A "scur" is a horny growth on the skin and is not attached firmly to the skull. It can be easily broken off, often by flicking it with a fingernail. In contrast, "horn buds" are short, stumpy horns attached to the skull.
So it is not really an issue of length but rather how the thing is attached to the skull that matters. It sounds like your sheep have horn buds or simply immature horns. I see a lot of these horns in cross-bred sheep from a polled/horned mating. They are neither this nor that and genetically should be selected against. The reason is that sheep with these genetics cannot reliably produce a good well-horned ram for breeders wanting horns nor a smooth polled head for breeders wanting polled rams. The horn buds on the ewe may or may not grow, but there is nothing you can do either way.
Carol
At 06:11 PM 6/4/2004 -0700, you wrote:
How long do scurs get and how long to be called horns? ... My 1 yr old ewe has these little bumps, the start of "scurs." Is there anything I can do to prevent them from getting bigger.
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