Castrating with a tag cutter?

[D.R. Cattle]

Maybe I'm a little late on this, but I watched a couple hundred bull calves get cut with a tag cutter the other day. Worked like a charm and was super fast. Knocked off the bottom of the sack, pulled both testicles and lopped them off just as you would with a knife. Very little bleeding.

 

[FL Cowboy]

now thats a multitasking tool
never herd of that use for it always use a case xx myself

 

[Carlos D.]

I was wondering do most of you guys down south casterate all your calves with a knife --- and not the elastics-- and if you do cut with a knife are you bothered by flies


carl;

 

[Bullbuyer]

We only cut in early spring and late fall.

 

[FL Cowboy]

I dont cut alot of my calves .Its hard to cut a couple hundred by yourself,plus its not alot of extra money at the sale.Most people I know use a knife flies not a large problem but can be during summer I use pesticides on all my cattle (duracet,ect) and some use things like cut & heal on them or wonder dust

 

[clayreid]

heck we cut 10,000 calves a year here with a knife if they cutter bulls the we band them but anything under 500 pds gets cut . the one thing about cutting with a knife is when your done your done .a lot of times the bands will break and theyre you are stuck with a 800 pound bull . ouch 1
im gonna try that idea with the tag cutter though i bet that works great .

 

[clayreid]

i just noticed your user name is the old name of my dads precon yard

 

[glover36]

we dont cut at all less chance of loosing soemthing we pinch them

 

[*Cowgirl*]

Yep. It'll slice right through them sacks.

 

[gertfan]

We band, have clamped but have had too many slip through, and then ending up cutting the remaining one.
That's just what works best for us, everyone has there system that they prefer.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

How long do the blades last? I use disposable scalpel blades in a steel handle, fast but if you get an unruly or loose leg man, you can slice yourself great for earmarking too - super sharp and fast. They last for 10 to 25 animals, maybe more - depends on hair conditions.

I cut the lower 1/3 of the sac and small calves pull the testicles, bigger ones I "scrape" instead of cutting clean. in the old days (screw worms) Grampa used fly "dope" but I haven't had any fly problems. Of course that could be due to the fact that it pretty much HASN'T RAINED IN 10 YEARS...

 

[D.R. Cattle]

One lasted through the whole herd...maybe 125 bulls. I think the secret is that there are two opposing blades such as in scissors. We've got a rope latch for legging the calves once the table turns up, so our leg man doesn't get worn out as easy and he can do other things after the leg is secure.