Surgical and non-surgical castration of beef cattle calves causes significant pain and stress, and evidence-based pain management protocols remain inconsistently applied across the industry.
Cattle castration without anaesthesia and analgesia is a routine cause of preventable acute pain affecting millions of animals annually. Cattle display clear physiological and behavioural pain responses during and after castration - elevated cortisol, reduced feeding, abnormal posture, and pain-related vocalisation. Effective pain control combining local anaesthesia and post-operative NSAIDs is available but adds cost and veterinary time, discouraging adoption. Regulatory requirements for pain management during castration, as are becoming standard in some progressive markets, would prevent much of this preventable suffering.