Rural Heritage December 2025/January 2026

circulation and dry out. After a week with the bands on, both scrotal sacs had dried out and had begun pulling away from the body and scabbing. When it was evident that there was no living tissue left in the scrotum, I cut the dried sacs off to minimize the risk of infection or bugs collecting on the wound because it was the middle of the summer. After cutting off the dead tissue, the two steers healed very quickly, and I made sure to monitor the wounds until they were completely healed. I chose to castrate my calves when they were young to minimize trauma or complications healing. There are many people who swear by waiting six or more months before castrating to increase testosterone levels and promote muscle growth. The first veterinarian visit for my steers was at three months old when they were able to receive the rabies vaccine, which is required by animals exhibited at agricultural fairs in New Hampshire. They also received the Triangle-10 vaccine to help prevent common respiratory diseases because I planned to take them to fairs and other open herd events. The vet also ear tagged the steers with RFID tags for official identification. I prefer these tags because they are small and the least likely to be ripped out accidentally. Finally, the steers also got magnet boluses as a preventative measure for hardware disease.The magnet will be retained in their reticulum, or hardware stomach compartment, and is supposed to collect any metal that they might eat. The magnet will stay there for their whole lives and prevent perforated bowels resulting in peritonitis and often death from screws, nails or other sharp metal they might ingest. Early training Training calves was a hands-on, time intensive process which started with the basics of halter training. The first goal was for the animals to get comfortable in rope halters and being attached to the teamster. While in the halters, giving calves the visual, auditory and tactile cues for starting, stopping and turning was foundational. As a first-time teamster, this period was also training for me to learn to use proper body positioning and commands so the calves would have consistent inputs for each task I asked them to accomplish. The first few weeks with my team was a lot of halter work as individuals just starting and stopping

throughout their life and rapidly for their first four years, so I wanted to ensure that they were not nutritionally limited during the very critical first year of life. Health I castrated my steers by using an elastrator and banding their scrotums. After talking to several people with more experience with oxen and castration, I decided that banding would be the most effective and least stressful method for my calves. Many teamsters use the crushing method, which is meant to crush the spermatic cord and prevent testosterone production, but it is not as successful as banding or surgical castration. I considered surgical castration because it is the fastest and minimizes the trauma to the young animals, but I was not comfortable performing that surgery and did not want to go to a vet for the procedure. With an incision, there is also an increased risk for infection. At one month old I banded them, making sure that both testes were below the band and would lose Joe & Mack in a 5-inch training yoke for one of the first times.

Rural Heritage

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