Grasping the bull by the horns could soon be a distant memory for British dairy farmers after scientists genetically engineered male animals to rid them of their dangerous prongs.

Dairy cattle typically grow horns, which can injure farm workers, ramblers and dog walkers, so they are usually removed when the calf is young, in a process known as ‘debudding’.

As well as making the animal safer, dehorning also makes it easier to pack bulls into pens and trucks because horns take up space, but the process is extremely painful for the animal.

Now scientists at the University of California, Davis, have successfully bred hornless bulls after splicing the ‘hornless’ gene from Aberdeen Angus cattle into the widespread black-and-white Holstein dairy cows so that they are born without protrusions.

Instead they simply grow soft hair on the parts of their heads where hard mounds normally emerge.