’t want to give our calves a painkiller and dehorn our calves with the best management practice?”
Three methods are used to dehorn cattle, Spurlock wrote in her report. First, a dab of caustic paste is often applied over a dime-sized spot where the horn tissue is located on new-born calves and it eventually dissolves. A second method involves using a hot iron to burn away the tissue after the calves are a few weeks old. A third method occurs when the calves are older and involves amputating the horns with a sharp-bladed scoop, flexible cutting wire with a toothed edge or saws.
“It certainly is agreed upon that (both) cause pain and suffering to the animals, it’s a matter of which one is worse,” said David Byers, PETA senior corporate liaison.
European Union countries as well as Australia and New Zealand have created dehorning welfare legislation, Spurlock reported. Canada recommends the use of a local anesthetic combined with analgesia and sedation for dehorning calves. The United States has no official regulations for dehorning calves.
That said, the state Milk Marketing Board considers dehorning an animal welfare issue and pays close attention to it, spokeswoman Brenda Murphy said. “We don’t tell people how to farm, but we do ask they use best practices and go by guidelines set forth by the American Veterinarian Medical Association regarding pain management and minimizing all pain to animals,” she said. “That’s the way most producers want to do things.”
PETA said in a report that only about 10 percent of calves in the U.S. are properly medicated for the procedures. Spurlock’s report cited a 2011 survey of U.S. veterinarians that reported no analgesic drugs were given to 37 percent of dairy calves that were dehorned at less than six months of age.
Almost everybody agrees it’s difficult to watch. UW-Madison veterinary school professor Sheila McGuirk grew up on a farm and saw calves struggle as they were dehorned with a sharp blade. “It wasn’t fun,” she said. “People didn’t like it.”
McGuirk said she started using nerve blocks and tranquilizers when dehorning calves about 10 to 15 years ago and the calves feel no pain when they are dehorned. “We have to do pain-free dehorning and use local anesthetics. That’s what we teach. Our students have surveyed the industry, and it’s definitely getting more attention,” McGuirk added.
Farmers were initially slow to grasp the concept but many have changed when they saw how their calves reacted positively to the new treatments, McGuirk said. “When people see the results of doing it in a correct way, they just don’t go back,” she added.
The largest dairy farms have vets or trained medical staff on site to dehorn calves with proper technique and drugs, McGuirk said.
Farmers that dehorn the old way are usually older and have small herds, she added. “The bad rap is deserved when it comes. We keep trying to do better. Most everybody understands better is necessary. It’s generational, too. You see younger generations value animal welfare. It is going to change,” McGuirk said.
The proof is in the increased production charted by dozens of analysts. “Everybody’s life gets better when the animals are happy and productive,” McGuirk said. “You don’t milk as productively as they do on some of these farms if they don’t have happy, healthy cows. So, I think life is definitely getting better. That is where our focus should be.”
Source: Wisconsin State Journal
