castrating beef calf

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We had our first beef calf born on the farm, another due in 1 mo. It is a male and we need to castrate humanely and quickly (before he gets too big to handle easily). We were going to band him as thats the common procedure here and the weather is right. The cattle are outside most of the time, have access to barn for shelter. Any thoughts on how to get calf away from momma to do this? We give them some grain daily to keep them friendly but they are skittish. (Sorry about the fake email but I'm getting spammed something awful these

-- K.T. (nono@notnot.com), April 08, 2002

Answers

Just separate them. Banding doesn't take more than a few seconds for everything including getting set up, and letting him go afterward takes not much more. Either run them through a race and separate him out, or if you don't have that basic setup then just muscle him into a pen, roll him on his backside, band him and let him out again. Particularly if she's in a bail eating, where she get's milked, this will work well. If she's not a milking cow, then get both he and she used to eating near the gate of a pen you can muscle him into, but facing away from it. There's a good chance it will all be over before she realises it. After all, it's not going to hurt him much, and certainly not immediately.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 08, 2002.

Make sure you have both testicles within the band before you release it. It will be much harder to cut the band off and do it again if you miss one.

-- Mona in OK (modoc@ipa.net), April 08, 2002.

Thanks for the advice. We have a small loading pen we might get the mom into and grab baby as he follows. This mom was very protective of her first calf but she does seem a little more at ease with this on

-- K.T. (nono@notnot.com), April 09, 2002.

Growing up on a cattle ranch we only had one method available for castration.....a sharp pocket knife(sure is fun to make guys cringe describing it...lol). We did several hundred a year. Now a days there are alternatives, bands such as you mentioned but there is another option....a burdizzo. This device is clamped onto the testicles for a short time(about a count of 10...it's bloodless) and then the calf is released. If I was a calf and had a choice I'd sure rather have the burdizzos than suffering with a tight rubber band that takes quite a while to do the job! We need to castrate both of our male calves(our herd has shrunk to one cow and 2 calves) here in the next couple of weeks. By the way let your calves get a month of two old before you castrate them.....#1 because it will be easier to make sure you get both testetes, #2 because they will be stronger and better able to deal with it by that time. We trade off with a guy that has a pair of burdizzos....we help him catch and hold his calves while he castrates them and in return we get to use the tool for the little bit of time it takes to castrate ours. If you don't have a squeeze chute to put the calf into then get someone to help you and put them on the ground. Have the helper hold the calf down while you operate the tool. I suggest helping someone with their calves in order to learn how to use it(not hard to use you just need to see it done). Little things will holler like you are killing them but then again they will holler like that if you restrain them anyhow. I always remember that I wouldn't eat breakfast the morning after we worked the calves.....papa would always serve up a delicacy that is rare today.....rocky mountain oysters(if any of ya'll don't know what that is email me privately)!

-- Amanda (mrsgunsmyth@hotmail.com), April 12, 2002.

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