# castrating a bull



## 3sunz (Aug 9, 2005)

When is the best time to castrate a bull calf? Which method of castration do you prefer and why? Is this something that I can do myself (as a first time calf owner) or is it something that the vet should be called out for? Thanks.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

The earlier you castrate the better. The calf is easier to handle, and seems to recover more quickly. I personally prefer to castrate with a scalpel. With a little practice you can castrate a calf in less than a minute. Cut about a 1/4" off the bottom of the scrotum. Squeeze one testicle out the cut you just made on the bottom, cut through the membrane until the testicle pops out. There will be a thread attached to the bottom of the testicle with a web of membrane holding it to the testicle. Cut that away, and it will roll up around the inner tube attached to the top of the testicle gently push that back toward the calf with the scalpel blade while pulling gently on the testicle, and the tube will pull loose. Do the same thing on the other testicle. It takes much longer to tell it than to do it.

I know some on here who prefer the bands, and they work fine as well. All you need there are the bands, and the elastrator to stretch them out and get them over the top of testicles. The main thing with the bands is to make _absolutely certain_ that you have both testicles below the band. It's just a matter of preference which one you choose to do.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

tyusclan said:


> I know some on here who prefer the bands, and they work fine as well. All you need there are the bands, and the elastrator to stretch them out and get them over the top of testicles. The main thing with the bands is to make _absolutely certain_ that you have both testicles below the band. It's just a matter of preference which one you choose to do.


This is my prefered method with calves and goats. As he said, the younger the better, as long as both testicles have descended and you can get to them. Banding takes about one minute or less when you've done a few. If you know anyone near you who can help you with the first one, thats always easier no matter which method you choose. Or you can have your vet demonstrate.


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

Not to dismiss either of above as both are right. Just to say there is such a thing as too early. We like to wait till a calf is 10 days old, and we know it is off to a strong start and eating well. If a calf is at all shaky, we'll wait till it is in good health,rather than putting additional stress on them. Still easy to do them up to 200 pounds.
Knife cut is 200% certain when you hold the nuts in your hand you KNOW you got'em. Banding is easier.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

My preference is rubber banding. I would band between four and eight weeks old depending on the size and drop of his scrotum. If you are in a farming area call and ask an experienced teenager to perform and teach you the technique. Give him/her some gas money and everyone will be happier....This will save you time, money, and aggravation...My thoughts,,,,Tennessee John


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

I do not think you can castrate too early. The younger the calf the easier to handle. I am a one man show and I try to never let a calf get over 3 days old before doing the banding. If the testicles have not decended I just reach above the scrotum and manipulate them downward. Sometime back I described how to make a plastic thingy to hold the testicles in the scrotum for those less experienced. I buy the bands by the hundred and store the majority of the unused ones in the freeze until needed. The bands do not deteriorate if stored in this manner.


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## Rockin'B (Jan 20, 2006)

We had the vet do it at 8 weeks. 
Castrate two bull calves and dehorn 3 calves came to 38 bux. Money well spent in my opine. I have no idea how to do it and I'm not going to try it by reading a book.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Rockin'B, good choice some of these decisions depend on the size of your operation and expectations. 3Suns I still recommend hiring a knowledgeable local to cut or band your animal. Just not having to buy any equipment is worth farming out this procedure.....tennessee John


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## JulieLou42 (Mar 28, 2005)

Elastrator banding definitely, before 200#. I've got such a LIVELY one this time that I'm so glad we did it when he was about 2 weeks old, he was gaining weight so fast, if we waited as long as with our first one, we'd have had a really rough time...and he wasn't easy to get on the ground with three people.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

We ring ours at about and up to 6 weeks of age - as Up North has said, they are well and truely fit and healthy by that stage, nor are they too big to handle. Wait until they're feeding and they're more interested in their tummy than their hindquarters. They usually drop off a week or so afterwards. My big ***** is people waiting until they are months old or yearlings and then deciding "oh dear, we didn't steer the bull"! :nerd: 

Rockin'B, I would consider that a very good price and money well spent if you don't know what your doing. 

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## 3sunz (Aug 9, 2005)

RockinB- I think I am going to call a few vets around here to see what they charge. Yours sounds really inexpensive. I am hoping they are running the same price around here!
If it's under $50 total, I think I am going to go that route. If it's more than that, it really won't be feasible, so I may start looking (quickly) for an experienced teenager. I do know that I don't want to do this by myself!!


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## OD (May 25, 2004)

We usually do ours ourselves, but if you haven't had any experience, it would probably be better to get the vet to do it.
If you have a way to take him to the vet, it should be pretty inexpensive. Ours charges $3.00 at his clinic. You might want to get him a blackleg shot at the same time.
The younger, the better on the castrating.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

3Sunz, it's not complicated at all if you band them. You have a sack and you want both marbles in it.  Not rocket science. As far as I can see it's something anyone can do without needing how to be shown. Go feel up your calf and if you can find both testicles, you are home free.

Jennifer


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Jennifer L. said:


> Go feel up your calf and if you can find both testicles, you are home free.
> 
> Jennifer


Just be sure that once the little green band is on there, both testicles are *still* in there! They have a tricky way of slipping out on inexperienced folks.......and sometimes on not so inexperienced folks  
Its totally avoidable though...just remember to check to make sure.


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## 3sunz (Aug 9, 2005)

lol Jennifer L. That was a great way to put it! I will go "feel him up" as soon as I get home!


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## Rockin'B (Jan 20, 2006)

3sunz said:


> RockinB- I think I am going to call a few vets around here to see what they charge. Yours sounds really inexpensive. I am hoping they are running the same price around here!
> If it's under $50 total, I think I am going to go that route. If it's more than that, it really won't be feasible, so I may start looking (quickly) for an experienced teenager. I do know that I don't want to do this by myself!!


I slightly mis-spoke. Here is the itemization:

Farm call.................32.00
2 calf castration........4.00
2 dehorning...............7.00

Total ......................43.00

He also did a general look over on all 3 calves and all was good. All in all, I think it's a good value.


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## Renegade (Aug 7, 2004)

Well, I guess I will be the lone voice from the other side of the aisle.

The longer you can leave them a bull the better.

Based on experiments with my own calf crops I have found that both the frame and muscular growth rates are somewhat diminished when castrating at an early age. My tests were done with my own calves that were Black Angus/Limousine crossed. The hormonal advantage to not castrating was obvious. When you are selling calves for the market at weaning age, or shortly thereafter, every pound counts. The ones that are left as bulls were not only definately heavier, but larger framed and more muscular.

Now, from the whole commercial markets aspect, there was a time when the price would be docked anywhere from 10-15 cents a lb. for them not being castrated. That is no longer the case (at least not in my neck of the woods). Now, it seems to be no more than a nickle at best. From what I have heard from some of the cattle buyers, the backgrounders/conditioners are preferring to buy bulls and then castrate them just before going to the feedlots.

Part of the reason that this has come into play is in part due to devices like the  Callicrate Bander. This bander allows bulls of larger sizes to still be castrated with a band type system which does not have as much negative physical effects on the animal. I have used this device on bulls as much as 2 years old without a problem.

Now, this may not work for everyone as different variables apply depending on peoples needs, facilities, etc., but as someone who has tried it every way possible, I would keep them a bull until 2-3 months before putting in the feedlot.

As to the actual banding, it is not that much different than a regular bander, except that you are able to use a ractheting action to decrease the diameter of the band. The same rules apply as to having both testicles pulled to the bottom of the sack when banding and the band being as close to the top of the testicles as possible. Since there is some plumbing at the top of the sack that you don't want to get, as a general rule, if the calf pees ok afterward, you did the job correctly. The sack will tend to have minor swelling during the first 24 hours after banding and then after that will start shrinking.

And just for the record, I don't have any affliation with the linked company, other than just being a satisfied user of their product.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

I agree that the bulls will gain a little better, but the few extra pounds you gain is not worth the aggravation of dealing with bulls to me. I sell direct, so I keep them until they're finished. I just prefer to castrate young.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

I am a bit perplexed here.

I suppose there are valid reasons for each opinion, but I note that there are a great many "banders" now. I have used the band, the knife and the burdizzo. I don't like the bander because of the possibility of tetanus and because you can now and then get a stag if the band does not get the small knot above the testicle--what is it, the epydidymis? 

The knife leaves an open wound; here in Oklahoma I do not like calves with open wounds in fly time, which is most of the year.

The burdizzo is a bit more unhandy than the bander, but it is positive, does not require a tetanus shot and is bloodless. 

As for timing, mixed emotions. Our local extension agent held a class wherein he showed about a $l5 net for castration, or a $l5 dock for not castrating. A bullock can put on $l5 worth of extra meat in no time at all. That leaves the only justification for castrating the difference in ease of handling. Working with a docile strain of Angus makes this a moot point; with brahma or brangus, limousin or charollaise it would be important. 


Since the burdizzo can be used on a 200 pound calf or a 2,000 pound bull it makes sense to me to delay castration until shortly before sale if it is done at all. Run them in the chute, lock their head, put on the squeeze and clamp. 
Ox


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Oxankle said:


> I am a bit perplexed here.
> 
> I suppose there are valid reasons for each opinion, but I note that there are a great many "banders" now. I have used the band, the knife and the burdizzo. That leaves the only justification for castrating the difference in ease of handling. Working with a docile strain of Angus makes this a moot point; with brahma or brangus, limousin or charollaise it would be important.


The reason I use a bander is because it has worked effectively for me now for about 18 years with steers and about six years with goats. Not one case of tetnus and until this year I didn't even vaccinate for tetnus in my goats and I still don't in my cows as we do not vaccinate. We only band a couple calves a year(at the most 10), but I band anywhere from 20-40 buckling goats every year....so I think the bander has a pretty good track record here. The only accedent I ever had was my first year banding goats where I only got one testicle in the band on one buckling. Thats an easy problem to avoid, I just wasn't paying enough attention. I have never banded a male animal and had it still turn out to be fertile. On the other hand, we did have that happen with an improperly burdizzo'ed bull.......so accedents can happen, any way you do it.
As far as the only reason to castrate being ease of handling.....its not so much the ease of handling that concerns me, but the lack of pastures to keep the bulls separate from my cows. Anything that is not to be used for breeding, is castrated as early as possible so he can pasture anywhere I decide to put him irregardless of what cows are in that pasture. Even if I had a paddock separated to just keep young bulls in till they went to slaughter.... accedents happen and I do not want any possibility of those less-than-breeding quality bulls breaking in with my cows and setting back my breeding program. So for me, castration is the only possible option for bulls that are not breeding stock.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Ozark makes a case for castration--I would have to agree with his logic. 

On the failure of the burdizzo, I suspect it is technique just as it is when the bander fails. The best set of instructions for use of the burdizzo that I have seen specified that one clamped each side of the scrotum twice, about a half inch apart. While the burdizzo is still clamped, pull down on the testicle (not the scrotum) so that the cord is separated. 

I have never seen anyone double clamp as suggested, but the old man who taught me to use the burdizzo always pulled the testicle down from the clamp. I try to work the cord to the outside edge of the scrotum so that it is well inside the jaws when the burdizzo is closed.


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## Tiffin (Feb 23, 2006)

We call the vet. He charged us $24 for dehorning two calves and castrating one. This was done at two weeks old. The dehorning was more difficult for them that the castration. I'm sure if we had a big farm with lots of cows it would get costly but I'm not planning on more than 10 or so beefers at a time.


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## Tiffin (Feb 23, 2006)

Forgot to say, castration was by cutting. It took the vet it seems like seconds. I don't think the bull/steer knew what happen.


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## Country Doc (Oct 26, 2005)

Watch a couple before you do one. It is not fair to the calf if it takes you 20 minutes to finish it. I cut as soon as I can after they are born. If a vet is coming anyway to work cows, etc then I let him do it for $3. It worth that not to get kicked and dirty at age 50.


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