Researchers say calves are best off if producers castrate them as early as possible and use pain control measures
Cattle branding operations might have to look a bit different this year, with smaller crews and minimal socializing.
If ranchers have to forgo branding or reduce crews, they should nevertheless ensure the bull calves are castrated at branding time or at as young an age as possible.
“The work still needs to get done and don’t delay castration until weaning,” said Beef Cattle Research Council science director Dr. Reynold Bergen.
Research indicates delayed castration is more painful for the animal and extends recovery time and thus is not recommended.
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“It’s going to definitely do two things. One is it’s going to be way harder on the calf and it’s really going to impact the sale value of that calf either in terms of the weight that it loses between the time you castrate it and sell it or, if you are selling it as a bull calf into the feedlot you will get seriously docked for that. So it’s not in anyone’s benefit.”
The longer the testicles are attached to the calf, the more the calf is attached to them, he added.
In ordinary times — the ones before the COVID-19 pandemic — more than 93 percent of ranchers said they castrate calves at less than three months of age, according to the Western Canadian Cow-Calf Survey released in 2017.
As well, the use of pain mitigation is increasing during the procedure.
Thirteen percent of survey respondents said they always use pain control when castrating and another 15 percent use it depending on age of calf and the method used. That is up from the 4.2 percent of respondents in 2014 who said they always used pain mitigation, although the survey response rate in that year was much lower.
It is likely that an even higher percentage of ranchers now mitigate pain when castrating. The WCCCS survey indicated that in 2017.
“Some of the 2017 respondents said although they didn’t use pain control in 2017, they were planning to include pain control in future calf treatment protocols,” the survey said.
“For the majority of those who used pain control measures, nearly 80 percent treated calves with painkillers, 12 percent used local anesthetic/nerve blocks to control pain, and four percent used a combination of local anesthetic and painkillers.”
The survey also indicated elastrators are the most common method, used by 78 percent of 2017 respondents.
Bergen said he views increased use of pain medication as evidence of ranchers’ changing attitudes.
“That’s the best thing you can do to reduce pain, is do it as early as you can and then if you’re doing pain mitigation on top of that, that’s the best you can do for your animals,” he said.
“There’s no clear economic benefit to using pain drugs. But there’s a benefit to the animal and producers are adopting it in spite of the cost. It’s not a huge cost, but it’s a cost, and they’re doing it, which I think speaks highly of them.”
Bergen said ranchers who use pain control when castrating tend to continue doing it from then onward.
Producers have also told him that freshly castrated calves that were given pain control move more quickly and easily and mother up quicker, a benefit since pairs are often moved onto pasture shortly after spring branding.
Available Agriculture Canada research on pain mitigation at branding used injectable meloxicam in studies because it was the only product available when research began, said Bergen. Other types of anesthetics and analgesics for use on cattle have become available since then.
A list of pain control options is available from the BCRC here.
