An easy way to castrate farm animals

A bull being castrated using a burdizzo.

What you need to know:

There are many reasons one may castrate animals on the farm. And there are also different ways and methods to do this. One of them is using the burdizzo.

The burdizzo castrator is a tool used to castrate domestic animals. It is made out of high quality forged steel and is one of the safest, quickest and cleanest way to neuter livestock. This is done by breaking the blood vessels leading to the testicles using the clamp of the burdizzo. This tool is primarily used on cattle, goats and even sheep.

Improve management
There are various reasons why farmers castrate their animals, which make the burdizzo a very important tool on the farm. Animals are castrated to manage the breeding of animals with certain undesired characteristics so that they do not pass them on through reproduction. They are also castrated to make them docile and therefore improve on their management.

Different types
Dr Christopher Kyeswa, a veterinary doctor, notes that castration with the burdizzo is easy and can be done by anyone as long as he or she follows instructions. There are different types used for the different animals. For the smaller animals, it is a smaller burdizzo of nine inches and its mainly used for the goats and small calves. The ones for the cattle are thicker and heavier and have closed jaws from 12 to 18 inches.

How to use it
It does not require much technical advice as you only need a few instructions to be able to do a good job. Dr Kyeswa notes that precaution must be taken when using the tool. Castrating young animals using the tool is not good because the cord that suspends the scrotum is very thin.

For better results, it is good to use mechanical force to cut the cord from the animals. It works by crushing the testicular cord. You must proceed with one cord at a time and make two crushes 1-2 cm of distance.

“It is important to remember that the spermatic cords must be crushed one side at a time,” Dr Kyeswa points out.

When the device is used, the operator crushes the spermatic cords one at a time, leaving a space in between in order to maintain uninterrupted blood flow to the scrotum. Once the blood vessels are cutoff from the testicles, they shrink and deteriorate eventually.