When you start thinking about breeding animals (or not breeding animals) the question of castration inevitably comes up.
It seems to be a less controversial question when it comes to household pets like dogs and cats. It's not very difficult to find affordable spay/neuter programs to ensure that those reproductive processes are curbed with our furry friends, but when it comes to farm animals, how do you decide whether or not to have it done and how do you handle that process?
Admittedly, I don't have that much experience with it, but here's what we have learned so far about the process (and before I go further, I'm putting in the disclaimer regarding the topic of discussion---castration--and all that it entails might not be suitable to all readers. I am also realizing that this is a disclaimer that I've put in the last few blog posts of mine, and I guess the conclusion that I'm coming to is that homesteading/farming is more often dirty/sweaty/bloody than it is picking wildflowers/frolicking in meadows/photo shoots with cute baby animals, but that is the life I live and what ends up getting shared, so take that as you will.)
So for anyone who doesn't know, what is castration? It is specifically, the removal of the testicles of a male animal. It is the process that turns bulls to steer, boars to barrows, and a buck or ram to a wether. For many animals with externally presenting scrotum, castration can be performed by "banding," the application of a very strong/tight rubber band at the top of the scrotum that cuts off blood flow to the testicles using a tool called the elastrator (or sometimes the emasculator--it can also be used to dock tails of animals if that is your practice, but we don't do that on our farm). Over time, the tissue dies and falls off in a relatively painless (and bloodless) process. The other way to castrate an animal would be to surgically remove them through an open incision to the body or with a docking tool to remove the scrotum entirely.
The next question would be, why would you castrate your animals? The testicles of a male animal produce testosterone, the male sex hormone that causes the "masculine" characteristics such as muscle development and instinctive "pack/herd" behaviors. It is also where the spermatozoa for sexual reproduction are produced. By removing the testicles, one prevents these processes from happening in the male animal.
But again, why would you castrate?
1) <--(I'm numbering these, but that doesn't mean that it's in order of importance, just in the order of which I am noting them. The reasons change rank of preference depending on the animal and the situation of the farm at the time.) Safety
A fully, sexually mature male animal has testosterone that increases the levels of aggression and dominance that they display. A fully grown male animal is much larger than a female animal of the same species. I marvel at it every time I drive by the big cow pastures in our area. Cows themselves are large animals but a full grown bull is a hulking mass, an absolute, impressive unit of beef. Male animals tend to have aggressive displays of dominance so that the best traits are passed on through the herd. In the wild, this is all fine and dandy, but on your farm where there aren't that many other male animals, the human can also appear as the other "male" competition that the growing animal has to "dominate." I have read stories of bull calves that were lovingly bottle-fed and raised by hand to adulthood, to turn on their farmers when they've reached maturity with gory and deadly results. This is exponentially more dangerous when your animal has horns, which most herd animals do, unless they are a polled breed or have them physically removed.
And it isn't just a matter of "feeling" out your animal. Even if you are familiar with the behavior of the animals on your farm--I know when Cookie is feeling ornery, she gets a certain look in her eye and the way she shifts her weight, and I know she's going to give me trouble--these are good things to know about the animals that you handle on a regular basis, but an intact male can shift instantly and without predictability, and that can leave you vulnerable to the much more agile (usually larger) and dangerous animal. This is true even for other, non-cow animals. Rams and bucks (male sheep and goats) can also be horned, and while they are not as large as a bull, a full-size adult goat or sheep can be near 200 lbs, which can do a bit of damage to anyone. Plus, hooves.
Even if you do have multiple animals on your farm that can keep each other distracted from attacking people directly, a group of testosterone driven males can do a lot of harm to each other. Even an animal as sweet and "gentle" as our ducks can attack each other to great damage. At one point we had a large number of drakes (male ducks) in our flock because in our first year of acquiring animals, we became the place where other people dropped off their culls (not something we do anymore, thankfully) and too many male ducks to female ducks became a problem right away (the average recommendation is about 1 drake to every 7-8 or more females). Our female ducks were actually being killed, drowned, or smothered into the ground as multiple drakes would attempt to mate with them all day long. Females were losing feathers and dropping weight as they were constantly under stress to run away, not able to lay eggs or preen themselves properly without being harassed. Even between the drakes themselves, the less dominant ones were being pecked to death, literally. Feathers plucked out, then open wounds to the exposed skin and then death if we couldn't rescue or separate them in time. And this was behavior that happened over the course of a few days. We had to drastically reduce the number of drakes in order to save the entire flock. Imagine this sort of behavior but on the scale of larger animals: charging rams and angry bulls facing off against one another can be very dangerous to either animal not to mention those that happen to be nearby as collateral damage.
Castration curbs that aggressive tendency because there is no longer the extra testosterone being produced in the body. I will note though that even a steer or a wether or a barrow can still be a dangerous animal simply because of their size and weight and overall agility in comparison to humans. I always tell my children, never turn your back on the animals. We raise them from babies. They are gentle and familiar with my children, who are unafraid of them, but it is still important to show them respect, to "keep your head on a swivel," to be ready in case anything changes--even if your animals are not aggressive, being aware can prevent many accidents.
2) Preservation of fencing and infrastructure.
This is sort of related to safety, but a large, aggressive animal will test your fences. An animal in a pen, even if it's a large pasture with much acreage, still has a perimeter that will be tested. A bull or a boar or a ram or a buck is a bigger animal that can do bigger damage---just by itching themselves on a post over and over can topple the line and now you've got uncontained animals. And while you can train an animal to respect a fence, this doesn't take into account their behaviors in acts of desperation. If they feel in danger or defensive/protective or are desperate for a female in heat, they can bust through electric fences, through barbed wire, take down wood rails, and just do as much damage as you can imagine a multiple hundred pound animal can inflict. The more docile, less aggressive an animal is (because it is cut) the lower the chance of this happening.
3) Premature breeding and preserving genetics (and maybe some more infrastructure)
A male animal becomes sexually mature before it is fully grown (and therefore "market ready" for butchering). This means that there can be unexpected pregnancies, unwanted pregnancies and the complications that go along with them (case in point, our experience with Inigo and our too young Little Mama). The best case scenario is that you have babies when you were unprepared for them. The worst case being that the mother or baby or both is/are hurt (or even killed) by a pregnancy/delivery too young. When you're starting your home herd, it is recommended to cull any unwanted traits immediately, in what can often appear as coldheartedness or ruthlessness. But it is important for the appearance and performance of your animals in the long run. No animals that wont' stay fenced. No animals that are dangerous to people, especially little ones. No animals that are prone to certain diseases. No animals that do not fare well in your climate or require extra attention for their health and maintenance. Unless you want to run an open-type animal sanctuary, a homestead herd must be productive and efficient and not more of a burden than a benefit, and one way of ensuring that is to only have the best specimens capable of reproducing. (I think I sound a little scary here, and I apologize... I'm just trying to be matter-of-fact)
Because of early sexual development, keeping uncut males together with the rest of your animals also means the risk of inbreeding/incest if a male breeds back to its mother or sisters, especially if you don't have a large herd like we do, and the only female option is a first degree relative. The practice of inbreeding is not uncommon among domesticated animals---it's how all those pedigrees and traits of particular family lines are maintained and passed on through multiple generations (think pure-bred pets), but it is also a practice that over time weakens offspring as more and more homozygous genetic recessive traits (that can often be detrimental if not fatal) to an animal manifest themselves. I would rather not start an accidental eugenics experiment on our farm.
When you are breeding animals, as mentioned in our post about our farrowing pigs, it is important to only breed traits that you wish to sustain on your farm. The healthiest animals, the best mothers, the ones who show resistance to illnesses, who are able to survive in the climate where you live and on the food you are able to provide (even something like wanting a certain color or cosmetic trait) can be controlled and selected for. Multiple sexually reproductive males with your female animals means that this level of control is taken away. You don't know who is passing on what trait, and it can take a great deal of time, energy, and resources to "correct" the situation. Also, at some point in time, you will have to separate male animals from female animals, either to give mothers a resting period, to give the babies a chance to thrive without interference from a large male animal, and to prevent any physical altercations between any male animals you have. A fence for a sexually mature male animal has to be solid. Secure. And it has to be maintained, because they have all day to test it and they will test it.
4) Meat quality
This is sort of up to personal preference and taste, but oftentimes meat harvested from intact males is said to have a "taint," a gamey flavor that some people find to be off-putting, and also a toughness in texture. Our neighbor keeps stud bucks on his property and when the wind is blowing just right, a very strong goat smell perfumes the air. You will know when you smell it (you can also taste it in goat milk if a buck is kept with does... yum). I don't particularly notice it in other meat types, but definitely for pigs, gamey pork can drive me out of the kitchen, and I can't cook it, let alone eat it. Meat from castrated animals also develop more "marbling" which at least in Western culinary applications is a desired trait. Without the testosterone to drive a lot of muscle development, meat develops more fat, more tenderness. You can see it physically in steers versus bulls. Bulls have the broad chest and wide shoulders. Steer tend to have the heavier set hips, and put on more weight around their abdomen.
The issue with male "taint" in the meat can be remedied by butchering an animal early. A yearling bull, a lamb, and even pigs butchered before they are fully grown can reduce significantly, if not eliminate, that unsavory smell/taste of the meat. It also ensures tenderness because the animal is not fully grown. It is not the most profitable practice because the animal that you are processing is not at maximum size, but in a homestead situation where you are only feeding yourself or a small group, that might not be an important factor.
Obviously castration, even using a bloodless method like banding, is not without some degree of discomfort if not outright pain. When done correctly, there is very little discomfort with banding. But it is possible that a testicle can slip or "pop" out of the constricted scrotum rendering the castration ineffective. To remedy that mistake requires cutting and a more surgical-type removal. A lot of times castration is done to animals when they are very young--around the time of first shots for calves or even sooner. Smaller animals are easier to restrain, and there is less risk of damaging blood loss (the blood loss from docking to a larger or even full grown animal can kill it if the hemorrhaging is too great and cannot be stopped). And while there is always risk of infection, if the castrated animal is nursing with its mother, the immunity benefits of the milk can help reduce the chances.
Some choose to practice castrating later in the life of the animal. Keeping a bull calf intact for longer ensures muscle development. You get a larger animal faster. And then castrating after that desired level of growth is achieved reduces unsavory meat and aggressive behavioral tendencies--but you can imagine how much more difficult it would be restrain a larger animal to do that procedure. If you don't have a chute to physically lock the animal in place a lot of times it would require tranquilizers of some sort to incapacitate the animal and keep everyone involved safe. And then you still have the above mentioned issues with bleeding and infection.
With pigs, you don't have the option of banding. Their scrotums are not external to the body, and so any castration has to be done surgically. Castration day for the pigs is a day we dread, but at least with our current set-up, it is necessary for the above mentioned reasons, so I'll walk you through what that day is like for anyone who was curious or looking for instruction:
Materials needed:
-a sharp blade (preferably a scalpel but a sharp, disinfected razor type blade is also useful)
-disinfectant for both the animal and the tools you are using. We use rubbing alcohol for the blades (or a sterilized new scalpel blade), and topical iodine for the incision site
-liquid/spray bandage/wound treatment--I think Blu-Cote is the name of the numbing/bandaging spray we use for after care
-a second person to do either the cutting or securing the animal
The basic steps are, get the piglet. This has to be done quickly if the piglets are not already separated from the sows. Separation beforehand would be easier. If everyone runs together like at our farm, you identify the piglet. Grab it and run out as fast as you can. The piglet will scream. It will be deafening. All of the adult pigs will come running. They will try and kill you, so be fast.
Once you have the screaming pig secure, have one person hold the piglet on its back, all four quarters restrained and pulled towards the shoulders. This is the time to do a visual and tactile search for any intestinal/inguinal hernias. They appear as bulges along the abdomen or near the scrotum. Do not perform the castration if you see a hernia. That pig will have to be culled. Or castrated by a veterinary service. They should not be used for breeding because the tendency for hernias, especially scrotal hernias, are hereditary.
If no hernias are observed, restrain the pig. It will still probably be screaming. Hold tight. Even at a day old, piglets are incredibly strong and will struggle if they are not properly secure.
Once restrained, the other person can tighten the skin around the exposed scrotum. This is the time to check whether both testicles are present. Sometimes one or both testicles have not yet descended and that piglet will have to be marked for later circumcision or to be culled or separated. It is also important to feel whether or not the testicles appear to be similar in size. Mismatching testicles can be an indicator of a possible hernia post-circumcision which is difficult to remedy (you have to push the intestines back through and suture close the protusion site) or fatal--needless to say, do not perform the procedure if this is the case, and do not breed to this male to prevent this trait from manifesting in future litters.
If everything is appearing as "normal," apply topical disinfectant to the skin and with a sterile or disinfected blade, make two incisions parallel with the midline of the pig deep enough to cut through the scrotal skin and to expose a white membrane called the tunica vaginalis that surrounds the testicle. Then using thumb and forefinger, you can "pop" out the testicle and membrane. It might be necessary to enlarge the incisions if the testicles do not fit. It is recommended to cut closer to the tail side if this is necessary.
There are two options once the testicle is outside of the body: cutting the cords on either side with a blade or breaking with fingers. While cutting it seems to be a more intuitive/more surgical practice, I have read in multiple places that breaking the membrane (through gentle stretching and the firm application of fingernails) actually minimizes blood loss and the risk of herniation.
Once the testicles are removed, we spray the liquid bandage and return the piglet with the rest of the pigs. There is very little to no bleeding during all of this. The piglets are usually sedentary for the first hour afterwards, but are usually behaving as "normal" within several hours. It is difficult to keep the incision site clean, especially since pigs tend to wallow, so additional application of disinfectant doesn't necessarily do much, but a healthy pig in a clean pen won't require it either.
In our two years of breeding pigs, we have castrated six piglets using the above method. Almost all the piglets have done well. The one complication we had was with a piglet that had testicles of varying size (which we didn't realize to be the case until after they were removed) that ended up developing an inguinal hernia and had to be culled. It is never our intention to purposefully hurt an animal or cause it to suffer, so my husband I have come back to the question or whether or not we need to castrate several times whenever the prospect of castration day occurs.
For pork, it is necessary to make the meat edible. I have read of people with larger porcine farms that are able to selectively breed types of pigs that don't have taint or have very little taint, and they no longer practice circumcisions, and also there is the option of butchering the pigs early. We are kind of testing this theory with our Dexter cows because both bull calves are intact. Also, the issue of bull taint in beef is not as noticeable, or maybe it's a flavor that we are more used to than with pork. Because they are both intact, we have to butcher the older bull calf earlier than the traditional 18 month mark so that he doesn't breed back to his mother. I guess we'll see how that plays out when they are processed.
Keeping an intact male is necessary if you want to make your flock/herd of animals self-sustaining. It does provide a degree of safety to the overall herd as well. An intact male is a protector. And if you have all of you animals in a relatively closed herd, meaning you're not introducing new animals on a regular basis, you're protecting them also from diseases and other microscopic health problems that could be introduced every time you bring in a new farm animal. I go back and forth on whether or not it is something we need to do on our farm. I think with the bulls, they are docile and small enough that with normal precaution and our current fence set-up, we can keep them intact and be safe.
With the pigs, I don't necessarily smell the boar we have unlike the other male pigs I've been around, so maybe taint won't be an issue. But we do have many female pigs and I don't want to be overwhelmed with babies, so we do castrate the males in order to not have too many unwanted litters (especially since pig gestation is so short), and to better the type of pigs produced---Inigo's offspring are taller than the normal American Guinea hogs and they are more mobile, meaning they don't get too fat too fast and are good at moving and staying fit. Plus, we like the way they look. "That's a good looking pig," my husband says whenever he sees the new litter running around.
We have some time before the next possible castration day. The current sows, if they are pregnant right now, won't deliver until the end of the year, and so we can revisit whether or not to castrate at that time. It's not a black and white decision, and I hope I've provided enough information to see both sides of the issue to help make the choice that suits your farm best. Whatever direction you go, I hope you and your farm stay safe and healthy!
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