I have, for some insane reason, decided to go back into raising Holstein bull calves. I have done this for years but have never lacked help. like I do now. This morning was a typical example of how things don't get done. My husband and his employee said they would help me with banding these three day old calves before they left for their job. We got one done out of four. They held the leg so high that I couldn't get the nuts into the sack to put the band on. They were in a hurry to get going so I just gave up. All the time they were complaining about how this wasn't helping their backs. I used to have a calf cart. It was on large wheels like bicycle tires and had a small head gate type front and a back door that would open. I have searched the web to no avail to find one. Does anyone have any idea where I could find one of these? I think the cost would be about $300. If anyone has another idea of how to restain the calf so I can work alone, I'm open to suggestions.
Restraining calves for banding and dehorning.
- Thread starter woverxx
- Start date
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certherfbeef
Well-known member
Try this link, found this in the nasco book. Have to but the head catch seperate. Hope this is what you are looking for. Good Luck!!
http://www.enasco.com/prod/ProductDetail?sku=Z08778N&title=Farm+&+Ranch
http://www.enasco.com/prod/ProductDetail?sku=Z08778N&title=Farm+&+Ranch
certherfbeef":1x8dkl7r said:
This is exactly what I was looking for. I'll be sure to mark this page for future use. I love this forum. I've been reading it for sometime and I just signed up this morning. I'm glad I did. Thanks again. ;-)
CattleAnnie
Well-known member
An easy way to band them when the calves are small is:
1. Flip the calf onto his side.
2. Put your knee into the groove behind his shoulder to keep him pinned, at the same time grab the hind leg that's on the up side of the calf.
3. If you hold the hind leg ahead rather than up it keeps the scrotum looser and easier to manipulate the bander on.
4. Push the testicles up into the sac, then slip the bander over the scrotum. Before you release the bander, double check to make sure both testes are still up in the sac. If one slides back (hey, this does happen), push it back up again before applying the band.
5. Pull the bander off, and voila - a steer is born!
It definately does help to have an extra set of hands for this, but if not it can be done by one person.
Hope this makes sense to you. I realised that it's kind of difficult to give accurate instructions on these procedures when I attempted to type this out...oh well, best of luck to you.
Take care.
1. Flip the calf onto his side.
2. Put your knee into the groove behind his shoulder to keep him pinned, at the same time grab the hind leg that's on the up side of the calf.
3. If you hold the hind leg ahead rather than up it keeps the scrotum looser and easier to manipulate the bander on.
4. Push the testicles up into the sac, then slip the bander over the scrotum. Before you release the bander, double check to make sure both testes are still up in the sac. If one slides back (hey, this does happen), push it back up again before applying the band.
5. Pull the bander off, and voila - a steer is born!
It definately does help to have an extra set of hands for this, but if not it can be done by one person.
Hope this makes sense to you. I realised that it's kind of difficult to give accurate instructions on these procedures when I attempted to type this out...oh well, best of luck to you.
Take care.
for the most part we use annie's method, but if you're working alone, you can rope them & tie them off. it's better to take it easy w/baby calves & tieing them off because some have tendency to just flop down instead of walking forward if you need them to step up. after tieing them, just walk up behind them & go to work......just takes a sec.
