Bull calf banding?

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MULDOON

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What is the earliest you can band a bull calf ,, and the latest??
Some people have told me that it doesn't matter , if your small scaleSome people say that a auction barn will dock you if their not.
I've even heard of people getting docked because they weren't cut with a knife!!
How much weight gain am I looking at gaining? I know that's a very vauge question!! But I guess we could go for two answers #1 Banded at earliest stage , #2 banded at latest stage.
Thank you
 
Below is a link to a paper out of Texas A&M titled "Dehorning, Castrating, and Branding". The castration stuff starts on pg 2 I think and covers the advantages and disadvantages of various castration techniques and recommnded age range. The upshot of your age question is they recommend anywhere between a few weeks and 8 months.

http://animalscience.tamu.edu/ansc/publ ... orning.pdf


Also, here's a paragraph from a study out of OSU regarding your concern about docking at the sale barn for bulls.

"Usable data were collected on 15,473 lots of feeder cattle sold at auction in eastern Oklahoma and Oklahoma City. Data were collected at 14 locations during October. 1997. Steers made up 42% of the lots sold with bulls and heifers accounting for 16% and 42%, respectively. The lower proportion of heifers sold relative to steers and bulls may be indicative of the number of females retained by producers as replacements for the cowherd. Bulls sold for $3.56/cwt less than that of steers, heifers at $10.56/cwt less. The lower prices received for bulls are due to the reduced animal performance experienced with these animals subsequent to castration. The $10.56/cwt price difference for heifers relative to steers also relates to problems characteristic to females relative to steers, those including reduced daily gain, lower feed efficiencies, problems with animals in heat, unexpected pregnancies and difficult births. The price may also reflect a generally lower quality of animal in that the better heifers are retained as replacement females for the cowherd."
 
I know some clubby breeders that band the day the calves hit the ground. But then again if they could find a way to have steers hit the ground instead of bulls they would!
 
we band all our crossbred bull calves the day they are born (or within a couple of days if we miss them the first day). during calving season, we're out tagging & tattooing anyway, so while we have them caught, it's easy enough just to put a band on them then. some of the registered bull calves are also banded right away if we can tell for some reason we don't want to keep them to sell as seedstock. any other registered bull calves that just aren't coming along like they should can be banded later.
 
I try to band mine in the first three days. I can usually find the calf laying in hiding and walk right up to it and pick it up. Then put it in the back of my truck to do my work just in case momma is close by or comes a running. I have banded them as early as a couple of hours old without any problems. This is just my preference.
 
I still use the knife and have not gone to banding because of the possibility of gangrene from the anerobic situation. Has anyone had problems related to banding? It's hot here and heat and flies are a problem very early in the spring sometimes, so I worry about open wounds too and don't castrate late bull calves if it is 110 degrees and fly season. I feel the open wound of knive castration allows for drainage and no internal infection if done correctly. I have never lost or had a problem with any calf or goat or pig I have cut. I am hear to learn, so teach, don't prosecute. Thanks. I do see an Elastrator in the future though, everyone says I'm old fashioned. Okay, so I remember the Bristish Invasion! Not King George's.
 
TexasCountryWoman":caafn0ed said:
I still use the knife and have not gone to banding because of the possibility of gangrene from the anerobic situation. Has anyone had problems related to banding? It's hot here and heat and flies are a problem very early in the spring sometimes, so I worry about open wounds too and don't castrate late bull calves if it is 110 degrees and fly season. I feel the open wound of knive castration allows for drainage and no internal infection if done correctly. I have never lost or had a problem with any calf or goat or pig I have cut. I am hear to learn, so teach, don't prosecute. Thanks. I do see an Elastrator in the future though, everyone says I'm old fashioned. Okay, so I remember the Bristish Invasion! Not King George's.

We band for the fly erason. We've only been doing it for 40 years or so but we've never had a gangrene problem. The only calf we lost at castration was knife cut, he bled to death. He weighed 800 lbs and it was a full moon. But thatwas in the days when you were supposed to make a clean knife cut in the cords.
This spring we banded most of the calves but 3 of them had such large fat scrotums we couldn't get even the scrotum into the bander. We knife cut them and didn't have a fly problem, but we worried about it and kept an eye on them for a couple of weeks.

dun
 

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