# Castrating an adult bull



## chma4 (Feb 27, 2005)

Is it possible to elastrate or castrate an adult bull, or should i forget the idea? I have two jersey/herford bulls that are 1 and 1/2 years old. They were supposed to be castrated by the vet, that was a mess scheduling, then we were gonna elastrate them, and it was a physical impossibility with the bander we have. 
My question is, if I do manage to restrain these guys (tips welcome), then can I castrate them, and if so, how? Also, would it be possible to get a rather thick rubber band and wrap it many times around the base (where a band would go), or will this cause more harm than good? I have no trouble banding my goats, but this proved a more difficult task than i had imagined. Finally, we have 4 large male volunteers to help restrain these guys and I am not sure what to do. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. 
OH and Last question, if I dont band them, will this ruin our meat?
Thanks in advance,
Christina


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## TSYORK (Mar 16, 2006)

You will either have to put them in a chute, which will be dangerous at best, or tranquilize them; I would recommend the latter. I would not recommend banding at this time, as they are well into maturity and personally I think it would only lead to problems. However, if you wanted them castrated, I would recommend cutting them. I think it would be the lost viable option, given their age.

Good Luck.


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## TSYORK (Mar 16, 2006)

Sorry for the second post, but I failed to answer your third question. There are mixed feelings about this, but I do not think it will ruin your meat. However, I think you will get a more robust flavor in the meat if you do leave them intact till butchers, rather than if you steered them now.


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## randiliana (Feb 22, 2008)

You can band yearling and older bulls. But you will have to watch carefully for infection, as they have much larger blood supply than a calf does. There are devices made for banding older cattle, and I would suggest finding someone that knows what they are doing, rather than doing yourself. Talk to your vet, he may be able to do it. 

As for restraint, either tranquilize them (safest) or get ahold of a good quality squeeze chute. Any other way would be pretty darn dangerous, unless you are cowboy enough, or have some one that can rope them and stretch them out.

The meat from these guys will probably be just fine if you don't do it, although it will depend somewhat on their age, and tempraments.


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## chma4 (Feb 27, 2005)

They are young and will go to the butcher in the next 6 months. They are easy going bulls, just timid usually. We just finished restraining and ear tagging them with "python". We lassoed (sp) them and wrapped the rope around a tree. We pulled the rope tighter and tighter like we were fishing and reeling them in. When their heads were pinned to the tree, my husband climbed over and tagged them. We almost took down the power lines fishing (ooppps). He ran around the anchor wire to the pole that is in their pen. We had to brave it and chase him back around and quick reel him in before he did it again. We lost about 8 ft of fence. The husband is out there fixing that before sun down. 
It is not the sort of fiasco you normally see in new jersey, and we gathered quite a crowd. Needless to say, I didnt castrate them. That would have just been worse. I guess we will see how they taste. Thanks for all of your advice
Christina


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## Judith (Jan 10, 2003)

If it was me I would save the expense and butcher them now. If I read your post correctly they are 18 months old


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## montysky (Aug 21, 2006)

I think you have been very lucky up to now, put wheels on them asap. Not to step on toes but next time get a weaned steer.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Heavens to Murgatroyd, who in their right mind would even consider trying to castrate an 18 month old bull when getting an ear tag in becomes a rodeo.

Also at the risk of treading on toes, get real Christina. When you own stock and need to ear tag, castrate, drench, vaccinate etc., you also need the facilities to be able to handle the stock - safely! I too would say that both you and your husband have been extremely lucky in that all you lost was some fencing and not your lives. How on earth do you propose to restrain two bulls long enough to castrate them? I'm sorry, I'm gobsmacked, I really am.

My advice would be to ship these two bulls to the works and use the money to either buy in a good steer or even a heifer, and have him butchered, or buy good quality beef from somewhere. Then, before venturing into cattle again, look at getting a small set of yards built with a race (chute) and having bull calves rung (banded) at an appropriate age.

As a matter of interest, under our Animal Welfare Code it is illegal to castrate a bull calf over the age of 9 months by any means without veterinary supervision. Also, vets will not visit farms where stock cannot be contained in yards with a race - and I don't blame them as I guess they want to live long enough to go to work the following day.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## chma4 (Feb 27, 2005)

Well I guess that would be why I asked now wouldn't it! And the vet does not like coming all the way out here as the closest livestock vet is several hours away and near retirement so is a nightmare scheduling (which is how we wound up in this situation this time). Our intention was to have them castrated young, if you read all of my posts. These guys are not our first bulls or steers, just the first not to get banded when they should have. As I am well aware, which is why I asked. Flogging not needed thanks!


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

I'd just butcher now, and make sure the next ones get done like you normally do. No sense getting yourselves banged up for the rest of the summer working with them. I think at 18 months they'd be really good eating.

Jennifer


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Christina, I did read all your posts and in none of them do you say how young these animals were when you got them. If they were calves you could have easily have done them yourselves.

If you have had cattle in the past you must surely be aware of the pit falls when things don't go according to plan, you must also have been aware that your vet was a good distance away, and that nobody is going to attempt to castrate a bull without some means of restraining him short of knocking him out cold on the ground. Your ear tagging excercise should have told you that castration was going to be nigh on impossible and it would be naive to think otherwise.

I'm sorry if I seem to be Flogging but I've seen too many injuries, some serious, given to people doing silly things with stock so I stick with my previous post and suggest you get yards with a chute so that when things go pear shaped you have somewhere safe to deal with the problem.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## chma4 (Feb 27, 2005)

Well Roney, you were heard, and eventually I may be too. I asked for advice, since I didnt know how I could do it. Nor did I do it. Nor did I attempt to do it. I asked if it could be done. I think we all know the answer to that question now, and I am sorry for asking the way I did. I will word my posts better so as not to invoke unwanted reprimand in the future. I think you should be more concerned about people who do things without thinking or asking questions of those who know better and not be so hard on those that try to inform themselves by asking questions before they attempt them. Just my advice, I too am sticking to it. 
As for all of you who gave advice, THANKS. I didnt think it could be done, but thought maybe like many other farming practices there would be some sorta secret I didnt know about. It wouldnt be the first time I asked a question and got a response like "oh just do so and so, its not too bad". But we don't always get those. I took everyones good advice and didnt even try it. 
I know we should have done it when they were on the bottle, but things don't always go the way they are planned. Thank you all again for all the honest straight forward advice. It was appreciated. I will be sending one to butcher this month, and another in December. 
Christina


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## kclementsdvm (Feb 5, 2008)

Sounds like you've already decided not to castrate - probably the smartest choice, all around!  Still, the following can be FYI:

Castrating adult bulls can be done, but it's difficult to impossible when you don't have working facilities. I value my ability to work too much to risk it on the situation you described, so I would personally have only attempted the castration if I brought my own portable chute along. (Which still brings up the issue of how to get said bulls into the chute, anyway.) 

Cutting has the advantage of being relatively easy and giving you certainty that they no longer have testes. I'm kind of fond of seeing those "tumors" on the ground, so I know they're out. On the other hand, the bigger they are, the bigger the blood supply to the testes. They can bleed heavily, which isn't so good.

Banding can be done, but you need the right bander to get the job done. In adults, I use the bander that uses tubing instead of premade loops. You can use enough tubing to easily get it over the scrotum and testes, then shorten way up before you even fasten and start tightening. Of course, you have to have one of those banders. (And **always** vaccinate against tetanus when you band!) I've seen some nasty problems in bulls that were banded at an older age and someone screwed up and didn't get the bands on very tight, so you need to be sure that they are TIGHT!

I am a dismal failure at clamping, so I don't even consider that for myself. And in this case, your bulls are probably way too big to clamp. My money would be on banding, given all my prior caveats.

There's my two cents' worth - take it for what it's worth.


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## chma4 (Feb 27, 2005)

Well, Thank you for your advice. I always give CD and T when banding any animal. 
I just found that there was no way to adequately restrain these guys for that type of procedure here. Also, everyone seems to agree that the meat wont be ruined if they are butchered soon, so for me, I think at this point "why bother" or "why risk it". It is so nice to find nice and knowledgable people that are willing to share their wisdom, and again, 
I THANK YOU
Christina


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

May I ask why you tagged their ears? Sounds like you only have a couple head at a time, so keeping who's who straight isn't an issue.


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## chma4 (Feb 27, 2005)

It was a PYTHON tag. The flies were getting bad, so we use them to keep flies away.


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## copperhead46 (Jan 25, 2008)

I guess this is kinda off thread now, but, do those tags work?? I don't use them because I figured the cost and aggrivation wouldn't make it worth the trouble........How long do they last? Do you have to change them out or do they last all summer ?? I think it would be worth it if you only had to put them in once a year.
P.J.


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## chma4 (Feb 27, 2005)

We use them once a year and they definitely work. We see much fewer flies.


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## preston39 (Jul 3, 2008)

Christina,

If you decide to...a proper handling chute is a must. That and by using one of the animal immobolizers is the only way to attempt what you have in mind. I know of it being used without a head restrant...but, not recomended and I would not attempt it without proper restraint.

Be careful!!!!!!!!!


http://www.igd-usa.com/immobilizer.htm

http://www.cattleimmobilizer.com/howworks.htm

I'm Preston


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## preston39 (Jul 3, 2008)

copperhead46 said:


> I guess this is kinda off thread now, but, do those tags work?? I don't use them because I figured the cost and aggrivation wouldn't make it worth the trouble........How long do they last? Do you have to change them out or do they last all summer ?? I think it would be worth it if you only had to put them in once a year.
> P.J.


=========
We have had good results by hanging chains ...vertically with the tags attached to several links...in front of the mineral feeders. It seems the tags are effecive longer.... with less losses.

They need to be hung out a couple feet so when the animal enters... the tags scrape the head, neck and shoulders.


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