When we were asked to demo the WEE Bander, we were reluctant to change from what we had known for years to be the norm (little green bands). However, it has proven to be one of the most beneficial tools we have in our toolbox.
The recovery time after banding has been cut in half. We have banded close to a thousand wethers with the WEE Bander and we can confidently say they don’t go off feed. We can count on two hands the number of infected scrotums we have had. In turn, we have been able to get the wethers pictured, videoed and healed up faster, before the new owners pick them up.
If you are in the business of raising lambs or goats, this is the one tool you must invest in.
“…..impressed with the ‘WEE’. We have experienced up to two weeks faster drop time than with elastrator rings. Also, the kids do not flop around after banding like we were seeing with elastrator rings.”
My husband and I banded 28 lamb tails last night after work. We are both giving you an enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’ to the ‘WEE’ Bander. There is no way with a normal elastrator that we would have been able to band so many lambs in such a short period of time. It probably took less than half as long as normal. We are careful about placing the ‘WEE’ Loop in a joint (not placing on a joint is painful for the lamb). We always want to leave at least one digit (short docks tend to have prolapse issues). With the normal elastrator, you have to ‘roll’ the band off the end of the prongs, and sometimes it lands in between the joints, and sometimes it does not. When placing the ‘WEE’ Loop on the tail, once it is in place, it doesn’t move when tightened. So, we spent much less time evaluating the placement, cutting off misplaced bands, and doing it again. There was actually none of that. The lambs only acted painful for 10-15 minutes, and then they were back to being normal. I have seen some act painful for up to 2 hours with a normal elastrator.
With the normal elastrator, we had some tail infections each year (one or two). With the ‘WEE’, all tails dropped off much quicker than with the elastrator bands and we did not have any infections.
The investment in the tool and extra expense of the loops will be worthwhile for us.
We are very happy with the tool and the bands!
I’ve been showing some of my advanced students from sheep ranches and farms as well as some other sheep producers about your Callicrate “WEE” Bander, and my spreading the word is generating a lot of interest. It’s still a little over a month before I start teaching docking and castration, both on the University Farm, and going to farms of former students and ranchers for demonstrations to inform as many people as possible about this new outstanding tool.
I’ve also got a great long-time friend in SW Wyoming that runs over 11,000 breeding ewes, and I would like to prove to him that the old type elastrator is why he has been having over 600 dead lambs post-docking the last couple of years.
‘Dr. Lyle McNeal runs one of the last great western sheep-rancher programs in the United States.
Dr. McNeal is hugely respected by ordinary sheep producers throughout the U.S. for his down-to-earth attitude on all forms of livestock and their production.’ – The Editor of Sheep! Magazine
This is going to be a great tool for us in the veterinary technology program. We really feel like our students need to learn how to properly use a bander before they graduate and head out to practice and Callicrate is the best around! We really like the new WEE Bander!