Goat Management
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Reply To: Castration
Effects of surgical or banding castration on stress responses and behaviour of bulls
“Conclusion: The banding procedure produced fewer acute effects, but a greater suppression of growth than surgical castration and induced prolonged wound formation in the older age group, suggesting that this procedure may not be as suitable for yearling cattle.”
My note: I’m going to go out on a very unpopular limb here and say that I no longer advocate for the extended wait time to castrate goat kids. The two factors that actually contribute to urinary calculi are: nutrition and genetics. It doesn’t matter how much time the urethra had to develop if you don’t have the first two factors correct. Stones will form regardless of urethra size but one thing we can control is the amount of pain we subject our animals to.
Growing up in the cattle industry, we banded calves at a day old. They displayed very minimal signs of discomfort. I have banded goat kids from a couple weeks to a few months and have no doubt in my mind that the older the goat is at castration, the more discomfort he feels. This is an area where we have collectively allowed FEAR of what could be to create more harm in the NOW, causing pain to our goats because they might have more pain later if we don’t. I don’t find any evidence anywhere that compels me to agree banding later will reduce the risk of UC. But I do have evidence right here in this post that there are disadvantages to later castration. Read the research in the post above this for more information on pain and age of castration.
