# Burdizzo vs. Banding



## ChesapeakeBorn (Sep 30, 2014)

Which do you use for castration and why? After much research, I am still having a hard time deciding.


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## BoulderOaks (Sep 24, 2014)

I personally use bands. With the burdizzo, if both cords are not completely crushed, there's a chance of an incomplete castration. Done correctly, there's much less risk of infection, but it'll leave small shriveled testicles. With the bands, just make sure both testes are on the correct side of the band, and bam, wethered.  But, you're creating an open wound that can get infected or infested with fly strike if not sprayed with topical wound and fly products. But I find banded wethers to be more aesthetically pleasing IMO. No little danglies left behind lol.

I haven't had an issue banding bucklings, and they never even reacted to the bands at all. But I have had incidences with lambs. Out of the 300 lambs I docked this year, two died of spinal cord infections from bacteria entering via the wound which resulted in paralyzed rear legs. This only happened in the few whose tails were docked too short though(club lamb dock vs commercial dock)


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

I bamf just because that is what I have. I would rather cut them but never learned how. I word never be able to crush them.


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## BoulderOaks (Sep 24, 2014)

I've cut a few in the past, and had to cut one of the lambs this year because he had abnormal fat deposition in the testes. They swelled up to look mature ram sized and no band would fit, but when I cut them open, it was just a bunch of fat surrounding the testes. Weird. 

I prefer banding simply because it's faster and bloodless compared to the scalpel. BUT the scalpel-cut wethers healed up much faster.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I actually have my keeper pack boys cut by my vet. I don't do them until they are 4 to 6 months old though. The culls and pet quality are banded.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Burdizzos seem like the way to go....you would think any ways. We got a large one for the calfs and I got a small one for the goats. After having a bunch of 1/2 wether/ steers running around I went to the band. I really don't like the idea of little boy parts shriveling and falling off but it's better knowing the job is for sure done. 
But for the most part I try not to even band. If they are butcher/ sale yard bound they are sold at 3 months old with all their parts


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

I was going to castrate/burdizzo after reading on fiasco... And other sites, but everyone I met banded around here. I took my first buck kids to get banded, and it was easy squeazy! I have done it for years for myself now and the buck kids just don't seem to suffer very much distress with the banding. They slow down for the rest of that day, but then are back to normal by the next day! And it is ...well, a sure thing! I prefer this method.


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## audrey (Jul 17, 2012)

Another vote for banding here. Yeah, they do cry for a little bit about an hour or 2 in, but then its over and they are all withered up in about a week it seems.


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## ciwheeles (Apr 5, 2013)

BIG vote for banding here.

I used the bordizzo this year and it was a nightmare. Of the 6 wethers castrated 5 had to be brought back or picked up to be banded. One of the people even neglected to realize their guy had one testicle until he was 5 months old and was humping his mother and half sister. :wallbang: Luckily we got it all sorted out and the does ended up having not taken. 

I've heard people say you just need to buy the more expensive Bordizos, but that was exactly what we did. I also watched videos and really thought we had done them all well enough. We held it on for 20+ seconds, twice on each testicle. I'm happy for whoever it may work for, but it just didn't work for us. From here on out we're banding.


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## ChesapeakeBorn (Sep 30, 2014)

Wow, thank you for your responses!


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

If its a meat goat and under 3 months old, we band. Its just the easiest way to do it. I would use a burdizzo without some sort of locale or putting them out so we have our vet come out for the pack boys. Lots of good info and opinions above.


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## Esther88 (Nov 11, 2012)

I would vote for banding. I have only banded one buckling and it went very well. He did not act like he was in distress at all. Maybe a little lethargic for a day or so. Within 2 weeks it had pretty much fallen off. We did have to cut a tiny flap of skin that was hanging on (the band broke after about 5 days) but it was easy and there were no complications. I have never used a burdizzo but have seen it done and the banding was very easy even for a first timer.


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## margaret (Aug 30, 2013)

I band all my bucklings unless they will be used for breeding.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Another vote for banding!

We started banding last year, and it's easy. We give a shot of banamine about 15-20 minutes before the band goes on and watch them. Some throw a fit more than others. We did notice the boys with bigger testies were the ones who hurt more. So learn to be a good judge on 'when' to band. We don't go by age as much as we do on the size of the testies. But generally it's 6-9 weeks old.

Also... we raise boer/percentage boer and typically only band wethers if they are for 4-H projects. If there is anything hanging at all, then you can not show that wether.
If they are for meat and going to market/auction, then we don't band them. The only time we'd band others is if my kids aren't 100% sure who their market wether will be.
This year, all of our extra boys were sold as wether projects except for 1 who was a commercial buck.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Banding.... I did it successfully the last 2 years, and never had a problem...


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