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Lamb castrating?


Way back in the early 60's when I was in FFA the ag teacher explained that method of castration to sheep but we never practiced it. It is true some lambs will collapse and stay down for a period of time when a rubber band is used for castration.
 
Well, we paid the vet dearly to do the cut-grab-pull method. Seemed pretty hard on the lambs. Also seemed pretty mean! Have gone to the green o-ring method and have been very successful. Costs me almost nothing. Sheep seem to get along fine - only one ever caused me any problems, and he got flystruck.
 

When we had sheep and our kids were in 4H for about fifteen years, this was a frequent hot topic. We decided after looking at both sides that the bands were easy on the owner but hard on the lamb while the emasculator was hard on both but for a much shorter time we decided to do the right thing for the lambs and throw the bands away. In club training sessions new people were discouraged from using the bands.
 
I have been using rubber bands to castrate and dock tails on lambs for 15 years. In that time I have lost two or three to infection in the tails and zero from castrating. I dock and castrate about 500 lambs per year. The infection in the tails happened when the temperature was about 80 degrees or higher. Worrying about a sheep in pain is stupid seeing as a sheep has about 2 brain cells, and those brain cells are scared of each other. Sheep endure incredible amounts of pain. If a horse gets a 2 inch scratch from barb wire it acts in a lot of pain, but I have seen sheep with maggots in their feet and wool eating them alive, and the sheep keeps eating as if nothing was wrong. No brain, no pain. Sure, when you put a ring on a sheep it acts like it is dying for a few minutes. Ever castrated a pig? They scream non stop for about 5 minutes without breathing in and then sit their newly cut behind down in the manure with their back legs spread out and run with their front legs, getting as much salty manure into the cut as possible, and they live to. No one ever promised me a pain free existence, I don't see why my animals should expect a pain free existence.
 

There is no denying that rubber bands are faster and easier and cheaper. I agree that sheep don't do a good job of displaying pain and I have to go along with the old saying that "sheep are born to die." I have however, observed a ewe show pain by running around in circles trying to get away from the pain of a prolapse, and I have watched ewes sit up with their lip curled during the pain of lambing. I still would not put the suffering of their flesh slowly dying for a week onto them simply because they keep quiet. We are supposed to take care of the animals over which God gave us dominion.
 
(quoted from post at 06:43:56 04/22/13) I have been using rubber bands to castrate and dock tails on lambs for 15 years. In that time I have lost two or three to infection in the tails and zero from castrating. I dock and castrate about 500 lambs per year. The infection in the tails happened when the temperature was about 80 degrees or higher. Worrying about a sheep in pain is stupid seeing as a sheep has about 2 brain cells, and those brain cells are scared of each other. Sheep endure incredible amounts of pain. If a horse gets a 2 inch scratch from barb wire it acts in a lot of pain, but I have seen sheep with maggots in their feet and wool eating them alive, and the sheep keeps eating as if nothing was wrong. No brain, no pain. Sure, when you put a ring on a sheep it acts like it is dying for a few minutes. Ever castrated a pig? They scream non stop for about 5 minutes without breathing in and then sit their newly cut behind down in the manure with their back legs spread out and run with their front legs, getting as much salty manure into the cut as possible, and they live to. No one ever promised me a pain free existence, I don't see why my animals should expect a pain free existence.
Click to expand...

Hats off to you Harv. You put my thoughts into words. I use bands, never lost a single lamb but did lose one goat. I've never seen any sign of pain in my lambs.

Our first lambs of the year hit the ground Sunday afternoon. Wish me luck!
 
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