Age of castration

[Anonymous]

My boys, 2 milking shorthorns, are about 5 months old, and it is the middle of august- prime fly season. My wife wants to have them castrated at the end of fly season, 2 months or so. I would like to wait even a few months more, until they are 8 to 10 months or so, depending on how bullish they seem to be getting. When do you castrate, what method do you favor or have used?
Also, what do you recommend to keep the boys from being harangued by flies?
Yesterday I clapped my hands in front of ables face and killed-no lie-20 or 30 flies.

gross.

thank you all

[Theloggerswife]

We castrate our highland cattle the first week in November. I choose to have the vet do the surgical method of castration. I would highly recommend waiting to make sure fly season is well over.

[Carl Russell]

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

[sanhestar]

I asked a similar question regarding our goat bucklings this year and a nice member of the packgoat mailing list steered me towards callicrate castration. Did some googling and find the idea a good one as it allows bloodless castration at a higher age without more complications.

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

[bivol]

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…

[Vicki]

Shorthorns are rather slow-growing so I think you have plenty of time for castration. I’d recommend the vet cut them. I think by waiting to castrate you will get heavier horns and broader faces; this has been my experience with Dexters and Holsteins. There are many opinions about castration; you should talk to local oxmen and a vet who knows about oxen like Doc Collins.

For flies, you can use wipe-on repellent for horses. You can also make fly masks of fringes or strips of leather or cords that hang over the face and mechanically keep the flies away from eyes and nose. The mask attaches around the horns.

I have wanted to make these for my oxen but haven’t yet. If anyone knows where one can purchase some ready made, let us know.

[CharlyBonifaz]

@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 🙂

[sanhestar]

ok, thought as much as it’s a banding method on older animals.

But does anybody from the US and here on the forum have hands-on experience with this method (don’t want to rely on the company’s data alone)?

I also have one report from a goat lady who had both her bucks castrated this way by a vet (with local anaesthesia and removing the testicles surgically a few days after the band was applied) and it looked and sounded OK.

[fabian]

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

[mother katherine]

We just had our boys “crimped” at 6 months. Vet estimated them at 400 lbs. As I’ve been working with them since birth, I just led them to a clean spot, she premedicated them, tied them to a post, and they went down when the med caught up with them. She crushed the cords, etc while they were snoring. They slept the rest of the afternoon and I led them back to the paddock once they came to enough to be ambulatory and alert.
As far as they know, nothing really happened and they were able to go back to work in about 5 days.
Oxnun

[mstacy]

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

[Nat(wasIxy)]

I like ’em snipped ASAP – can’t be bothered with the slightest bullish behaviour. Our bulls are well behaved, but when it comes down to it they think with their balls, whereas with my steers that’s never an issue.

[Nat(wasIxy)]

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.

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