Linda Einarson, age 11, of Two Harbors, Minnesota, for her question:
Do all cows and bulls have horns?
This question brought a problem into the life of the girl who asked it. Her country cousins called her a city slicker because she did not know the answer. They laughed when she asked them to explain.. Now she suspects that they don't know the answer either. The problem gets more complex because it leads a person to wonder about the horns of other animals male and female.
Most male and female calves sprout permanent horns that gradually grow into a pair of neat curves. But there are certain domestic strains that never grow horns. These are called polled cattle. However, not all the hornless cows and bulls we may see around were born that way. Their horns may have been cut or burned off, usually when the animals were about three weeks old. After all, the horns of domestic cattle can be a nuisance. A bad tempered bull's horns are fearsome weapons. Cattle crowded in trucks on the way to market may gore each other.
Cattlemen have bred several strains of polled or hornless cows and bulls. One of the most famous of these is the stocky Black Angus, a lazy type who takes life very easy. As a result, his beef is tender. The handsome Hereford is red with a wide, white face. In most cases, the bulls and cows wear horns that curve outward. But once in a while a cow bears a hornless calf. These mutant offspring were used to breed a polled strain of hornless Hereford. Other beefy shorthorns come in white or yellowish roan, plain red or red blotched with white. A few males and females are born polled, others may have their horns removed.
The gray or white Brahman cattle have humped shoulders and horns that dip down behind their floppy ears. The bull's horns often are removed because the powerful critter is very bad tempered. These natives of India have sweat glands and when bred with our cattle they produce strains that can withstand the arid prairies. The curly black Galloway is a beefy breed with a shaggy coat to withstand the cold. These are polled cattle and neither the bulls nor the cows ever grow horns.
Dairy cattle are slimmer and usually gentler than the beefy breeds. Most of the bulls and cows grow curved horns with pointed tips. Sometimes a fierce old bull's horns are removed to keep peace in the pasture. Usually the cows are allowed to keep their horns.
Cows, sheep and goats have permanent hollow horns, supported by bony bumps on the skull. They are made of keratin, similar to the tough substances in the claws, hoofs and beaks of other creatures. Some male and female sheep are hornless. Most billy goats and nanny goats have permanent horns and all of them the right to refer to their offspring as kids.
The various males and one female of the deer tribe prow antlers, usually with handsome branches. These solid bony structures grow from the skull. Antlers are shed each year and a larger, fancier crown is grown for the next mating season. The only female deer who grows antlers is the caribou, alias the Christmas reindeer. The male reindeer sheds his crown in early winter, the female keeps hers until May.