Castrate Bulls and Bull Calves

Castrating bulls or bull calves is desexing a male animal. It is not exactly as simple as most people may think. Nor is it exactly painless, However, castrating is a practice that has been done on cattle for hundreds of years and is the oldest surgical operation known. The main significance of such a practice is for several reasons:

  • To eliminate the incidence of a poor- or inferior-quality bull from breeding superior females and producing less-than-ideal offspring,
  • To make males less dangerous and rowdy towards other cattle and humans when they are being raised for beef, and
  • To meet market demand as far as beef quality and sales are concerned.

Essentially, castrated (or neutered for some of you) bulls are primarily for beef production, and nothing else.

There are three common ways that bulls and bull calves are castrated: banding, using the burdizzo, and cutting. Other lesser-known methods of castration include short-scrotum and chemical castration. This article will review all types of castration methods that can be used, as well as the best time and age that bulls or bull calves should be done.

Note: Castrated bulls are called steers. Often cattlemen also use the term "steering" or "steered" when referring to a male bovine that has recently been castrated or describing the act of castrating cattle.

Steps

Choosing The Best Method and When It Should Be Done

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

The Procedures

  1. 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.
  2. Treat animals humanely. This also reduces stress to the animal.
  3. 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!

Surgical Castration: Cutting

  1. 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.
  2. Keep your hands clean and wear clean latex surgical gloves.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Method 1 for Young Calves: Removal of Lower End of Scrotum
    1. Remove the lower one-third of the scrotum, which will expose the testicles from below.
    2. 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.
    3. Pull out the testes.
  7. Method 1 for Older Calves: Removal of Lower End of Scrotum
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
  8. Method 2: Slitting the Scrotum Down the Sides
    1. Pull one testicle down and hold firmly to the outside so the skin of the scrotum is tight over the testicle.
    2. 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.
    3. Remove the testicle by emasculator or by scraping with the knife.
    4. Repeat for second testicle.

Banding using the Elastrator

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.

  1. 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.
  2. Restrain the calf as indicated above in a sitting or lying position.
  3. Press both testicles through the ring and to the lower end of the scrotum.
  4. Release the rubber ring.
  5. Release the calf (after doing additional tagging and vaccinating).

Short-Banding Bulls

  • 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 artificially inseminated. The methods of such a procedure are as follows:
  1. Restrain the calf
  2. Force the testes up so that the bottom third of the scrotum is available.
  3. Press this portion of the scrotum through the rubber ring, then release the ring.

Using the Burdizzo

  1. Restrain the calf as indicated above.
  2. Work the cord to the outer side of the scrotum.
  3. Apply the Burdizzo about 1-1/2 to 2 inches above the testicle.
  4. 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.
  5. Repeat with the second testicle.

Chemical or Immunocastration

  • 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.
  1. Using the procedures described in How to Give Cattle Injections, prepare a needle and syringe for the operation.
  2. Restrain the calf
  3. 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.
  4. Repeat for the other testicle.

After Castration

  1. 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.
  2. Consider treating him with a long-acting antibiotic, just in case, immediately after the castration is complete.
  3. Keep him under close observation for about a week to keep an eye out for swelling or stiffness from infection.
  4. You may need to have a fly spray on hand if flies are going to become a problem.
  5. 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.
  6. Once everything has cleared up and/or the animal has healed up nicely, you can release him back to the herd.

Tips

  • Restraint is priority. Don't expect a bull or bull calf to simply stand around to have its testicles removed by you.
  • 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.

Warnings

  • 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.

Sources and Citations

  • 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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