west central Iowa | chofarm - 3/8/2011 22:59
Maybe I'm missing something here but if you are going to go to the trouble of slitting each one, why use the band. If you already have a knife and are down there you might as well pull the nuts out and slice them up and have a nut fry. I just don't see the purpose to doing both. We just cut ours and skip the banding, haven't lost one yet.
I lost a calf after the vets cut him, they said infection got in the open wound from cutting, he ended up lame with infection in the joints and never would get better despite vets treatment. If you band them you stop the blood flow and if anything does get in the slit it won't get in the bloodstream. The slits really aren't necessary it just makes them fall off faster in case you want to sell them sooner. I might never ever lose one again from cutting, but I would just as soon not take the chance, and I think there is less stress from banding without all the bleeding. |
Banding bigger calves/speeding up drop off?
