Bull calves banded

I finally got the two bull calves banded for castration.  I asked my neighbor Larry for help.  Larry has lots of experience working with cattle in the past.  So that we could catch the two calves I opened the south corral and the loading ramp area gates so the calves could run over there.  Instead the two cows, the bull and then one calf ran over to the loading ramp area.  Larry and I were able to corner the one calf in the south corral so we started to work on him.

Larry was having a hard time finding the second ball/testicle.  And when he did, the ball/testicle would go back up before I could get a band over his scrotum.  Over and over we went.  Eventually we decided to try doing this when the calf was standing.  By now the mother cow saw what we were doing and came running over and mooing at us.  So I had to herd her out of the south corral and close the gate.

Over and over we worked on finding both balls/testicles and then keeping them down long enough to band them.  Finally I got the band on.  The second ball/testicle is smaller than the first one and it seemed like the second one was partially under the band and not all the way below it.  So I ended up putting a second band on the scrotum hoping to put it higher.  Not really.  But with both bands on the scrotum it appeared both balls were below the bands.

I then checked the calf's ear tag.  This was the calf (LR-8) on which Donna and I could earlier only find one ball/testicle.  So this was a good thing Larry and I found both.  We let the calf go.

By now the cows and bull had left the loading ramp area and we were able to quickly catch the other calf, 70-7.  This was the two testicle calf Donna and I worked on earlier.  Larry and I were able to easier get both balls/testicles to stay down long enough that I could band the calf.

I am happy I finally got both calves banded.  Then I let them out of the south corral so they and their mothers could join the rest of the cows and calves. Of course some of the cows wanted to fight with the new cows but eventually they seemed to get over it.

Since "Mama" cow looks like she is getting closer to giving birth, Larry helped me herd Mama into the south corral to be with the bull and Muscles.  Since Mama is very over protective of her calf for three weeks after giving birth, it will be easier for both of us if Mama is in the south corral.

Calf 110, the one that likes to rub against me, then decided to rub his head against Larry's legs.  This evening when checking on the cattle calf 110 ran over to me and started to rub against my legs.  He wouldn't stop, even when I tried to get him to stop.  I had to leave the corral.

Late afternoon I helped Donna burn the ditches by her place.  Those ditches hadn't been burned in almost 20 years.  So it was good that we cleaned them up of old and tall grass.

Photos of the calves after they were banded,  It was hard to get them to stand still long enough to get a good photo of them.