Pain relief a must for disbudding
Jim Braven and his team will disbud about 16,000 calves this season. Since October 1, technicians like Braven are now required by the Ministry of Primary Industries to administer local anaesthetic before disbudding calves.
‘‘It was something I really pushed for – it’s a lot less stressful for the calves and they bounce back quicker,’’ Braven said.
Braven said about 99 per cent of his clients had requested pain relief for their calves before the new regulations came in on Tuesday.
‘‘Most people have been pretty damn good about it.’’
Braven said it had already been company policy to use local anaesthetic for disbudding calves although he couldn’t enforce the practice until now.
‘‘It’s a bit like going to the dentist and getting a jab - after a few minutes the pain relief kicks in.’’
Braven, who is based in Wyndham, has been disbudding calves for more than 10 years as part of his Ultra-Scan business covering mainly Eastern Southland.
He has already disbudded about 12,000 calves this season with the help of his wife Marama and another technician Willy Wilson and will do another 4000 more before the season finishes in early November.
Disbudding is just a small part of his annual workload as he and another operator pregnancy scan about 230,000 ewes and 70,000 cows each year.
Braven said the extra work required in administering local anaesthetic meant disbudding was more than a one-person job and Wilson had been employed to assist him.
‘‘It does take us a bit longer to do the job, but the calves recover much quicker after the procedure.’’
During disbudding the calves are restrained in purpose-built crates and the procedure is carried out using a hot gas iron which quickly and cleanly cauterises the buds and prevents the horns from growing.
Braven said the ideal time to disbud calves was between two and four weeks of age, although they could be done as young as four days old.
However, leaving them until they were at least a week to 10 days old meant they wouldn’t be checked by the procedure, he said.
‘‘If you leave them longer than eight weeks the buds become woody and take longer to remove.’’
The mobs Braven disbudded ranged in size from just two calves on a lifestyle block up to mobs of 1200.
Being clean was all part of the job and he sprayed down all the equipment before moving to the next job to prevent the spread of disease.
With the disbudding season almost over, Braven was looking forward to some down time between mid-November and Christmas before pregnancy scanning started in the New Year.
He and Marama operate one of five Ultra-Scan franchises covering the Southland region.
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It became a criminal offence to disbud or dehorn cattle without the use of local anaesthetic from October 1, 2019.
MPI veterinarian and director animal health and welfare Dr Chris Rodwell said removing horns or horn buds was necessary to keep animals safe from each other, as well as for human safety.
‘‘These regulations highlight that removal is painful and those carrying it out need to reduce the pain experienced,’’ he said.
Dr Rodwell said the rules apply to all cattle regardless of age and failure to abide by these rules could result in a criminal conviction or fine.
The new regulations were part of the Animal Welfare (Care and Procedures) Regulations 2018, issued under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and first announced in 2018.
MPI developed the new regulations after working closely with vets, the livestock sector, the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and the SPCA.