Castrating

[JBrown]

I'm new here and also new to owning a calf. This is how I got started. I am a hobbiest beekeeper. I have my bees over at a fellas small farm of around 100 acres, around 25 - 30 in pasture. The guy (78 years old) had six cows and no bull. He asked me if I could find him a bull. I agreed to buy half of the bull and bring him to the farm and in exchange I own half of the bull and get a free calf. Don't ask which half I own. I like to think the best half. Anyway, I have some friends who own around 20 head and they sold me a bull calf at around 3 months old. Well he did what he was supposed to do and I have a bull calf born in December this year and no squeeze chute. How the hell can I catch this pastured calf to castrate him? Do vets offer this service? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thought of running him around the pasture with my ATV until he was worn out......

 

[Rookie]

put a feed bunk out for him, start feedin him twice a day.get im used ta bein around ya. Then ya should be able ta rope im and snub im to a post easy enough. good luck.

george

 

[Farminlund]

Depends on your plans - many do not castrate - even up to & including going into their freezer (wouldn't be my recommendation however). Since you have no facilities & lack of knowhow, leaving him a bull would not be a bad idea. If you plan on selling him off his ma @ weaning (say 6-8 months) you may not loose much at the market. As they get heavier (ie >500), the market will penalize you some, but given your situation, I'd think it might worth the price reduction. There are many many threads on "to castrate or not" & the cost implications thereof - just do some searches, you'll probably find more info than you ever wanted to know.

 

[fitz]

Did the older gentleman have any means in which to handle his cattle? If not, the calf, or any of them for that matter, may be hard to handle. Like Farminlund said, if you're going to market him I would just leave him alone at this point & run him on thru.
You're going to need some sort of future facilities to handle your cows. With no means of getting them up it can get frustrating quick. On the next bull calf you may want to catch him a little earlier, like shortly after birth.

fitz

 

[JBrown]

Thanks. The reason I did not catch him sooner was three more were born around the same time while the owner was vacationing in Florida. Wanted to wait for him to tell me which one was mine and that put it three weeks more behind.

 

[JBrown]

I had previous experience on castrating but it has been at least 35 or more years since we used to run the cattle from the hill pastures (free range) and we had portable chutes and corrals back then..Oh well I'll figure something out.
JB

 

[Ryder]

If you know somebody with a horse to rope him for you, that's one thing. Or if you can lure him up with feed you 'might' catch him if you are a good enough roper , but I wouldn't count on it.
Otherwise I would not try to run him down. You can run them to you think they can't go anymore, then try to catch them and they come alive and they are gone again. Too much stress on calf and on you and on fences. Just leave him like he is.

 

[RazorbackRed]

I literally walk out into the pasture, identify the one that needs cutting, move very very slowly, and when the calf isnt looking a grab a leg, pull him in, throw him just hard enough that it knocks the wind out of him, put one knee on his neck, and hold his back leg towards the calves head, then my partner comes in does the work in about 15 seconds, and we are out of there. The calf is up and good to go in no time.

Cut 15 bull calfs last weekend this way. You have to know the mama and know that she won't be agressive. We have cut right at 100 bull calfs this spring and all were done in the open pasture, without incident. If momma gets upset then throw the calve in the back of the truck and make it fast. Our cows dont have any problems with it. Seems to me like its much more humane than banding.