late castration

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  • October 14, 2008 at 3:23 pm #39832
    bivol
    Participant

    hi!
    castration is necessary to produce obedient oxen, but the question of when to castrate it, i think, trickier than it looks like.
    if you castrate young:
    -oxen grow bigger- this can be good or bad, depending on what you want of them. but some teamsters complain that their oxen grow too big. remember, oxen fill in and get fat with time if not worked regulary.
    -they won’t remember the castration, and by the time they grow up they forget about.

    if you castrate old
    -animals can be harder to manage up to the point of castration, at a few years of age.
    -the traumatic experience of castration can linger in their memory and they be aggressive to the people they think hurt them. i heard of an ox killed two people who owned him. this was in serbia, where they castrate at the age of 2-4 y.
    -oxen have stronger necks and are more powerful in the neck and front of body

    October 14, 2008 at 7:17 pm #47591
    CharlyBonifaz
    Member

    castration is necessary to produce obedient oxen,

    if it comes to that, seems like bulls were also worked for several reasons…..
    may be the right time for castration depends on what you want? on what you have got? for what he is supposed to be used? I don’t think there is the best time…..
    elke

    October 15, 2008 at 8:31 am #47587
    Carl Russell
    Moderator

    We usually wait till 6 months or so, but not much later because testicles are down, and the animal is still easy to handle. Carl

    October 15, 2008 at 12:19 pm #47588
    Howie
    Participant

    I have cut them as young as two weeks and as old as 13 months. I like it to be 3 to 6 months. The old timers used to say you done it when ever the knife was sharp.
    You can work him as a bull just the same as you can work a horse as a stallion, but you want to make sure he knows that you are the boss.
    The age at which you cut him will make a big difference in how he will look when he is mature.

    October 21, 2008 at 12:28 am #47589
    becorson
    Participant

    i think you could probably work a young bull but i sure wouldn’t want to work a mature dairy bull! maybe i’m just chicken, but my guide line is “don’t trust your life to an animal whose testicles weigh more than his brain”. most stallions are right on the border line when it comes to brain/ testicle weight ratio. But bulls’ testicles weigh more than twice as much as their brains. (i’m a vet pathologist, that’s how i know). lol

    October 21, 2008 at 2:28 pm #47590
    OldKat
    Participant

    @becorson 3100 wrote:

    i think you could probably work a young bull but i sure wouldn’t want to work a mature dairy bull! maybe i’m just chicken, but my guide line is “don’t trust your life to an animal whose testicles weigh more than his brain”. most stallions are right on the border line when it comes to brain/ testicle weight ratio. But bulls’ testicles weigh more than twice as much as their brains. (i’m a vet pathologist, that’s how i know). lol

    Sounds like some guys I went to high school with! 😉

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