I have two bull calves that got a little age on them before I was able to castrate them. They are March/April born pretty large f1 red brangus. Would you still castrate them or just take to them to the sale barn as bulls? I am back in this game for the first time in 25 years and just wanted to see what the all knowing texags folks would do.

It depends on how long you want to keep them. I would cut them if I didn't need to get rid of them for at least two months.

I would castrate them since they are probably occasionally nursing. They'll recover quicker feeding on milk.

You'll get a notably lower price for bull calves vs steers.

Feedlots and stockers don't want bull calves. So they have labor cost , initial weight loss, and risk castrating big calves. You get docked for this.

There is a strategy to let calves develop as bull calves to build frames and muscle then castrate them as larger calves before fully weaned.
I did this strategy for a couple of years with good results using a Callicrate surgical tubing bander.

Also if you have really good winter pasture ( oats & ryegrass) , consider holding all your April calves and selling in Spring. Market is always much higher in Spring than in Fall. It's worth holding bulls back to shift calving season to May/ June to do this.

The bander is for sale if interested. With several bands and case.
$300 shipped.

https://callicratebanders.com/industry-tested/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1000982063&gbraid=0AAAAADKnzkKrBPfSFxnXsnp3KgH4tvvvb&gclid=Cj0KCQjww4TGBhCKARIsAFLXndTwiia50PRuT17-XV0wGoDMrEiuzET0QMp-keYH44hJLjN-4qjqazAaAtU0EALw_wcB

CrossTimbersW said:

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Take them as is. Here are 9 steers I took to sale 2 weeks ago and no one here can tell you which one of these I did not cut back in the spring. Very little if any deduction for bull calves vs steers right now. Feeders need calves and the competition to buy those calves is higher than ever.

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Great numbers! I had a smaller herd rancher try to give us a hard time for selling lighter weight calves with the big ones "because you are losing money" .
Case & Point comparing your ~565lbs to ~700. Why go through the bother of holding some calves for another 45-60 days on the cow for maybe $100 more? Pastures are in fairly good shape coming out of summer. Better off letting the cows recover now, put on some good fall weight and have them ready for winter.

Without a doubt. A friend of mine recently sold a bunch of 3 and 4wt calves. They were on heifers so he decided to sell them to take the pressure off of the heifers. They mostly averaged about $1,900 with the best one bringing $6.60 @350#. There isn't much incentive to keep them until they get to 600# they're worth that much.

Can we guess? I would say the 705# calf or the first 615#.

Which barn did you sell at? Gatesville?

Were they all black? I sold 2 days before you and it's interesting comparing barns.

Those are good guesses. That 705# calf was just under 2 months older than the others but he was cut at about 45 days old and he was mott faced. The rest were all born in January February and cut around 60 days. My guess would've been the first 615# calf you mentioned because he was the outlier of the group. The only calf in that group that I did not cut was the 640# calf. He was conveniently hiding the day I worked that group and I just never got back to him.

They were all blacks and black motts with good navel and ear. Yes, I sold them at Gatesville.

My dad is older now and can't get everything done on his normal schedule. Instead of calling my brother or I to come help him work calves when it's actually needed, he will just wait until Thanksgiving or some other time when we are coming anyway. Then he will let us know we need to castrate 600/700 lb calves.

Having done this quite a few times in the last few years, I would sell them as is.

I sold 6 steers in one lot that averaged 640 that brought 367.50 that week. If I had looked before posting maybe I would have guessed it right. Mostly Angus. No brahma influence. Some may have had some white on them.

By good navels and ear are you meaning that they were showing or not showing brahma influence?

Yes sir. I run registered brangus bulls on commercial brangus cows.

First picture is 3 of those steers from the sale couple weeks ago (blue tags in right ear).

Second picture are some of the heifers my daughter will be selling in the Hill Country Commercial Heifer Show in San Saba on October 15. I personally like the Brahman influence in my herd. I've got some cross bred cows too but these are what I prefer.

Jbob04 said:

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Sell them as is, no need to cut them at this point

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agree