Sedating calves for disbudding, often referred to as knockdown disbudding, is now common practice across the industry. There has been lots of interest and questions from clients, following a recent article in the Farmer’s Weekly which discussed a recent research study where sedated calves appeared to have lower growth rates than those not sedated for disbudding.
Synergy were very involved in the study, so we wanted to clarify the findings, and our interpretation of them, to help answer any questions you may have.
Firstly, let’s address the topic as a whole. Disbudding is an essential task to eliminate risks associated with horned animals, both to the animals and farm staff. However, it is a painful procedure for calves, and a stressful one for both calves and the people performing it. We mitigate this pain and stress through use of local anaesthetic and giving pain relief (usually Metacam). Both have a large body of research demonstrating their benefit.
Another strategy we use to reduce the stress associated with disbudding is to sedate the calves, knocking them down. This is a service Synergy has offered for many years and is well received by our clients who appreciate the reduced labour requirement, and a much smoother process for the calves, farmers, vets and techs involved! In some countries, it is a legal requirement to use sedation for disbudding.
The study highlighted in the Farmer’s Weekly investigated whether sedating calves leads to a growth rate benefit for calves undergoing this procedure. This was found previously when pain relief (Metacam) became a mandatory requirement. The study followed dairy beef calves at a large scale rearing unit, for six weeks, measuring growth rates and health events for disbudded calves. Half of the calves were sedated for disbudding, and the other half were disbudded “standing” with no sedation. The key findings are as follows:
Over the entire six week period, there was no difference in growth rates or health events between the groups.
However, in the first three weeks following disbudding, the sedated calves did not grow as well as those that underwent disbudding standing.
On the basis that growth rates were equal over the six week period, we can assume these calves caught up with their counterparts and did not suffer from health events like pneumonia as a result of being sedated.
From this study, we do not know exactly why these calves experienced a short-term decline in growth rate. Other studies point to a possible short-term reduction in feed intake immediately after being sedated (which is not a surprise)! We should always aim to time knockdown disbudding so that calves have a decent amount of time to wake up, ready for their afternoon feed, to mitigate any potential drop in milk intakes and subsequent growth.
There is also research from the United States that has found benefits to sedation including lower levels of stress hormones (cortisol) and faster resumption of play behaviours compared to non-sedated calves. This, coupled with the improved experience for farmers, techs and vets leaves us with no doubt that we can be confident in continuing with this service!
