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Polled Holsteins are cattle born without horns but only occur in a small portion of Holstein cattle. The Holstein breed can go through selective breeding to produce polled calves. Polled is a natural trait for Holsteins but have not been bred for specifically.
Polled livestock are preferred by many farmers for a variety of reasons, the foremost being that horns can pose a physical danger to humans, other livestock and equipment. Horns may also interfere with equipment used with livestock (such as a cattle crush), or they may become damaged during handling.
Horns from cattle, water buffalo, and sheep are all used for commercial button making, and of other species as well, on a local and non-commercial basis. Horn combs were common in the era before replacement by plastic, and are still made. Horn needle cases and other small boxes, particularly of water buffalo horn, are still made.
While animal rights groups, like the Humane Society of the United States, condemn the practice of dehorning, ending it would mean increased horn-related injuries to cattle and humans. Polled genetics, long a staple in beef cattle breeding are becoming more popular among dairy farmers, with more polled calves being born to dairy cattle every year.
The horns are unusually large, with a wide spread [2]: 110 and the largest circumference found in any cattle breed. Guinness World Records lists a bull named CT Woodie with a horn circumference of 103.5 cm (40.7 in) and a steer named Lurch, with horns measuring 95.25 cm (37.50 in), as record-holders. [5] [6]
Holstein cattle, Friesian cattle: ... Horn status: horned, mainly dehorned as calves: ... was born on 7 September 2000 in Saint-Hyacinthe.
The oldest known artistic depictions of cattle with deformed horns are found at an elite tomb dating to the Old Kingdom of about 2686 BC to 2160 BC.
Bovidae (cattle, goats, antelopes etc.). Giraffidae: Giraffids have a pair of skin covered bony bumps on their heads, called ossicones. Cervidae: Most deer have antlers, which are not true horns due to lacking a bone core and made of keratin. Rhinocerotidae: The "horns" of rhinos are made of keratin and lack a bone core.