Harder to catch and adds a minute to branding time. I'm with Kenny.
Banding a Almost 6 month old
- Thread starter tcolvin
- Start date
chaded
Well-known member
They basically catch themselves…
farmerjan
Well-known member
If you have never done it before, and not born and raised in farming, being over careful for the first one by yourself is preferable to going in like gang busters and screwing up. Each has their own way, and over careful in the beginning is still better than doing it wrong... Since my bad accident in 1989, I have some memory problems... and I know my son gets royally ticked off with me sometimes, he is not very patient with things that he figures should be second nature, but there are some things that do not always come on like second nature to me now..... so I have to ask, or what I think, is not what he thinks I should do by automatic pilot... I have to ask him how to start some of the tractors sometimes that I don't drive very often, because I will get on them and draw a blank. That is why familiar and constant routine work better for me now. and if it is something I don't normally do, I will be a PITA asking a dozen times til I get it straight in my mind how to do some things that are very simple... yes, some may be getting older thing, but it has been pronounced since the accident in 1989....I broke the calf catcher I had like that over a cow's head. We got some 1/2 inch aluminum rod and made a couple 7 foot long ones. They can be straightened many times….
Reading this thread and the OP's many others has me shaking my head. I am 62 now and tagged, intra nasal vaxxed, gave a Toltrazuril capsule and banded the bulls on 750 cows this spring. It takes less than a minute per calf.
Don't laugh, but I have a "cheat sheet" for a couple of the tractors so I don't have to call him and ask him how to start them or where the pto lever is ..... we have so many and all are different kinds.....
You would not want me to work with you @gcreekrch ... I am way too slow....
Travlr
Well-known member
I know it's an old thread, but I thought what I have to say might be relevant to someone in the future...
I buy lambs to keep the grass down in back of the house and this year I got three, and two were rams. Pretty good size by the time I got them and I had to bring one nut down into the band at a time because they were that big. So I've been waiting for the nuts to dry up and fall off since early May. One dropped off about three weeks ago with no problems and I expected the other to drop off too. But it stayed attached for another two weeks, and when it did fall off it stayed attached, hanging by what I at first thought was a string of wool.
The lamb started looking sick, and it was getting where it was not interested in coming to grain, or even following the others around. I cornered it and looked underneath and the dried up nut sack was hanging by what looked like a vein or an intact vas deferens. The scrotum was completely dried up and hard, but this vein was only dried out close to the hanging nut sack and the rest looked like it was still alive. So I grabbed and jerked, and the vein broke.
I kind of expected the lamb to die after that. Where it broke, about three inches or so from the sack, was blackened like it was decomposing. And the lamb was looking pretty puny the rest of the day (Sunday, of course). On Monday morning it looked a little better, and by Tuesday it was eating better and improved from there.
I've never had a banding go bad, or anything like this happen, so I thought I'd just throw my experience out there in case you ever see something like it. I should have caught the lamb right away and jerked the dried up testicles off before it started to look sick, but I've never seen one hanging by a vein so it never occurred to me that it could be a problem.
File it for future use...
I buy lambs to keep the grass down in back of the house and this year I got three, and two were rams. Pretty good size by the time I got them and I had to bring one nut down into the band at a time because they were that big. So I've been waiting for the nuts to dry up and fall off since early May. One dropped off about three weeks ago with no problems and I expected the other to drop off too. But it stayed attached for another two weeks, and when it did fall off it stayed attached, hanging by what I at first thought was a string of wool.
The lamb started looking sick, and it was getting where it was not interested in coming to grain, or even following the others around. I cornered it and looked underneath and the dried up nut sack was hanging by what looked like a vein or an intact vas deferens. The scrotum was completely dried up and hard, but this vein was only dried out close to the hanging nut sack and the rest looked like it was still alive. So I grabbed and jerked, and the vein broke.
I kind of expected the lamb to die after that. Where it broke, about three inches or so from the sack, was blackened like it was decomposing. And the lamb was looking pretty puny the rest of the day (Sunday, of course). On Monday morning it looked a little better, and by Tuesday it was eating better and improved from there.
I've never had a banding go bad, or anything like this happen, so I thought I'd just throw my experience out there in case you ever see something like it. I should have caught the lamb right away and jerked the dried up testicles off before it started to look sick, but I've never seen one hanging by a vein so it never occurred to me that it could be a problem.
File it for future use...
wbvs58
Well-known member
Travlr
Well-known member
I have no idea what the brand name is. They come in a bag of a hundred and they're dark green, if that helps.
Going back to the original post I would have no issue banding a calf that age with the xl bander. As long as I can fish the nuts through the band I'm good to go. As to how high above, don't over think it. The band has to slide off the tool so you can't really dial it in.
Those big ones lose them fast. It's the ones that are just a hair to big for the regular bands so you have to go to the xl that take longer.
The best time for me is when the sack has dropped enough to hang. They don't suck them up and it's easy to slide the xl over them and let it rip, on to the next one. Farting with those little calves while they try try to suck them up and you try to pull them out the bottom is for the birds. If
Those big ones lose them fast. It's the ones that are just a hair to big for the regular bands so you have to go to the xl that take longer.
The best time for me is when the sack has dropped enough to hang. They don't suck them up and it's easy to slide the xl over them and let it rip, on to the next one. Farting with those little calves while they try try to suck them up and you try to pull them out the bottom is for the birds. If
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
We used a calf table in Texas for Daphne's bull calves. They were about 2 moths old. Now I use sex selected semen for heifer calves. There is still a 90% chance of a bull calf. You have to keep those bands in the refrigerator or they go bad.
farmerjan
Well-known member
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
We used selected heifer sexed semen from a Selected Sires bull named Bullworx for better teat placement.
Daphne was bred to Stoney. The Ai guy said you will get a dished face big eyed heifer from that one.
Daphne was bred to Stoney. The Ai guy said you will get a dished face big eyed heifer from that one.
farmerjan
Well-known member
Congrats on Daphne settling....
I heel them and drag them over to Scott to band and put in ear tag.
He should be good. We usually just give Covexin 8 unless we are banding big bulls. Have banded some up to 1,100 lbs. we give anything over 650 lbs an antitoxin shot.
