I think most farm managers are aware of the importance of certain processing procedures, which may include:
Ear tagging or notching, for identification purposes
Castration, to reduce aggression & breeding ability in males (& secondarily to improve meat quality)
Tail docking in lambs, to improve cleanliness & reduce fly strike
Disbudding in kids, to eliminate horn growth, which is a potential safety concern
While these procedures are important for animal health & welfare, & in most of these instances for human safety, none of them are painless.
Did you know that human medical professionals used to believe that babies did not feel pain until one year of age & would perform minor surgical procedures without any pain management as recently as the 1980s? Check out this article.
Did you know that we still have very limited pain medications labeled for livestock? Part of that stems from a similar belief that livestock species did not feel pain (which we are finally changing attitudes towards!), while some of that is a result of the expense & timeline of getting products labeled for individual species. The reality is that, for a long time, a large portion of our society did not understand that the signs of pain in our livestock species are different than our own signs of pain. Livestock are prey species, so outward indications of pain or weakness would make these animals targets for predators. Understanding this & that animals speak to each other (& us) in a different way is essential to recognizing pain in livestock species. Check out this article.
But the bottom line is that there are a large number of producers who do not use pain management for routine procedures because "that's how we've always done it" or because "it's more of an expense." Check out this article about producer & veterinarian attitudes towards pain management in cattle.
The reality is that we are constantly expanding our collective knowledge of animal behavior & animal welfare & have more options than ever to help control (or at least manage) pain for routine procedures that cause pain. While we still only have one major medication labeled for cattle & swine (Banamine, flunixin meglumine), veterinarians also have access to other medications that we are allowed to use under specific circumstances, including other non-steroidal antiinflammatories (NSAIDs) & local anesthesia.
The point of all this is to say: we can do better for our animals with small added expense & a few more seconds of our time. For example, a single dose of meloxicam for a lamb at the time of banding (which should be done at less than a week of age) costs about 7 cents. It adds an extra 15 seconds to the processing procedures to give a single pill by mouth. However, the behavioral effects are obvious - lambs exhibit fewer signs of discomfort & return to normal nursing & social behaviors faster.
So, how can you incorporate pain management into your routine processing procedures? Talk to your veterinarian about your options, training on how & when to use them, & appropriate withdrawal times.
Let's do better!
