Ouch! Crunching time.

jf 850

jf 850

Well-Known Member
Was talking to 2 friends separately yesterday, and the subject of castrating weanlings was talked about. One of them closes the Burdizzo on the string, opens it more or less straight away, and moves down the string 1/2 an inch and closes it again. To be sure to be sure. The other man does it the same way but only the one closure on each string, but gives each a shot of Pen-strep to each beast as well. Meanwhile here I have done it the way my father taught me - close it on string, leave for at least minute on each string, open, and repeat on other side. He always called what 1st man does as "chopping", and reckoned it was dangerous. And he reckoned that the leaving for the minute was the real right way. Also I have another friend who swears by putting lambs rubber rings on new born calves. What way do any of the rest of you do it, or your opinions?
 
jf 850 said:
Was talking to 2 friends separately yesterday, and the subject of castrating weanlings was talked about. One of them closes the Burdizzo on the string, opens it more or less straight away, and moves down the string 1/2 an inch and closes it again. To be sure to be sure. The other man does it the same way but only the one closure on each string, but gives each a shot of Pen-strep to each beast as well. Meanwhile here I have done it the way my father taught me - close it on string, leave for at least minute on each string, open, and repeat on other side. He always called what 1st man does as "chopping", and reckoned it was dangerous. And he reckoned that the leaving for the minute was the real right way. Also I have another friend who swears by putting lambs rubber rings on new born calves. What way do any of the rest of you do it, or your opinions?
Click to expand...

We always did it the way your father taught you, leave it on for the minute or two, always worked well. The father has switched to the rubber rings in the last couple of years and it's a hit and miss affair. I think that when you have to use the rings before the calves get too big there's a risk that both balls haven't dropped. The "proper" way I was shown to do in Ag college was to catch the ball with the corner of the jaw of the burdizzo and squeeze to your heart's content :scared:
 
I squeeze all the brothers bull calves for him and I used to squeeze for a few others before I got sense. Anyhow I only use about half the width of the jaws on the burdizzo and I push the string to the side of the animals bag (no sense in causing more damage or stress to the unfortunate animal then necessary). Once I've closed the burdizzo on the string I generally wait for around 20-30 seconds then open and close it 2 or 3 times and then onto the next string. I find it works very well and to date I've never had a miss or a strong lad. I don't approve of the rubber band at birth. I think it knocks to much out of them. One last thing and I've seen others at it and it's fierce hard on an animal is lads crossing the cuts. In other words taking to much of the bag in the burdizzo on each side and the result is all the blood veins are stopped and the bag will fall off.
 
I'd let it hang, maybe not as long as a minute then go again below, then other side.....or at least up until last year, used the rubber rings this spring & that's the way for me :thumbup:.

We would have done them in the mobile crush just for the reason that we can put a bar in behind them, then I would have put 1 of the forks of the merlo in behind lower down, fork has a big carpet mat wrapped round it a few times, plan was they kicked this rather than me & it worked, but I never liked it, a barbaric operation & not overly safe for man nor beast.

The rubber rings are a bit fiddly till you get into the way of them especially if doing it alone, two of us done the sqeezing & two of us mostly do the rings as 1 holds the calf, but a great job done along with tagging.
 
Id always do it the same as dp, pinch the string twice at one point, same the other side and make sure to have at least an inch between both pinches!

Sent from my GT-I8190 using Tapatalk
 
guest 1 said:
We always did it the way your father taught you, leave it on for the minute or two, always worked well. The father has switched to the rubber rings in the last couple of years and it's a hit and miss affair. I think that when you have to use the rings before the calves get too big there's a risk that both balls haven't dropped. The "proper" way I was shown to do in Ag college was to catch the ball with the corner of the jaw of the burdizzo and squeeze to your heart's content :scared:
Click to expand...
Are ya choppin the ball or do ya mean the tube?
 
Joseph 88 said:
He might have gave an explanation as I didn't watch the whole video, but why would you not just use a sharp knife.... Bizarre
Click to expand...
Cutting with a sharp knife makes for a lot of blood. Twisting and pulling causes the blood vessels to seal themselves and there will be no bleeding. Was taught that years ago castrating lambs but that was done by hand not with a drill.
 
If it was fitted with some sort of cup to contain the testical that would stop it from flailing about during rotation it would seem less crude. Also an offset shank that brings the axis of rotation into line with the cord clamp would stop the drill waving about. Certainly room for improvement with this technique.
 
Just showed the video last night to a neighbouring woman who's husband walked away from the family about 6 weeks ago.wasnt his first time to do it either
she nearly threw up watching it .although shed probaly have done it to him too
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top