Dr. Sylvia Kehoe at UW-River Falls has been busy creating an applicator to use when disbudding calves with caustic paste. One of the big problems farms run into with the paste is that they overdo it and put too much on the calf, which is unnecessary. This applicator she’s created helps farmers put the correct amount on the bud and leaves less of a mess for the person applying the paste.
“One of the last farms I’d been on had some really poorly done disbudding with caustic paste…the wound area was just really big, and each horn bud was different,” Kehoe went on to say, “It was inconsistent, and I just thought…let’s look into this a little bit more.”
The idea for the applicator happened by chance after a student of hers wanted to see how disbudding worked. Kehoe said that they went out to the farm, she showed her student how to use caustic paste, and then they observed the calf for a while. They couldn’t help but notice how the paste was more painful than they initially thought and it’s tough to stay consistent when applying it.
She said that the directions on caustic paste are pretty generic and basically just say to “put on enough.” The applicator is just a starting point for Kehoe and her research, but it was also made to make things a little more safe for employees. The basic idea of the applicator is to put the paste on it and then stick it to the calves’ bud. Very simple. “You just peel off the sticker, you find the horn bud, and you just stick it on,” Kehoe said.
She explained that they did apply for a patent for the disbudding applicators. She doesn’t plan on making any money off of these, but she’d love to give them to a company that could then sell them at a reasonable price to farmers all over the world. Before any of that happens, she still has a lot of work to do. For example, Kehoe has UW-River Falls, UW-Platteville, and Southwest Wisconsin Tech students working to do research on the new product.
The last step in her plan would be to give the applicators to farm employees so they could try them out and see how they like them, but more importantly, do they work. She has a ways to go yet, but progress is for sure being made. This could potentially be a game-changer for disbudding in the U.S. and around the world.
You can hear the full interview with Dr. Kehoe right here. We dive into pain management strategies, the difference between caustic paste and using a hot iron to remove horns, and which method is best.
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