Castration Question

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KCattle1

Active member
Joined
May 11, 2011
Messages
35
Location
Wooster, OH
When do most show steer operations steer their males?  At birth?  After a certain number of days?

Also what is the preferred method of castration, banding, clamping, cutting for show steers?
 

RankeCattleCo

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Joined
Aug 16, 2011
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715
Location
Southeastern Wisconsin
Personally we band at about 5 or 6 months of age.  When we band we go as low on the sack as possible while still squeezing both in.  Even on our dairy steers we think the cod develops better, earlier and much bigger/deeper.  Leave 'em intact for a while to get some good muscling through testosterone, but don't wait to late as you'll find 'em getting hornory and alot heavier muscled with alot less fat.
 

KSanburg

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Joined
May 5, 2010
Messages
695
Location
Western Colorado
We use a knife and emasculater at 5 to 6 months, take a scalpel and cut just a pinch off the bottom of the scrotum then you can take both and clamp the tubes with the emasculater. It drains well with little problems of flies and heals nicely, the cod then has 90% development potential. I have done hundereds of calves with this method and have not lost one yet, but I am sure it can and has happened.

I had a problems with bands a few years ago and swore I would never use them again, but that is my own experiance, they work fine 98% of the time. Kind of a funny story, involved a horse, a rope and a very pi$$ed off momma.
 

RankeCattleCo

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Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
715
Location
Southeastern Wisconsin
Don't know if you administer tetnis with other forms of castration, but ALWAYS do so when banding.  Haven't lost a single calf in 7 years since we started giving them the shot when castrating them.
 

kfacres

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Joined
Dec 15, 2008
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3,713
Location
Industry, IL Ph #: 618-322-2582
RankeCattleCo said:
Don't know if you administer tetnis with other forms of castration, but ALWAYS do so when banding.  Haven't lost a single calf in 7 years since we started giving them the shot when castrating them.

agree... never use a band w/o it... lost too many lambs back in the day..
 
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