HORNED CATTLE.

Waipa Post, Volume IV, Issue 151, 4 October 1912, Page 4

HORNED CATTLE.

A RELIC OF BARBARISM.

Properly speaking horns can be classed only as a relic of barbarism and entirely out of place in a civilised community, says Mr Primrose M'Connell, manager oi the Ruakura State Farm. Mr M'Connell says he is quite convinced that a hornless herd of cows will yield considerably more milk than a similar herd with horns, not taking into account the direct loss through prods and bruises, which later, although they may not seem much outwardly, undoubtedly affect the milk-yield. Dehorning renders a herd more docile and less timid, and such qualities in a milking herd help considerably in making a big record. Mr M'Connell says he has seen so much of the evils of horns and the great loss caused by them that he is more than convinced that dehorning should be made compulsory, particularly among dairy stock, and that the retention of the horn is not only the cause of enormous loss, but it is absolutely barbarous. We in New Zealand, says Mr M'Connell profess to be practical in all things pertaining to the breeding of stock, especially when compared with the British, but the fact is, he adds,.that we are not honest with ourselves. We preach against all manner of faking, but on the quiet we wink at and encourage it; while the Britisher openly encourages it and as openly carries it out —not only so, but he practises it to such perfection that one cannot but admire his art. At many New Zealand shows, he says, although the rules are most emphatic on this point, faking is carried on unblushingly, and even encouraged by many of the judges. He would yield to no one in his desire to see'stock turned out to the highest point of perfection that could be obtained by legitimate means, but to go further than this, was, in his opinion, foolish and served-no practical end. Failing compulsory dehorning, the points that are allotted to horns should, Mr M'Connell agrees, be entirely eliminated from the judges' scale, particularly in judging a dairy cow ;and a cow that has her horns trained upward and outward he would either debar entirely or deduct so many points from the total scale. A judge that will debar a milk-ing-cow simply because she ha'ppens to be dehorned is in Mr M'Connell's opinion, not a judge at all but a faddist —unless, of course, he is bound by the rules of the association. Many breeders, even of pedigree Jerseys, would dehorn to-morrow were they certain that it would uot affect their chances in the showTing.

In dehorning, the most humane way is, no doubt, to apply caustic when the calf is but a few days old. When the operation is performed on a mature animal with a dehorning instrument, care should be taken to go as close as possible, also to cut the horn on a line with the slope of the head. When the horn is not cut close enough a short stump- will soon appear, which is most unsightly, while a well dehorned animal will show a head like a polled Angus with no vestige of horn visible. An unruly bull should be dehorned at once, and it is astonishing how the operation will quiet him. *