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WY, OK | We've done everything from cutting at branding (1-2mo old), banding at preconditioning (3-5 weeks before weaned), banding 24-72 hours after they are born and banding at branding. Cutting at branding wasn't practical anymore with the kind of bands and banders out there now. Banding at preconditioning ended up with a few dead almost every time, or at the least a few you had to treat and couldn't sell w/ the rest at weaning. Banding around birth kills growth potential and you get more water belly if you keep yearlings. So now we have settled on banding at branding, you get a few months of bullish growth, don't have the infection problem and it seems to have cut down on water bellies on the few that do get kept. We also haven't lost many pounds versus banding at preconditioning, plus I forgot to mention not all the nuts will fall off before you want to sell them so you either get docked at the sale barn or hold on to 10% of them until their sacks drop off. We also did not implant in any scenario. | |
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banding or cutting
