Age of castration

If you choose surgical castration then November would be fine. I wouldn’t worry too much about finding the perfect age. I’d be more concerned about the flies. You can also have the vet crush the vessels too, but they may be too old, as they need to be held. With surgery they get knocked out, and are much easier to handle. Flies can create a really nasty problem.

Carl

how bullish do they get in 8-10 months?

and how bullish do you prefer your oxen to be?

if they were to be castrated over a year old, than yes, they’d be more bullish, but i don’t know how much should the body structure change if castrated at the age of 8-10?

late castration can be desired when oxen are employed on particularly heavy tasks regularly, but they they are used for farm work, the bull body frame is not necessary.

also, here they used to put pig lard in vacant testicles when castrating pigs, horses and cattle. it’s supposed to prevent infection, don’t know if it deters flies…
better to castrate without flies, though, they’ll be usable so or so…

@Sanhestar

Unfortunately I haven’t found a vet yet who knows about this method here in Germany….

simply forbidden over this way

@all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-udsIV4Hmc
is on lamb castration, but right on the spot 🙂

one of my twin-steers got castrated with 2 months, the other will get castrated with 7 months in novembre (I was undecided to keep them both. Now I know that I will kepp them as a team)
so I will see which of both will make the better ox…;)
And I will tell you…..:)

Wolfgang

I had two of my devons castrated in March, at approximately 9 months old. Call me a coward if you will but I heeded the voice of reason (my lovely spouse) and had the vet come over. She used the “henderson” method which leaves absolutely no doubt as to the outcome. She completely anethsetized my boys. Neither animal was even the least bit traumatized by the incident. It was suprisingly inexpensive and I have no regrets.

At 9 months Earl and Stanley were starting to get a little randy. I wouldn’t have wanted to delay the procedure any longer. More experienced teamsters may feel differntly.

-Matt

I have revised my answer to this after a lot of thought recently. We had a group of jersey bulls ‘clamped’ at 15months of age. They had not been pushed with a high protein diet, and had always lived as a group and experienced other cattle. As a result, they were (and still are) remarkably well behaved, actually a joy to work with, never a hint of aggression. Now they are steered, they have broader heads and wider, wide-spaced horns which looks very good to me, I prefer them to look more masculine and perhaps it would stop a lot of the physical issues in older steers?

I think in future, I will hold off castration for a while at least, until it looks like they might be acting ‘bullish’, and then clamp. It seemed a very stress-free method for the animals, and no wound at all.