While walking through the livestock barns in Canada, I quickly noticed one obvious difference in the appearance of all the cattle. There were no horned cattle and no evidence of horns ever having existed. This was visible for Limousin, Charolais, Hereford, Simmental and Shorthorn breeds.

After discussing this with various exhibitors, it became apparent that the above-mentioned breeds have been genetically selected to exist in purebred form without horns. After my visit to the fair, I had a phone conversation with Brad Sayles of Semex.

He identified some of the beef AI trends that he has seen over the past 10 years in Canada and confirmed the rise in popularity for homozygous polled AI bulls (ie progeny without horns).

At present, Sayles estimates 85% to 90% of the beef bulls they have on offer are homozygous polled. So when it comes to choice of beef AI straws, Angus are on top, with 80% of the Canadian market, 12% is Simmental, which Sayles remarks is very popular for use as terminal sires for suckler farmers, while at 8% other breeds include Limousin, Charolais, Hereford, Shorthorn and Simmental.

Maybe some day we will all be able to consign the dehorning kits to the history books.