The pecking order

[Dirtslinger]

In my tiny herd it's the youngest, the yearling heifer who gets butted into the rails for being at the bottom of the pecking order. Fair enough, seems all animals do it.
But- is there a point you separate?
She seems to have no apparent injuries, is eating great, still spends time with the others even though she gets butted a lot.
Thanks.

[Tiffin]

I feel bad for the little ones too, but since they don't get hurt I have to ignore it. Besides for my own safety it's another reason not to have cows with horns, I think anyway.

[Ronney]

In my herd of 9 there is a matriach and under her there are three distinct sets of pecking order which revolves around age, size and familial connections. At the bottom is poor little Hine (a Maori name and pronounced Hin-ae). Normally I wouldn't worry about the pecking order as they go into paddocks that are large enough for them all to get away from each other and therefore get sufficient food but Hine is a little different. Not only is she the smallest and youngest, she also comes with health issues - too many white blood cells but tests don't show why. Therefore I make an effort for her, particularly during the winter, to ensure that she gets her fair share of rations. So last night, while the others were eating hay, she was on the overgrown back lawn and had hay

If you feel that your youngster is holding her own and her condition reflects that, don't worry about it.

Tiffin, most of my cows bar 3 have full sets of horns but interestingly it doesn't appear to have much input on the pecking order. One of the boss cows is a very small dehorned Jersey and she can send a big Jersey/Friesian with horns packing just be looking sideways at her. The dehorned Jersey was born here, the Jersey/Friesian is an import and as such is 2/3rds of the way down the heirachy list - and it shows.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[bigmudder77]

i would leave the horns on them i have always left the horns on the bad thing is they do tend to mess up more stuff with horns but i dont keep them long enough to have huge horns and i keep them pretty nice (i know they can turn at any time)

we also had goats that had horns i think i would of dehorned the goats they were alot faster and got you in the back of the knee ALOT or at least mine did till i was ready for him and turned around and grabed his horns and throw him over the fence he was moving fast and i just picked him up and got out of the way and let his body do the rest

after that he never charged at me again but after i did it i felt bad cause i didnt want him to go that far i just wanted him to hit the fence and run away i thought i broke his legs cause he was rolling around but he was fine and i let him back in the pen

but i would say its life every thing or every body wants to be the head one incharge

[Dirtslinger]

Thank you- yeah I'm sure she'll be just fine then. Lots of growing to do in the next few months too which will benefit. I have been giving her extra grain and love. She's a sweety. Probably dairy in her future.