Disbudding and dehorning practices for pre-weaned dairy calves by farmers in Wisconsin

Oral Presentation at the 2020 ADSA Annual Meeting (online). The objective of this study was to understand common dehorning and disbudding practices in Wisconsin to better target extension education programming to encourage adoption of best practices. A survey was distributed in 2019 to dairy farmers and calf raisers, both online and at extension events. Of all Wisconsin respondents (n = 188), producers reported milking a mean of 486 cows and had a mean of 110 heifer calves being fed milk. Respondents could select more than one method of disbudding or dehorning if used on their calves. A total of 126 producers (67%) reported using caustic paste for disbudding, with application most commonly occurring on the day of birth (64; 51%) or between 1 d to 1 wk of age (52; 41%). Hot iron disbudding was reported by 112 producers (60%) and disbudding occurred most commonly at 8 weeks of age or older (39; 35%) followed by between 4 to 8 weeks of age (38; 34%), and between 1 to 4 weeks of age (30; 27%). Of 40 producers reporting surgical amputation methods, 37 (93%) reported disbudding at 8 weeks of age or older. Response rate for the respondents reported using pain control, with 28 (33%) using a combination of medications. When each medication was evaluated individually, 40 respondents reported using a local anesthetic (21%), 65 reported using an NSAID (35%) and 10 reported using a sedative (5%). Response rate for questions regarding changes to pain control was 90% (170/188). Over half of the respondents (96/170) reported their use of pain control medications had changed in the last 10 years, with the most common cited influence of change being their veterinarian (66; 68%), and public perception/consumer demand (28; 29%). Results of this study demonstrate a proportion of surveyed farmers continue to perform disbudding without pain mitigation. These findings suggest a need for targeted extension education programming to encourage the implementation of best practices for pain-control and to motivate farmers to perform disbudding at an earlier age. Dairy Farmers of Ontario, Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, University of Guelph, Ontario Veterinary College - Dept. Population Medicine