Castration - At birth verus 4-5 month of age

[greenwillowhereford II]

Some friends use the emasculator clamp with good success. To my knowledge, they've never had a problem in a number of years that they've been doing it. It's bloodless, and I don't think there is stink involved at all. They raise purebred cattle, and at birth you don't know who stays intact and who doesn't. I usually butcher my culls, and don't bother with it. When you are butchering at about a year, it isn't going to hurt beef quality at all, IMO.

The lion's share of research that I've seen does indicate that there is a growth advantage to leaving them intact. If I understand correctly, there is considered to be a 5% difference between bulls and steers, and another 5% between steers and heifers.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

Castrating at 4-5 months of age seems silly to me. If you don't band at birth, why wouldn't you simply wait until weaning to cut? 4-5 months and you aren't getting the increased growth in my opinion, and you have to run them through the chute an additional time. Fewer times through the chute equals less man hours which equals more time to do other important things.

I agree. We always banded about a week after birth, let the calf get up and used to the world. We did it young so there was less trauma later on. I've seen bandings go bad on older calves and there's no use in taking the risk. Also like bandit said, if you're going to wait 4-5 months may as well wait until weaning.

 

[mobgrazer]

I band between 14 and 45 days. This is the first time they get worked. I did band in the field when born but had a run in with a heifer one day that ended it for me.

 

[SRBeef]

Castrating at 4-5 months of age seems silly to me. If you don't band at birth, why wouldn't you simply wait until weaning to cut? 4-5 months and you aren't getting the increased growth in my opinion, and you have to run them through the chute an additional time. Fewer times through the chute equals less man hours which equals more time to do other important things.

I agree. We always banded about a week after birth, let the calf get up and used to the world. We did it young so there was less trauma later on. I've seen bandings go bad on older calves and there's no use in taking the risk. Also like bandit said, if you're going to wait 4-5 months may as well wait until weaning.

With spring calving and November weaning in the north, cutting bull calves in midsummer during the regular summer vet visit and workup makes sense. I'm not a fan of bands right after birth - just personal preference. I also agree that banding older calves can have mixed results.

In addition to being simpler to do castration along with the summer shots and worming, cutting in the summer is a one-time positive method and lets them heal under much better weather and pasture conditions than if cut at November weaning in WI.

I try to have all of my cattle in the corral as part of their regular routine so getting them in is not a big deal. Sometimes when I have them in the corral for a bit of occasional grain I close the gates and leave them there with their only way out through the tub, alley and open squeeze chute (headgate wired open).

They get so they look at the chute as the way out and back to the pasture. In fact they are so comfortable in the tub and chute it can make it tougher to sort them - they ALL want to get in the tub at the same time.

There are many ways of looking at things. Keeps life interesting.

 

[KNERSIE]

Castrating at 4-5 months of age seems silly to me. If you don't band at birth, why wouldn't you simply wait until weaning to cut? 4-5 months and you aren't getting the increased growth in my opinion, and you have to run them through the chute an additional time. Fewer times through the chute equals less man hours which equals more time to do other important things.

I agree. We always banded about a week after birth, let the calf get up and used to the world. We did it young so there was less trauma later on. I've seen bandings go bad on older calves and there's no use in taking the risk. Also like bandit said, if you're going to wait 4-5 months may as well wait until weaning.

With spring calving and November weaning in the north, cutting bull calves in midsummer during the regular summer vet visit and workup makes sense. I'm not a fan of bands right after birth - just personal preference. I also agree that banding older calves can have mixed results.

In addition to being simpler to do castration along with the summer shots and worming, cutting in the summer is a one-time positive method and lets them heal under much better weather and pasture conditions than if cut at November weaning in WI.

I try to have all of my cattle in the corral as part of their regular routine so getting them in is not a big deal. Sometimes when I have them in the corral for a bit of occasional grain I close the gates and leave them there with their only way out through the tub, alley and open squeeze chute (headgate wired open).

They get so they look at the chute as the way out and back to the pasture. In fact they are so comfortable in the tub and chute it can make it tougher to sort them - they ALL want to get in the tub at the same time.

There are many ways of looking at things. Keeps life interesting.

Isn't flies a poblem in your area if you cut in the summer?

 

[wtrapp]

I have done both ways. Two years ago I banded at weaning, gave a tetnus and the bags fell off in about 4 weeks. Last year I banded at birth while taging. In my straightbred herefords there was an average of 40 pounds difference. Delayed banding was best. On the black baldie calves the average difference was 42 pounds. Again delayed banding worked best. Just like anything else it's probably personal perference and when you have the time to band.

 

[SRBeef]

We do have some summer flies - I use rubs stretched across the waterer entrances with diesel and an insecticide mix.

My vet does the cutting, he then sprayed some sort of disinfectant on the cut and let them go. My vet is good - I don't know if there is some trick to the way he does it or not.

I left the cut calves and their cows immediately into a particularly green hilltop pasture with very little manure in it at the time. There did not seem to be any fly or infection problem.

The cows were licking them clean and in about 10 days the steers were getting around like nothing had happened. Again this is in the north. May not work as well in the south.

The key here, as in many things, may be paying attention to details.

 

[Alberta farmer]

Usually try to get them banded at birth. If I miss any trim them up when they get vaccinated for blackleg. Used to use a knife but got lazy as I got older and got sick of buying a $40 knife every year, as I would always lose it! $2.50 for 100 bands seemed cheaper.
I don't give anything an implant anymore but at one time I did. Synovex C should pretty well make up for any weight loss you might lose by cutting early. The little steers will act like bulls and the heifers tend to come bulling at about 400 lbs. which can be a real pain in the butt!

 

[randiliana]

I have done both ways. Two years ago I banded at weaning, gave a tetnus and the bags fell off in about 4 weeks. Last year I banded at birth while taging. In my straightbred herefords there was an average of 40 pounds difference. Delayed banding was best. On the black baldie calves the average difference was 42 pounds. Again delayed banding worked best. Just like anything else it's probably personal perference and when you have the time to band.

Pretty hard to compare different years. There are a lot of factors that go into weaning weight from year to year. Even years that seem the same can have big differences in weaning weights. Grass, the bulls you used, how you fed for the winter, mineral, you name it, they all have an effect on weaning weight. You want to compare something like that, you pretty much have to do 2 different groups of calves. One banded at birth and one at weaning......In the same year, handled exactly the same way otherwise.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I have been banding at weaning for quite a while and it works for me vac. wean and band the same time, never had any problems. Have banded calves up to a thousand LB, with out a problem. Calves will lay around for a few hours till there bag gets numb and be at the feed bunk ready to eat by afternoon.

 

[RanchManager]

We used to ban at birth. I did a test one year to compare calves banded at birth to those banded at branding time. In one group of almost 100 I left about 30 with their testicles until branding. At branding those 30 received bands. At weaning I compared weights. The weights of the calves left until branding averaged 30 lbs heavier. This group of 100 cows was uniformally bred composites but still this was not a scientific or statistically sound test.

The gain was significant and it does add up. If I routinely shipped on weaning day I would wait until branding to band. We
typically wean and feed out our calves. By shipping time, usually in December, the weights are about the same across the board between the early and later banded calves. So, we are now banding at birth.

Never experienced a problem with tetanus or infection either way. It is just easier on the calf and easier on the branding crew.