Effect of different castration methods on growth performance and behavior responses of postpubertal beef bulls

Abstract

Fifty mixed-breed, 790 lb (359 kg) preconditioned bulls were utilized to examine the effect of different castration methods on animal performance and behavior response. Cattle were blocked by weight and randomly assigned to one of five treatments: non-castrated control (CNT); castrated using high-tension rubber bands (BND); castrated using high-tension rubber bands with lidocaine local anesthesia (BNDL); castrated surgically (SURG); and castrated surgically with lidocaine local anesthesia (SURGL). Cattle were fed individually for 28 days post-castration. Castrated cattle tended to have lower dry matter intake (DMI) than CNT cattle throughout the study (P=0.12). BND/BNDL cattle had higher DMI than SURG/SURGL cattle during the first week post-castration (P=0.04), however, SURG/SURGL cattle had higher DMI than BND/BNDL cattle during the last week of the study (P=0.05). Castrated cattle had lower average daily gain (ADG; P<0.01) and gain efficiency (GE; P<0.01) than CNT cattle. SURG/SURGL cattle had more favorable ADG (P<0.01) and GE (P<0.01) than BND/BNDL cattle during the study. There were minimal to no behavioral differences observed post-castration between treatment groups. Use of local lidocaine anesthesia had no effect on performance, post-castration behavior or vocalization during castration, regardless of castration method utilized. A positive correlation was found between scrotal circumference and vocalization (P=0.05); however, the correlation between body weight and vocalization was not significant.