Routine Management Procedures in Calves – new options for farmers and smallholders

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Calf castration and disbudding are procedures routinely carried out to aid management and protect long-term animal welfare, but what techniques are available, legal and most appropriate for your livestock?

Legislation

Legislation regarding routine management procedures can vary according to the country, species, procedure, technique, and age of animal in question. Currently, the laws regarding castration and disbudding cattle are fairly well aligned across the UK, but if you are in any doubt, please speak to your vet for advice.

Safety

When handling cattle, it is absolutely vital to consider human safety at all times. In the year 2024/25 in Britain, 23 farm workers lost their lives and many more suffered severe, even life changing injuries. Dealing with young calves is a risk in itself but more so when that means dealing with recently calved cows too. Even the quietest, most gentle, well-handled cow can behave very unpredictably when recently calved and with ever more farmers working alone, the need for a safe approach to calf handling cannot be stressed enough.

Consider timing procedures for when help is available.

Plan an effective set-up to separate cow and calf, allowing you to work safely. Gates must be high enough and fixed properly in place, not tied or propped up.

Where possible, use a head yoke or crush/crate to safely contain the cow while you work with her calf.

Cows at grass may need to be carefully brought into nearby handling facilities or consider investing in a calf catcher if you routinely handle young calves at grass.

If you are working alone, always have a mobile phone (or a radio if phone signal is poor) at hand to call for help if needed.

Team up! Farms of every size can benefit from help at times so get to know neighbours and trade your skills and time to help each other.

Castration

Calves may become sexually mature enough to breed from 8 months of age. Castration aims to prevent unwanted pregnancies where males cannot be reliably and safely managed separately. Additionally castrated males may be easier to handle as they age and carcass quality at slaughter may be more favorable too.

Rings

Applied using a special tool, a rubber elastrator ring restricts blood flow to the testes and scrotum, both of which will shrivel in size and drop off over the following weeks. This technique is:

Low cost

Easy technique

May be carried out by livestock keepers

Permitted without the use of anaesthetic

MUST carried out within the first 7 days of life

This has long been the traditional method for dairy calves and indoor born beef calves but can be associated with chronic pain in some cases as the nerve supply is not severed at the time of ring application. For this reason, it is not recommended to apply rings within the first 24hrs of life as the pain may prevent suckling of vital colostrum in very young calves.

Catching up outdoor born calves can be more challenging – however, it can be done. With appropriate safety precautions in place, calves can be tagged, ringed and have disbudding paste applied at the same time.

While pain relief is not a legal requirement when ringing calves, the use of NSAID’s (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) is an option you can discuss with your vet as it may alleviate some of the discomfort and keep the calves suckling better than those without pain relief.

The Numnuts system now available for sheep, delivers local anaesthetic at the time of ring application but is not currently being used in calves, although this may become an option in the future.

Clamps

A clamp known as a Burdizzo, can be applied across the neck of the scrotum to crush the nerve and blood supply to the testicles, causing the testes to shrink away but leaving the scrotum intact. This technique:

Requires skill and care to avoid damaging the scrotum itself

May be less painful than rings because the nerve is severed at the time of clamping

Is permitted without anaesthetic in calves up to 2 months of age, across the UK

May leave in doubt if an animal has been effectively castrated as the scrotum remains visible

If you are considering using this technique, speak to your vet or sign up for a local skills course first.

The ClipFitter system is a more recently developed clamp option for lambs, but can it be used for calves? Yes, it can but beware the age of calf and use appropriately sized clips. Clips may be advantageous because:

Like burdizzo, clips disrupt nerve supply immediately, potentially causing less pain than elastrator rings

Clips are easier to apply than burdizzo and less likely to fail

Clips result in the loss of the scrotal sac and both testes, so it is easier to see that an animal has been castrated.

Legislation throughout the UK states that “When the method used is the application of a rubber ring or other device to constrict the flow of blood to the scrotum, the procedure may only be carried out on an animal aged not more than 7 days”. Clips are not specifically mentioned but as they do restrict blood supply to the scrotum, currently, they must be applied only to calves within 7 days of birth.

Surgery

Calves over 2 months of age must be given anaesthetic and so are usually surgically castrated by a veterinary surgeon. This option may;

Be the most practical for outdoor born calves

Incur higher cost

Carry greater risk of wound complications including bleeding, infection and clostridial disease

Be associated with a noticeable “check” in growth as feed intake is reduced over the days following castration due to pain, despite the use of local anaesthetics and analgesics (pain relief) at the time of surgery.

Disbudding / Dehorning

Horned calves in the UK are typically disbudded or dehorned to improve safety for herd mates and stockkeepers, and to facilitate access to feed barriers and handling systems. Disbudding describes the removal of the horn bud in younger calves while dehorning describes the removal of formed horn.

Chemical disbudding

The only technique which does not require the use of anaesthetic in the UK. The caustic paste:

Must be applied with care to avoid damaging surrounding tissues

Should not be applied during wet weather as this may cause the paste to run onto nearby skin and even affect the eyes.

Must be applied before 7 days of age

Can cause irritation if rubbed onto the underside of cows by their calves suckling.

May be very effective when used with care.

Speak to your vet to discuss this method in more detail.

Hot iron disbudding

Can be carried out either by suitably trained stockkeepers in animals under 6 months of age, or by vets. Good restraint is required for both human and animal safety, therefore it is recommended that calves are under 2 months of age for hot iron disbudding.

Local anaesthetic must always be used.

Whilst not a legal requirement, providing pain relief by way of NSAID (non-steroidal medications e.g. metacam) can improve animal welfare and reduce the negative impact that disbudding may have on growth.

Where groups or older calves are to be disbudded, your vet can visit to sedate each animal and carry out the disbudding with less stress to each calf.

Fly control may be required after disbudding, and if the weather is to be very wet or cold, housing for a couple of days may be advisable.

Dehorning

This should be avoided if at all possible. In cases where calves have been missed at a younger age, dehorning should be carried out by your vet. Sedation is advisable as with age and horn growth it becomes increasingly difficult to numb the horn effectively. Pain relief, fly control and infection prevention will be required, and even then, dehorning is likely to cause a significant check in growth rate.

If fattening cattle that have been missed for disbudding at a younger age can be reared with horns, any financial penalty at the abattoir is unlikely to be greater than the cost, loss of growth and negative animal welfare impact of dehorning older animals.

Summary

At an individual farm level, there should always be ongoing consideration given to the three R’s : Reducing, Refining, or Replacing management practices. For example,

Reducing castrations by managing male calves separately (but only if there is a suitable management system to safely do so).

Reducing disbudding/dehorning by using polled (hornless) breed sires where possible.

Refining the currently used techniques by reviewing the most appropriate age of animal for the technique chosen; regular inspection and maintenance of equipment; use of local anaesthetics and/or analgesics (painkillers) even if this is not a legal requirement; and booking yourself and your team onto a skills course or training workshop to refresh your knowledge and see if you can pick up any new tips and tricks.

Replacing current techniques with newer options that may be more appropriate for your system and/or better protect animal welfare e.g. replacing rings with clips or applying clips/rings to younger calves rather than surgically castrating older animals.

Of course, each holding is different in their facilities, livestock, personnel and aims, so please speak to your vet to discuss which approach might work best for you and your animals.