Banding before a week old.

[tcolvin]

I have never banded until about a month ago. I banded my first bull calf at 4 months. I gave a tetanus anti toxin as suggested. In 3 weeks or day before , all had fell off. He is fine now. Since then I have done another that was about to 2 months old. This was 5 days ago. He still looks fine health wise. My problem came with a calf about 5 days old. I started to band but didn't because his testicles hadn't dropped down. I tried to find them but wasn't sure of myself so I elected to wait a month. I hear some of you saying you banded within a day or two of birth. I need more schooling on what or how to do this on a newborn. The one I tried and didn't has testicles I think they was just inside him I guess and they where small as peas. Should I have pulled down and banded anyway??? I didn't want to do something I would regret. When you get through laughing help me figure out what I should have done. I want to band all mind and tag before they are a week old. Thanks

 

[kenny thomas]

Dont just band unless you are sure you can feel both.
Almost all of them can be pulled down. Grasp the bottom of the sack with one hand and feel up against the belly with the other. Sometimes you almost have to milk them down like milking the tit on a cow. Once you know they are there place your bander at the bottom of the sack, pull the sack through the band, and do the milking down again. Once you feel both below the cheerio band release the handles and work the band off the bander fingers.
I done one a couple hours ago so it seems so easy to me. Keep trying, it gets easier.

 

[wbvs58]

KT has answered your question very well. Keep trying to get experience but as Kenny said don't release the band unless 100% sure. Some will be easier than others but you will gradually develop a technique of doing it.

Ken

 

[Lannie]

I banded my first one a couple weeks ago. It does seem easy. However, there are little things, like knowing to "roll" the band off the tool... When I let go, poor little Joe jumped straight up to heaven and ran around in a big circle, with the banding tool hanging from his britches. (The band was holding the tool tight against his scrotum!) He was nursing his mom when I did this, so he almost immediately returned to his breakfast, and I was able to wriggle the pegs on the tool out from under the band. Whew! I learned something that day, and if I ever need to do it again, I hope I remember my lesson.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Good advice so far. I do mine usually within a couple hours of birth. USUALLY the calf is laying down with a belly full of colostrum when I ambush him!

@kenny thomas explained it well. Some calves are just more well endowed than others. I have done the same and left one a week or two because I just couldn't get both of em. One of them was just mysteriously hiding.

If you do get the band on and discover you only have 1, use one of the "prongs" to remove the band and use a NEW band and start over.

@Lannie !!!!
I've done the same! It's funny how some never even flinch. And some hollar and scream and take off like a rocket!

 

[Lannie]

Yeah, Joe took off like a rocket! LOL! He got over it quick, though. Few minutes later and it was like it never happened. Now I'm waiting for them to drop off. I much prefer cutting them to castrate, but I can't get him and his mom over to the neighbor at a decent time for the neighbor to do that for me. He'll be around 5 months old by the time they go, and the neighbor suggested I just band him now, so he doesn't have to wrestle a 5 month old feisty bull calf. I hope it works.

 

[ez14.]

Dont just band unless you are sure you can feel both.
Almost all of them can be pulled down. Grasp the bottom of the sack with one hand and feel up against the belly with the other. Sometimes you almost have to milk them down like milking the tit on a cow. Once you know they are there place your bander at the bottom of the sack, pull the sack through the band, and do the milking down again. Once you feel both below the cheerio band release the handles and work the band off the bander fingers.
I done one a couple hours ago so it seems so easy to me. Keep trying, it gets easier.

One thing I always do is release the handles then feel the sack for both nuts before I roll the band off. This way if you happened to lose one it's easy to open the band back up and try again

 

[backhoeboogie]

tcolvin, you get get a whole lot of advice on these forums. Some good and some you just need to sort thru. This site is pretty good.

Kenny is spot on. I have banded a few thousand. I calved year round and tried to get them as close to birth as possible. It is easier that way for me. Bull calves were tagged with the same number as mom. Heifers got their own number. If someone drove thru the fence in the middle of the night I was always able to get everyone paired back up in a secure pasture.

I have had maybe a half dozen that did not have two. You just have to wait. I had one that never dropped. He had to be cut and I went in after it. a couple of people were chiding me and accusing me of gutting him etc. It was nothing like that and not bad. I super glued the incision back. If I had to do over again, that would have just been one that didn't get banded. One out of way more than I could begin to count.

Again, Kenny is spot on.

 

[Dsth]

When I first started banding years ago, my vet noticed one nut that I missed when we were doing our green tag vaccinations. I still use his advise now every time I band a calf. "count to two"

 

[WFfarm]

Carry a small pair of nipper pliers with you when banding. When all's done, feel for two nuts. If you don't have two, use the nippers to cut the cheerio band off and start over or wait for them to get a little older and both to drop.

 

[Stickney94]

My dad banded for 50 years using office supply rubber bands. That's how I learned. Now I use a rubber band to "hold" the testicles in place, count to two, and then apply the bander cheerio.

 

[sunnyblueskies]

We band them on day one or two as well, unless I can find only one nut, then I'll leave it. Pull the rubber band over the sack wide enough, close the 'pliers' but don't take the band off. Feel for two nuts, got em? Pull the pliers out.
Suppose every one has a different method as how they like to position the animal. I like to lay them down, straddle them between my legs, me facing back, grab the upper leg and hold it with my arm on my side. (Just about sounds like Yoga LOL) Works like a charm and there are no legs flailing around. My husband prefers to have them stand when he bands them.
If it's a tough case with only one nut being low it helps sometimes to roll the calf on to it's other side and try again. But never band a one nut sack just in order to have it banded.

 

[Lannie]

I think my problem was we couldn't get the green cheerio bands. All they had were the Tri-Bander bands, which look like this.

https://www.leedstone.com/p/tri-bander-rings/

We have a pack of green cheerios, but they're really old (15 years, probably), and I didn't want to use them, so I put "new calf bands" on the shopping list and these are what hubby could find at the farm store. They didn't have the green ones.

They seem WAY thicker than the little green bands, but they say they're for calves. When I released the handles is when the calf went straight up to heaven, I had no chance to work the band off the fingers of the tool. Until later.

Live and learn. (Hubs is gonna use the old green cheerios as rubber sealers under sheet metal screws, to prevent leaks, when he fixes the chicken coop.)

 

[MurraysMutts]

My dad banded for 50 years using office supply rubber bands. That's how I learned. Now I use a rubber band to "hold" the testicles in place, count to two, and then apply the bander cheerio.

That's handy as a button on a shirt pocket!
Nice lil tip there. Easy to remove the rubber band when done.

I think my problem was we couldn't get the green cheerio bands. All they had were the Tri-Bander bands, which look like this.

https://www.leedstone.com/p/tri-bander-rings/

We have a pack of green cheerios, but they're really old (15 years, probably), and I didn't want to use them, so I put "new calf bands" on the shopping list and these are what hubby could find at the farm store. They didn't have the green ones.

They seem WAY thicker than the little green bands, but they say they're for calves. When I released the handles is when the calf went straight up to heaven, I had no chance to work the band off the fingers of the tool. Until later.

Live and learn. (Hubs is gonna use the old green cheerios as rubber sealers under sheet metal screws, to prevent leaks, when he fixes the chicken coop.)

I lmao every time I think about Lil Joe jumping to the moon and back!
Poor lil guy.
Those bands look ultra stout!

 

[Dsth]

I would think the most stress on the greem cheerios would be when you stretch them to install. once installed, they should work as intended. but if hubby needs sealing washers, and they are the right size, why not.

 

[GoWyo]

I have used 2 if they are a little sketchy due to age. Have used 2 on bigger calves too.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We band the day they are born. IF he only finds 1, we will wait. We did have 2 embryo bull calves that BOTH only had 1. Waited a week - still only 1 - absolutely could not find another. Finally, at 2 months old, had vet cut them out. They both had a tiny nut stuck up high.

 

[SDgrampa]

We band the day they are born. IF he only finds 1, we will wait. We did have 2 embryo bull calves that BOTH only had 1. Waited a week - still only 1 - absolutely could not find another. Finally, at 2 months old, had vet cut them out. They both had a tiny nut stuck up high.

What was the breeding of those embryos?

 

[greybeard]

My dad banded for 50 years using office supply rubber bands. That's how I learned. Now I use a rubber band to "hold" the testicles in place, count to two, and then apply the bander cheerio.

They must have made better rubber bands back then. Today's office rubber bands would get loose and fall off long before the nuts did..

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I don't want to bad mouth a breeding program on an open forum.