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Castration sucess??

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It's funny how some people cut the bag off and some people slit the bag. I never saw one slit until I went to a neighbors branding down in the Sandhills when I was a kid. Ever since then I refer to slitting the bag as the Sandhiller meathod. Us South Dakotans prefer to do it the correct way :wink: :wink: !
 
I band. Some as 1 day old calves if I can get two for sure. If not I put them in the chute and band at 5 or 6 wks. I usually save 3 or 4 to use as bull prospects. Keep them till yearlings. The ones that don't work out get a callitrate band. The dog gets a treat when they fall off and I get a check from the salebarn. One out of 60 will still grow a nut up inside and then we have a Stag. When they start acting bully its salebarn or butcher time. :lol:
 
So is the concencus is is the scrotum is growing I have a bull?

It does look like there are balls in the sack.

My plan is to butcher this calf next fall at about a year and half. Will there be a big difference in the beef at this age?

Thanks for all the input.
 
The best way to know for sure is to put him in the chute and I would suggest you have a Callicrate bander handy or else have a vet cut him. He will probably use emasculators to prevent too much blood loss. I've cut them before at 7 or 8 months of age and have never lost one from bleeding to death. There's always that chance though at that age.
 
Also, you would rather eat the meat from a steer than a bull, I'm pretty sure of that. Should be more tender and better flavor.
 
Big Swede said:
The best way to know for sure is to put him in the chute and I would suggest you have a Callicrate bander handy or else have a vet cut him. He will probably use emasculators to prevent too much blood loss. I've cut them before at 7 or 8 months of age and have never lost one from bleeding to death. There's always that chance though at that age.
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We've cut several bulls over 1 year old in the past and haven't lost one yet. Gonnna knife cut some yrlgs in the next few days too. We just put them in the squeeze, reach in from behind and git'r'done.

As far as the calf in question goes... if it walks like a bull, talks like a bull, and looks like a bull...... it's a bull.
 
The calf is about 9 months old now. Would it make much of a difference at this point if he will go to market in the fall?
 
We call that clamping in these parts. I personaly don't care for it but it works if done right. Clamp one cord at a time and leave it clamped for about five seconds. Almost takes two people to work it correctly on the larger bulls. I have seen some people clamp both cords at once, this is not a good way to do it.

Get him in the squeeze chute and feel of his nuts, if they are hard feeling then the clamping did not work, if both of them are mushy feeling then you had success.

I got the calecrate bander last year and like it very much for the bigger bulls, small bander for the small bull calves.
Just be sure you can count to TWO if using a bander.

Just my thoughts.

G3

also, a steer is easier to handle when it comes time to haul to the butcher shop and if you are going to butcher it this fall are you gooing to feed him out on grain first? I pen mine in the corral and grain feed mine for at least 90 - 120 days prior to the butcher, good hay, salt block and clean water.

good luck with it.

G3
 
Big Swede said:
It's funny how some people cut the bag off and some people slit the bag. I never saw one slit until I went to a neighbors branding down in the Sandhills when I was a kid. Ever since then I refer to slitting the bag as the Sandhiller meathod. Us South Dakotans prefer to do it the correct way :wink: :wink: !
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It's done both ways here. Whoever Dad picks to cut gets to do it their way. There is the thought that cutting the bag off lets things drain better.
 
Went down to the neighbors on Saturday to cut a dozen belly nuts. One fellow had no tail which made things a little more interesting. I use the bander when there older and have pretty good sucess with it.If everybody had to fix there own mistakes a couple of times there would be less bellynuts out there forsure :) :)
 
It is so easy, cheap, efficient and fool-proof to use a jack-knife, that it has always been a wonderment to me why anyone would use any other method. I even cut a two-year-old bull quite a few years ago. He survived and made a lot better looking steer than he ever did a bull. :? On calves we slit the bag. On older bulls, we cut the end off for better drainage. We pull out the testicles all the way. Sometimes you don't even have to use the knife to sever the cord. When cutting the cord, it is best to use a scraping motion with the knife blade which lessons the chance of bleeding.

Back 25 or 30 years ago, there was an ad in the livestock publications promoting a vaccine for castrating. The idea was to give this vaccine injection into the scotum and it would shrivel up the testicles turning the bull into a steer. Our neighbors tried this at branding time and had a wreck. Evidently so did everyone else who tried this miracle treatment, because the product was no longer advertised after that.
 
We cut the very bottom of the sack off. Have always heard it was better for drainin. Never heard of doin a slit.(Always learnin tho) But ours don't hardly bleed at all. If you stretch the nuts out until the "stringers" break, they snap back n well...there's just not alot of blood at all. Also dependin on the weather..if it's warm (I aint talkin full blown texas summer)we go ahead and spray it with the purple spray stuff, just to help keep the flys off. I'd rather it be a lil on the cool side when we do it tho. We've never had one get infected. But have heard nightmare stories of folks that work and cut calves later in the year. Uhgggg flies will blow em quick.
 
Soapweed said:
Back 25 or 30 years ago, there was an ad in the livestock publications promoting a vaccine for castrating. The idea was to give this vaccine injection into the scotum and it would shrivel up the testicles turning the bull into a steer. Our neighbors tried this at branding time and had a wreck. Evidently so did everyone else who tried this miracle treatment, because the product was no longer advertised after that.
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OMG Soapweed--i remember that :shock: seems like the injectable was just saline solution, but i'm not sure. thanks for reminding me of how old i am :? 8)
 
Soapweed said:
It is so easy, cheap, efficient and fool-proof to use a jack-knife, that it has always been a wonderment to me why anyone would use any other method. I even cut a two-year-old bull quite a few years ago. He survived and made a lot better looking steer than he ever did a bull. :? On calves we slit the bag. On older bulls, we cut the end off for better drainage. We pull out the testicles all the way. Sometimes you don't even have to use the knife to sever the cord. When cutting the cord, it is best to use a scraping motion with the knife blade which lessons the chance of bleeding.

Back 25 or 30 years ago, there was an ad in the livestock publications promoting a vaccine for castrating. The idea was to give this vaccine injection into the scotum and it would shrivel up the testicles turning the bull into a steer. Our neighbors tried this at branding time and had a wreck. Evidently so did everyone else who tried this miracle treatment, because the product was no longer advertised after that.
Click to expand...

If I had a branding pen that looks like yours I'd still be using a knife on my calves. :D
Second best choice is the bands.... AS LONG AS YOU CAN COUNT TO 2 :lol: . I've never had a belly nut, if they weren't both there at birth check at branding. The odd time I've had to cut them when both nuts don't descend into the bag. But always count to 2. If you come up short-START OVER
My opinion of the Burdizzo and the Chemcast products is I always hoped the inventors used it on themselves, thus stopping any more undesirable traits........
 
We have been using burdizzos for more than 30 years. Six or seven weeks are probably long enough to tell for sure if the job was done right. You won't necessarily be able to tell, especially if you haven't had your hand on a lot of nuts, if the pinching was done right. The cords will have scar tissue on the bottom of them and they will feel like they have a small nut on the end. If you do in fact have a stag he will still look like a bull. His hair will be longer and coarser, there will be long and thick hair on his sheath, he should be developing a small hump on the back of his neck and he should have more coarse and heavy bone structure.

If it were me I wouldn't worry about it. At nine months he is way past the point at which he should be weaned, so just separate him from his mom, fatten him and eat him. If he is a stag the meat should be leaner anyway.
 
I remember a neighbour of our telling us one time about a mishap he had with the injectible. Apparently a full syringe of that stuff should not be carried in the jacket pocket. He wrestled the calf down and in the process injected himself with about a half dose of the stuff. Missed the really important parts, and no harm came, but he was pretty worried there for a while.
 
Here are a few shots of the calf in question and the mother. The calf was born last June.

3-28-08010.jpg


3-28-08014.jpg


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What do you think? A bull?
 
325abn said:
Here are a few shots of the calf in question and the mother. The calf was born last June.



3-28-08014.jpg



What do you think? A bull?
Click to expand...

Yup. When you band it, sometimes the results only become a bandit of your time. :roll: When using a jack-knife and eating the evidence, there is no doubt that what you have left is a steer. :wink:
 

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