Hot-iron disbudding, a husbandry procedure that prevents horn bud growth through tissue cauterization, is painful for calves. The resulting burns remain sensitive to mechanical stimulation for weeks, but the procedure’s influence on behaviors that involve movement of the head, such as resting with the head down and ruminating, is largely unknown. We assigned female Holstein calves to 1 of 2 treatments: disbudded with a heated iron at 4 to 10 d of age (n = 11) or not disbudded (n = 11). Disbudded calves received a lidocaine cornual nerve block and oral meloxicam at the time of the procedure. All calves were provided starter from 5 d of age and half of the animals had access to hay, balanced across disbudding treatments. We recorded resting and ruminating behavior using 5-s scans taken every 5 min for 24 h once a week capturing the window from 3 to 21 d after the procedure. In addition to scan sampling, we used ear tag accelerometers (eSense by Allflex) to monitor behavior in 1-min intervals throughout the experiment. Mixed β regressions were used to test the effect of treatment and its interaction with age on the daily proportions of time the calf spent lying and ruminating based on the live scan observations thus far. Calf was fitted as a random effect in the models. Compared with controls, disbudded calves ruminated less in the first 2 wks after disbudding (mean ± SE: 10 ± 1% vs 18 ± 2% of total time; P = 0.003) and were more likely to lie with their head down and still across all weeks (31 ± 1% vs 26 ± 1% of total lying time; P = 0.012). A decrease in ruminating and increase in lying with the head down and still may reflect an avoidance of moving the head in ways that could aggravate disbudding wounds. We conclude that disbudding, in addition to resulting in prolonged sensitivity of the wounds, is severe enough to alter daily behavior patterns for at least 3 wks, raising additional welfare concerns about the procedure.