Blow Your Horn

I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. - Daniel 7:8

In the Book of Daniel, the Prophet has visions.  One of them (the verse above) talks about horns.  They aren't literal horns, however.  These horns were plucked up by the roots. 

On Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, it was time we plucked up some horns by the roots - literal horns.  Little Elsie has some tiny horn buds that are starting to grow.  Before they get bigger, at about two weeks, it is time to pluck them out by the roots or at least kill the roots that grow the horns.  In the past we've used De-horning paste.  We've also gone the surgical route.  Recently, we've purchased a De-horning iron to be used for goats and calves.  It worked beautifully on the goats and it is time to see how it works on Elsie.

The first order of business is to catch Elsie, put a halter on her, bring her to the ground and sit on her in order to de-mobilize her, somewhat.  Then, I use clippers to clip the hair out of the way of the horns so that I can see the horn buds.

I am pointing to the horn bud.  You can barely see it, but shortly, it will get bigger and bigger.  For safety of us and the safety of other animals, we don't like our animals having horns.  Some people have different opinions on that, and I respect that, but for us, we've found it's better to remove them.  It is not a pleasant experience for us or the animal, but it must be done.

Once we've shaved the area around the horn buds, we plug in the Electric De-Horning Device.  The end of the iron gets hot.  It gets cherry red.  We wear gloves for this procedure.

While securely holding Elsie down, we hold the de-horning iron around the horn bud for about 3 seconds.  This will hurt initially, but will deaden the nerves for the remainder of the procedure.  We then hold it down for 8 - 10 seconds, until we see a copper colored circle around the horn bud.  This will kill the roots of the horn and inhibit any growth.  If not complete, we'll do it for a little longer.  Then we use the iron the burn the horn bud itself in the center.

Then we repeat the same thing on the other horn.  

She doesn't like it for sure, but in no time flat she's up at the side of her momma.

She's probably a little hot-headed, but by the morning, everything is normal and she'll grow up without horns - an unpleasant process that yields a pleasant outcome.