Reducing calves’ castration pain drives research18 March 2024 18 March 2024 5 minute read 5 minute read By: By: University of Saskatchewan North AmericaReducing or mitigating the pain of castration for male beef calves is one of the main animal welfare concerns in the beef cattle industry today. However, Canada’s cattle industry is searching for an effective and economical way to mitigate the calves’ pain during castration that addresses welfare concerns. Study goalsOne of the study’s goals is to develop a standardized pain evaluation protocol to help with the development and registration of future pain mitigation tools. The project focuses on testing pain mitigation options in young calves at two different ages: castration at two weeks and castration when the animals are five and a half months old. In addition to testing the new castration band, the researchers will evaluate the calves’ pain after using a regular castration band with either no pain medication or with local injections of lidocaine.