Cut Calves

[VB RANCH]

How do you do it, do you band, do you cut the bottom of sack off , do you slit the sack. Your reasons why

 

[webfoot]

Sort of all the above. I band some. Mainly young ones. I learned to cut slitting the sack. But when I cut now I mostly just cut off the bottom.

 

[jodywy]

cut the bottom of, we use a knife with replaceable razor blades. Then use a all-in-one castrating tool to pull them. We use an emasculator to dock lambs, but band the ram lamb usually 2-4 day old.

 

[Mountain Cowgirl]

I do none of it these days, but when I did, bulls, rams, and bucks that didn't have the making for being a show animal, got the band. If they showed promise of being a show animal, I cut the bottom off and then scraped the cord to minimize bleeding. Where I cut the bottom, depended on where it started to taper down. Sometime a 1/3rd, sometime a 1/4th. You want to cut enough so it drains completely.

I never liked splitting the sack, because sometimes it didn't drain well. Opening and cleaning out an infected scrotum, was never my favorite ranch job.

The more scrotum you can leave on a show animal the better, because the more that fills out with fat, the easier it is to catch the judges eye that your animal is finished out nicely.

 

[Faster horses]

I do none of it these days, but when I did, bulls, rams, and bucks that didn't have the making for being a show animal, got the band. If they showed promise of being a show animal, I cut the bottom off and then scraped the cord to minimize bleeding. Where I cut the bottom, depended on where it started to taper down. Sometime a 1/3rd, sometime a 1/4th. You want to cut enough so it drains completely.

I never liked splitting the sack, because sometimes it didn't drain well. Opening and cleaning out an infected scrotum, was never my favorite ranch job.

The more scrotum you can leave on a show animal the better, because the more that fills out with fat, the easier it is to catch the judges eye that your animal is finished out nicely.

Years back, the buyer of calves liked to see a bag on the steer calves because it helped the feedlot to know when they were ready to be processed. Note: I said years back.

 

[leanin' H]

Saw a lot of show cattle cut like what MC and Faster Horses describes.