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Western Nebraska | We used it for several years. It is effective but far from neat and tidy. Within a half an hour of banding the calves will be pacing the pen. They will be laying down and standing up and walking. This will continue until they go numb, don't expect them to stay on feed during this time. Once they finally go numb the bag will eventually turn black. After 45-60 days the bag will usually fall off, but even that isn't neat and tidy. We had quite a few that bled from the wound when the bag finally fell off.
After using it for several years and being troubled by the physical discomfort the calves exhibited from the process, I went looking for some research on the effectiveness of it. I found a study that said calves knife cut suffered less, when comparing feed consumption, than late banding. Your best bet now is to either knife cut them, or find someone that knows how to use the burdizzos well. Calves will demonstrate a lot less pain and discomfort with either one of these than with late banding.
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Callicrate Smartbander ..Opinion
