The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of Dull It, an herbal tincture made with white willow bark, St. John’s wort, chamomile, arnica, and fennel, on blood cortisol levels and calf behaviors during and after hot iron disbudding. Holstein and crossbred heifer calves that were 5 to 8 wk of age (n = 54) were housed in 6 pens of 9 calves. Calves were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups: 1) Dull It (2 mL) under the tongue before disbudding with a second dose immediately following (D; n = 18), 2) Lidocaine (5 mL/ bud) cornual nerve block before disbudding (L; n = 19), or 3) Sham disbudded with a cold hot iron (S; n = 17). Calves were acclimated to handling and restraint 7 d before disbudding. Blood samples for serum cortisol analysis were taken 10 m before and 1, 30, 90, 210, and 450 min following disbudding. Calves were video recorded for frequencies of ears flicks, head jerks, and tail flicks during disbudding and to 6 h after disbudding. Fixed effects for statistical analysis of cortisol were baseline cortisol as a covariate, treatment, and the interaction of time and treatment, and time was a repeated measure using a spatial power covariance structure. For behavior, fixed effects were treatment and the interaction of treatment and time, with time as a repeated measure using a first-order autoregressive covariance structure, and pen was a random effect. At 30 and 90 min after disbudding, the D (28.2 ± 0.28 and 8.4 ± 0.09 ng/mL, respectively) calves had greater (P < 0.01) cortisol than S (9.3 ± 0.09 and 3.3 ± 0.04 ng/mL, respectively) calves. The D and L calves had similar (P = 0.93) cortisol across all time points after disbudding. Calves had similar (P > 0.13) behavior frequencies at disbudding. The L (11.1 ± 0.16) calves had greater (P < 0.01) head jerks 1 to 2 h after disbudding compared with D (2.8 ± 0.16) calves. The D and L calves had similar (P = 0.57) ear flicks at all time points. The D and L calves had greater (P < 0.05) cortisol and pain behaviors after disbudding compared with S calves. In summary, Dull It may be an effective alternative to lidocaine to mitigate pain and stress during and after hot iron disbudding in dairy calves.