Steering

[6ncounting]

I have a bull born 12/07, we've decided to steer him but I am not sure if it's too late. What options do we have? He is rather gentle and I would prefer to do it now so that there is no issues later with the older bull.

[Ronney]

Mmm, he's probably now got too big to put a ring on and over here it would be a vet job - and personally, I'm happy to have it that way, at that age.

I don't know what you intend to do with him in the longer term, but in the past I have run mixed aged bulls together with no problems but they can be a bit hard on the fences

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Gregg Alexander]

Find someone or the vet should have a device to crush the cords in his sack. Should take about a month to do the job and make him a steer. I agree with Ronney I have ran different bull's together should not be a problem except on fences or when a cow comes in heat.
The device is called esmalslagtor(I can say it but not spell it )

[Chaty]

I was a little late with my boys this year and some were 1 and I used the Calibrate bander which is a bigger banding gun and bands for bulls. I got them in the squeeze chute and gave them their teatnus shot and banded them. The testicles are alot bigger but it is possible to get it done. It only took about 2 wks for them to fall off also. Just make sure you get them really tight. If you dont have this type of bander ask around like the feed store or other ranchers and see if they have 1 you can use as its a pricey investment but will pay for it self with vet calls. That is why we got 1 as I dont band my bull claves till they are 6 mths old. Good luck

[kclementsdvm]

Originally Posted by Gregg Alexander

Find someone or the vet should have a device to crush the cords in his sack. Should take about a month to do the job and make him a steer. I agree with Ronney I have ran different bull's together should not be a problem except on fences or when a cow comes in heat.
The device is called esmalslagtor(I can say it but not spell it )

The emasculator is what crushes the cord and then cuts off the testes when you do a knife castration and actually pull the testes out of the sack. I think you're thinking of a Burdizzo castration clamp. You can use this to clamp each cord separately - from the outside, through the scrotum - and if you do it right, the cords and blood vessels are crushed, so the testes shrivel up inside the scrotum. If you want to do this, make sure you get someone who is experienced with this method, as it's easy to not get the job done. (Yep, I'm a dismal failure at this one.)

I'd band the bull using a Callicrate bander or one of the EZE banders that uses tubing instead of loops - that way you can get it around a bigger scrotum. He's not too old to band, as long as you can get it tight.

And don't forget to vaccinate against tetanus.

[Gregg Alexander]

You are correct its a emasculator. I still perfer a case knife. We used the crush method in the feedlot where I worked. Any thing under 700 # we used a case knife on over 700# the emasculator