Choose the best castrating method to use. The most important thing before you start castrating your cattle is to find out and think about what method you should use and/or are most comfortable with, according to what their stomach can handle and how sensitive they are to the animal's well being.
With these in mind, run through the pros and cons of each practice. Here's a list to consider.
Advantages to banding:
Bloodless (no blood is lost when banding or crushing the cords through the scrotal wall)
Less chance of infection occurring because no open wounds are created
More painless than cutting because the area quickly numbs after the band is put on: there is a little discomfort, but it goes away after a while.
Quick and easy to do if done properly
No risk of maggot infestation if done during the fly season
Cutting off blood supply enables the testes and scrotum to gangrene and fall off on their own
Disadvantages to banding:
Mistakes can happen: put the rubber ring around the teste instead of the cord, one testicle is only banded because the other hasn't descended yet, ring is too brittle and comes off sooner than the scrotum starts to atrophy, etc.
A little painful during the application, but the area goes numb very quickly soon after.
Tetanus shot may be required as there is risk of infection as the scrotum atrophies and sloughs off.
Advantages to cutting:
Easy to see that two testes are present
Quick and a highly common practice used among ranchers
Great way to collect enough calf testes to make some Rocky Mountain or Prairie Oysters!
Disadvantages to cutting:
Risk of blood loss, infection and maggot infestation
Cannot be performed during fly season
Knife may not be sterilized, inducing infection
Cutting the cord may not be done properly increasing the chance of blood loss for the animal
More painful for the animal than banding, depending on the method of cutting used.
Can cut oneself whilst castrating the animal: knives are sharp and must be handled properly and safely!
Advantages of using the Burdizzo pinchers:
Desirable for show steers because of the large and well-shaped cod that is formed in well-finished steers.
Similar advantages as described above with banding.
No tetanus shot required because there is no scrotal atrophy occurring
Disadvantages of using the Burdizzo pinchers:
Best done by an experienced operator or veterinarian
One cord can only be cut at a time, and cannot slip from the clamps of the Burdizzo
Mistakes are likely to occur if not done properly: the cord may be incompletely crushed and the animal may develop stagginess later.
Decide when to castrate your animals. Depending on where you live, most castrating should be done during early spring or late fall. It can also be done in the wintertime, as the cold will constrict the blood vessels making it less likely for an animal to bleed out sooner.
What age is best to castrate? One thing you should remember is that the younger the animal is done, the better. Bulls should be castrated no older than 8 months of age. Bulls can be castrated at any time, but you must remember that if you castrate a bull that is at least 12 months of age, you will notice a loss in productivity:
The older the animal is at castration, the greater the stress, risk of bleeding, and the slower the growth rate for that animal.
On average, calves are castrated around 8 weeks of age or sooner. Some producers, depending on how busy they are and their willingness to go out to the pasture to find calves to tag and castrate, will steer a bull calf when it is a day to two days old. Other producers would rather run the calves through a chute when they're around two and a half months old when they can castrate, tag and vaccinate them all in one go.
If you are new at this, you should either think about getting someone more experienced to do the castrating for you. However, if you are wanting to learn, you need to memorize the steps required to castrate cattle properly. Stress can be reduced by doing the procedure quickly and cleanly.
Treat animals humanely. This also reduces stress to the animal.
Restrain the calf to prevent additional injury to both you and the calf during the procedure. The younger the calf, the easier it is for you to restrain it. Calves older than a month of age require two people to restrain it. However, one person can effectively restrain a one-week-old calf and do all the necessary operations.
If you have access to a calf table, use this instead as it greatly simplifies your job that you have to do.
Use a chute with older animals, preferably one with a head-gate attached.
If there is no chute available, an animal may be tied to a fence with a halter, with your assistant pushing the calf to the fence, then applying a tail-jack. Tail-jacking immobilizes the rear-legs of the calf and thus it cannot kick. This will not stop a calf from flinching and jerking when a scalpel is cut into its scrotum!
Obtain sterile surgical instruments. Depending on your method, a knife or scalpel is the best tool of choice. You may also wish to use an emasculator.
Keep your hands clean and wear clean latex surgical gloves.
Clean the bull or calf's genital area with warm soapy water. It should be clean and free of dirt and other organic matter before you begin.
Apply antiseptics to the entire scrotum. This step is not useful if the hair is not shaved off or the area has not bee scrubbed with soap several times.
Have an extra bucket or two of warm water with disinfectant solution mixed in. This enables the operator to rinse off surgical instruments and their hands. This can also be useful for letting the instruments soak between animals.
Consult with your local veterinarian on specific disinfectants that you can use.
Method 1 for Young Calves: Removal of Lower End of Scrotum
Remove the lower one-third of the scrotum, which will expose the testicles from below.
Slit the membrane covering each testicle. However, if desired, this membrane does not need to be slit and can be removed along with the testicle.
Pull out the testes.
Method 1 for Older Calves: Removal of Lower End of Scrotum
Follow the same steps as above for young calves except do not pull out the testes. Instead, sever the partially withdrawn cord by scraping it in a shaving motion with the knife or clamping with an emasculator.
If using the emasculator, leave it on the cord for 30 seconds.
Cut one cord at a time, or use the emasculator on one cord at a time.
Method 2: Slitting the Scrotum Down the Sides
Pull one testicle down and hold firmly to the outside so the skin of the scrotum is tight over the testicle.
With a sharp knife, make an incision on the outside of the scrotum next to the leg
Make sure the incision is extended well down to the end of the scrotum to allow for proper drainage.
The incision should also extend through the scrotum and membrane.
Remove the testicle by emasculator or by scraping with the knife.
Repeat for second testicle.
This method closes off circulation to the testes, where they and the scrotal sac will fall off eventually. It will take 10 to 50 days for the banded area to detach depending on the size of the bull or bull calf and environmental conditions.
Put a ring (looks like a green Cheerios)over the closed end of the elastrator. There are four points on the elastrator, and when the handle is squeezed, this opens up and stretches the green band.
Restrain the calf as indicated above in a sitting or lying position.
Press both testicles through the ring and to the lower end of the scrotum.
Release the rubber ring.
Release the calf (after doing additional tagging and vaccinating).
This method of rendering a bull infertile was developed at the New Mexico Station in the 1980s. It does not remove any part of the bull's genitals, but it does make him a pseudocryptorchid because the testes are forced near the abdominal wall. However, this does not make the bull a steer, as it does not get rid of the hormones, temperament or sexual urges of the animal. This can make such an animal a likely candidate as a Gomer Bull for females that are going to be . The methods of such a procedure are as follows:
Restrain the calf
Force the testes up so that the bottom third of the scrotum is available.
Press this portion of the scrotum through the rubber ring, then release the ring.
Restrain the calf as indicated above.
Work the cord to the outer side of the scrotum.
Apply the Burdizzo about 1-1/2 to 2 inches above the testicle.
Close the clamp and leave it in position for about a minute. Remember when closing the clamp, you need to close it so that it crushes the cord, not so that it is merely a light pressure to the area.
Ensure that the penis is not included in the crushed tissues.
Repeat with the second testicle.
This type of castration, though not quite as effective as cutting or banding, is far more painless and less stressful on cattle than traditional methods. It is also less invasive, as all it involves is a needle, a syringe and a Chem-Cast(R) solution or a vaccine that targets hormones responsible for sexual characteristics and sperm production. This method destroys the testicles and spermatic cords of bull calves weighing up to 150 lbs. It's not as effective on bulls over this weight.
Using the immunocastration, however, is a vaccine that is being developed to target the hormones responsible for the sex characteristics and sperm production of the bull. So far, none of such vaccines have provided the possibility of long-term castration.
Using the procedures described in , prepare a needle and syringe for the operation.
Restrain the calf
Insert the needle from the top into the middle-third of one testicle, and inject the fluid according to the weight prescribed on the bottle.
Repeat for the other testicle.
If the animal has been cut, confine him to a well-bedded area or clean pasture and keep him there for three to four hours. This will allow the bleeding to stop.
Consider treating him with a long-acting antibiotic, just in case, immediately after the castration is complete.
Keep him under close observation for about a week to keep an eye out for swelling or stiffness from infection.
You may need to have a fly spray on hand if flies are going to become a problem.
If the wound swells or the animal becomes stiff and depressed, isolate him immediately and call your local veterinarian.
The wound should be bathed with hot water, and antibiotics should be administered.
The vet may open and drain the wound. You may have to make sure the wound gets cleaned out after the vet has done the initial clean-out, using warm water and an antiseptic.
Once everything has cleared up and/or the animal has healed up nicely, you can release him back to the herd.
Is splitting the testicles and squeezing them a real and humane method to castrate bulls?
wikiHow Contributor
No, this method will be extraordinarily painful for the bull and should not be attempted.
How long should I wait if both testes haven't dropped yet?
wikiHow Contributor
You may be dealing with a crypto bull, but it depends on the age of the bull or bull calf. Since age was never mentioned, it's hard to tell how long to wait. If a young calf, you can wait a few weeks. If it's a bull that's at weaning age or older (6 months old or older), you will need to get the vet out to see if you can either get him to get the testes out and removed, or castrate so that the testes remain in the body cavity, and the bull infertile.
Can a calf up to 6 months be castrated with zip ties?
Absolutely not, zip ties are a very bad idea. Use a knife or rubber rings. Zip ties are not reliable because they may not completely cut off the blood supply and they aren't going to rot and fall off as quickly as those rubber rings. The rough plastic will also cause more damage with chafing against the skin than rubber rings do.
When I was a boy, the farmhands poured salt into the cut scrotum. What was the purpose of this?
There is an old wive's tale saying that salt is supposed to prevent infection and encourage healing, but it's extremely painful and inhumane. You've probably heard the phrase "like pouring salt into an open wound." Salt water, however, does have some beneficial effects for cleaning a wound and reducing infection.
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Restraint is priority. Don't expect a bull or bull calf to simply stand around to have its testicles removed by you.
See the article called
on how to properly restrain a calf to castrate it.
Always, whenever you are going to cut a bull, keep both your hands, your equipment and the surgical area as clean as possible. This, while it will not totally eliminate infection, it will significantly decrease it.
When banding, make sure your fingers are not under the rubber band prior to it being released.
Do not castrate during inclement weather, i.e., during a thunderstorm, a snow-storm, when it's raining, etc.
When using a knife, make sure fingers are not near the site where the incision is to be made and that you are not cutting towards yourself.
Do not cut the spermatic cord straight across. This will prevent the cords from clotting up properly and may make the animal bleed out.
Be aware of Momma Cow if you catch and restrain her calf to have him castrated. If she's a mean cow, she will make it very obvious that she doesn't appreciate what you are doing to her calf! If that is the case, then you will need to separate her from her calf (this can be easier said than done) in order to operate on him.
Be aware that when you are working at the back-end of a bovine, no matter if it's a young calf or an older bull, there is risk of getting kicked.
Be careful of how you handle a very sharp knife, otherwise you will do more injury than you intended.
Alberta Agriculture. The Beef Cow-Calf Manual, Section 4: Calf Management From Birth to Weaning. Agdex 420/10, 2008. pp. 85-87
M.E. Ensminger & R.C. Perry. Beef Cattle Science 7th Ed., Chapter 10: Beef Cattle Management. Interstate Publishers Inc., Danville, IL. 1997. pp. 380-382.
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47 Cards in this Set
3rd side (hint)
1 beef cattle breed
Angus(black Angus)
2 beef breed
3 beef breed
white pigment around eyes increases risk of cancer eye
seedstock producers
produce primarily breeding cows and bulls,harvest semen,embryos
purebred producer
cow-calf production
replacement heifers
herd bulls
weaned market (steers and heifers)
economically valuable traits in cows
adequate milk
mothering ability(some will wonder off and leave baby)
marketable calves(weaning weight)
longevity (7 years)(older more risk)
replacement heifers (cow-calf)
wean 7 to 9 months
breed 14-15 months
calve 23 months
bull development
large operations
gain 2-3 lbs/day
weaned &developed 14-15 months
more fertile as they get older
herd bulls
higher nutrition needed during breeding season
1 bull to 25 cows or more
market calves
7 months 500 lbs (meat processing price per pound)
disease resistance-vaccination schedule, parasite control
genetics to produce desired products-yield, quality, tenderness
performance-ADG(average daily gain)
finish 18-22 months
preconditioning
preparation for weaning
more stress less resistance disease
health and nutrition CRITICAL
eat from a bunk
learn to eat concentrated ration
stockering ,yearnings
aka backgrounding
after weaning until 12 to 20 months they grow to seven to eight hundred pounds
grow slow gain muscle
high forge feeding
little grain or concentrate feeding
used to control head
used to control behavior
necessary weight increase from winning
, bone and muscle deposition not fat
before entering the feed yard
used for vaccine
used for weight
ear implants
plant-based estrogen
slow release over 75 days
use in beef production for more than 50 years
used on stairs and feeder heifers
approximately 90% in the u.s. get implants
increase feed efficiency-more growth,lean meat and less feed
should we be worried? ear implant hormones in context
1 second equals 32 years in nanograms
non implanted meat 1.4 nanograms
implanted meet 1.6 nanograms
baked potatoes,cabbage,soybean oil
feedlots 2 types
Commercial Feeders -more than 1,000 head, individual or partnership
Farmer Feeders- less than 1000 head, family owned
90 percent of the feedlot cattle are fed commercial feeders
Amaretto Texas 60,000 heads
custom feeding allows ranchers and investors to feed their own cattle at a feedlot for a fee
feedlot Cattle
groups in pens should be uniform
such as weight, size, body type, age, breed and previous nutritional background
steers and heifers separated
must be managed intensively
water, feed intake,animal weights
animals check daily for health
misconceptions
feedlot cattle stand in mud and manure all day
money conditions decrease feed intake, feed efficiency, lower the average daily gain and cause foot rot
profit margin per animal in well managed feedlot is
the greenhouse effect
28 percent of the methane produced by ruminants
18 methane in total
equivalent to 5 of the greenhouse gases
reduce and cattle methane emission by
diet composition such as hay and pasture vs silage and grain
feed quality
pH of rumen
ionophore feed additive
average a hundred and fifty grams per cow per day( beef and dairy)
benefits of modern feedlot production
feedlots compared to grass-fed are surprisingly produce 18 percent fewer total carbon emissions and uses 90 percent less fossil fuel energy
if all US beef cattle for grass fed organic NO production technologies used
we would need 10 million more cattle, 17 million more acres of land, 138 billion more gallons of
water to produce the same total amount of beef
and 18 million extra metric tons of greenhouse gases would be released into the US
transmissible spongiform Ecephalopathies
transmissible means contagious
spongiform means holes
Ecephalopathies means brain or spinal cord disease
pigs,chickens,horse, dog and birds don't get it
sheep and goats
creutzfeldt Jakob disease
mink encephalopathy
chronic wasting disease
bovine spongiform encephalopathy
cattle mad cow disease
fall down cant get up
downed cattle
cattle with broke leg still wouldn't be eaten but they would be used for by-products
deer that loses weight and get skinny don't eat
first case in United States in 2003
. 4 cases total in the u.s over 11 years
first diagnosed in Great Britain in 1986
95% of cases have occurred in the United Kingdom
peak in 1993 with 1,000 new cases per week
185,000 cases in UK from 1986 to 2014
imported UK to Canada
imported Canada to us
cannibalistic tribes
feline spongiform
variant CJD
transmitted from animals
3 cases in the u.s.
2 contracted diseases in the UK and the other one in Saudi Arabia
217 cases worldwide since 1996
mad cow is like Alzheimer try or false
prevention in the US
banned feeding meat and bone meal 1988
banned any animal protein feed to ruminants 1997
banned downer cattle from being processed and from food supply
severe restrictions on beef imports from BSE countries
domesticated 8000 BC
Columbus and De soto brought pigs to the new new world
early meat&& lard fatter animal fat
now meat&&lard lean bacon
pigs world numbers
who eats the most pork
1st Denmark 143 pounds per person per year.
almost 1/2 pound daily
62.8 pounds per person per year
production technologies
beef cattle and sheep are often grazed.
minimal management
pigs and poultry(Turkey)
have more intensified management
vertical integration- one company or one family own multiple stages of the processing
from birth to time to sell
the same company may also own the feed mill and processing plant
vertical integration in livestock swine 75% poultry 90%
pork power houses
Smithfield Foods number of sows 853,000
triumph foods number of sows 377,000
Tennessee is ranked number 24 in total head
concentrated heavily in the Corn Belt
Iowa produces 25% of the u.s swine
us swine industry
moving away from populations of people
people transfer to pigs pathogen in spores
pigs transferred to people pathogen is spores
pig don't sweat
Industrial facts
fewer larger farms
approximately 75354 pork operations today
nearly 3 million in 1950
US production is 10% of the total world supply
over 75% of hogs are grown on farms that produce 2000 hogs per year
societal concerns
loss of the family farm
how to feed 10 billion people
leading US pork export
Mexico. 600,949 metric tons
phases of pork production.
biological hog cycle
lactation /Nursery
growing to finishing
phases of pork production
farrowing.
Nursery finishing
seedstock.
replacements introduce carefully
life cycles of pork production unit
3 months 3 weeks and 3 days
conception to processing.
gestation. 299 days
first to processing.
farrow 19 d
Nursery 47 d
finishing 118 d
farrowing crates use
pig don't look for their young and will lay on them if not careful
often eat their young
chalk marks on back shows how well they are nursing
banned in California and Florida
gestation stall for sows
prevent fighting
not any room
in the EU stalls will be phased out by 2013 after the 4th week of pregnancy
in the u.s eight states have banned the use California, Arizona, Florida
Smithfield farm voluntarily phase out by 2017
McDonalds and Cracker Barrel want to know when's the deadline for removing the stalls
McDonald's phasing out tiny cages February 15 2012
movement is restricted but protects against aggressive attacks
swine breeds
purebred less economically important
1 Yorkshire
3 Hampshire
4 Berkshire
5 Landrace
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