Economic considerations of breeding for polled dairy cows versus dehorning in the United States

Abstract

This paper examines the costs and benefits of selecting for polled dairy heifers versus traditional dehorning practices. Stochastic budgets were developed to analyze the expected costs (EC) associated with polled dairy genetics. The economic assessment was expanded beyond on-farm cash costs by incorporating cost and benefit estimates to generate industry-wide discussion, and preliminary economic evaluations, surrounding the public acceptance and attitude toward polled genetics versus dehorning calves. Triangular distributions, commonly used to represent distributions with limited data, were used to represent labor costs for dehorning, the likelihood of treatment of calf, and the cost of veterinary treatment. In total, 10,000 iterations were run using @Risk v 6.0 (Palisade Corp., Newfield, NY). The EC of the 4 traditional dehorning methods evaluated in this study ranged from $6 to $25/head, with a mean EC around $12 to $13/head. The EC of incorporating polled genetics into a breeding program ranged from $0 to $26/head depending on the additional cost, or premium, associated with polled relative to horned genetics. Estimated breakeven premiums associated with polled genetics indicate that, on average, producers could spend up to $5.95/head and $11.90/head more for heterozygous and homozygous polled genetics, respectively, compared with conventional horned genetics (or $2.08 and $4.17/straw of semen at an assumed average conception rate of 35%). Given the parameters outlined, sensitivity to individual farm semen and dehorning costs are likely to swamp these differences. Beyond on-farm costs, industry-wide discussion may be warranted surrounding the public's acceptance and attitude toward polled genetics versus dehorning or disbudding of calves. The value of avoiding dehorning may be larger for the industry, and perhaps some individual farms, than initially suggested if additional value is put on calf comfort and possible worker aversion to dehorning. If public perception of dehorning influences market access, the EC of dehorning may be large but that cost is unknown at present.

Welfare Effects of the Use of a Combination of Local Anesthesia and NSAID for Disbudding Analgesia in Dairy Calves—Reviewed Across Different Welfare Concerns

“…Paradoxically, despite the numerous studies focusing on removal of horns in cattle published during the last decades [as reviewed by ( 13 , 44 , 47 )] very little is known about the function of horns in domestic cattle [as discussed by ( 4 ). Cattle may be naturally polled ( 98 ) and recently breeding for polled animals have gained interest due to concerns about animal welfare ( 1 , 99 ) and might be an economical attractive alternative to dehorning ( 100 ). Goonewardene et al ( 101 ) compared the behavior of polled and dehorned cattle and found no difference in their response to handling.…”

Management of Mendelian Traits in Breeding Programs by Gene Editing: A Simulation Study

“…Consumers and regulators may be more willing to support the use of gene editing for improving animal welfare rather than simply for increasing productivity. For example, the process of dehorning is traumatic to calves, unpleasant for farmers, and distasteful to consumers (e.g., [44]). Previous studies [5,29] have shown that increasing the frequency of polled animals in the Holstein population is difficult because the frequency of the dominant allele is very low (0.0061).…”

Comparison of gene editing versus conventional breeding to introgress the POLLED allele into the US dairy cattle population

“…Inbreeding was estimated without error based on pedigree relationships (Aguilar and Misztal, 2008) using the program INBUPGF90 (Aguilar and Misztal, 2012). The average expected cost of disbudding is estimated to range from $6 to $25 per animal, depending on the method used and the cost of labor, equipment, and veterinary treatments for infections/blood loss (Thompson et al, 2017). Therefore, to additionally account for breeders' preferences and premium marketing opportunities, horned and carrier calves were penalized $40 and $20, respectively, in all schemes.…”

“…Recently, Thompson et al (2017) conducted a cost-benefit analysis of traditional disbudding versus breeding for polled animals. They estimated the cost for disbudding, with the addition of treatment probability and costs included, to range from $6 to $25 per head, with a mean economic cost around $12 to $13 per head.…”