Bander recommendation?

[Buck Randall]

Watched a vet use a cordless drill with a clamp on the end. Cut the bottom of the sack, put the clamp above the nut, and spin... off they come. Do the next one. Not one drop of blood. He claimed the spinning cuts the lines and I think he said has a cauterizing effect.

It was hard to watch as a male but the calves didnt even flinch. Like I said, not one drop of blood and pretty fast.

Henderson tool. The cords get twisted off and don't bleed. I like mine and have used it on bulls up to 1000 pounds without a drop of blood. You do need to vaccinate for tetanus like you would if you were using a bander though. Learned that one the hard way.

 

[cowgirl8]

We use those cheap green rubber bands to castrate all our calves. We'll do it at around 4 months and even older. Occasionally i get one that i cant get that band on, so i'll use this medieval ratchet device i hate using with big rubber tubing... i may use it once a year out of 150 bull calves. And usually its because their sack is thick and short. Just googled the california bander.. hum... at first i thought it was something i might want to try...but, we squeeze up our calves and getting all that up under with 2 hands... maybe its not a involved as the youtube made it look.... Our little blue bander i use the green bands with broke and i picked up a solid metal one thinking it would be better. I couldnt get that thing between the calfs legs... had to borrow our daughters which reminds me i need to buy another blue one before next season....

 

[bird dog]

Cowgirl I thought you sold out to the wind farmers and retired? No?

 

[cowgirl8]

Cowgirl I thought you sold out to the wind farmers and retired? No?

We just leased a small portion of our place... the 600 acres thats not attached to the rest of the ranch. We'll keep some cows, but not like we're doing now. But that will be around a year from now, once they finish on our land. Not going to count our eggs, right..anything can happen

 

[northerner]

Last year I was banding 5 weight bulls with XL bander and really struggled with squeezing sack in. Ended up buying California bander to finish the job and prefer it much more. Learned my lesson and decided no more. This year banded calves right away while they are still 100-120lb with regular bander and green rings.

 

[Tbrake]

Not saying this is the right way or the only way just how I do it.
I band several hundred every year the day they are born with the little green bands. Have done thousands this way and never had an issue. I store the extra bands in the fridge. Only get what I need out for a couple of days at a time. Don't waste your time or vaccine giving them a shot when they are newborns. Doesn't do a thing. Every year I have 10-15 that I couldn't get both nuts down, so I mark them and knife cut them at 60 day vaccination. Seems I always have a couple slip past me again. I keep some of the zip banders on hand and do them at weaning. I've had good luck with them for the last 3 years.
Calves have had 2 rounds of 7 way by this time, but I go ahead and give a shot of pTAT at Banding