The newest Code of Practice for dairy production, currently in draft form, (see related article on page 30) will recommend that dairy producers administer an anesthetic and painkillers before and after castrating bull calves. It doesn’t necessarily follow that beef producers will have to do the same, says the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Beef animals are different from dairy “in genetics, behaviour and in management,” says Ryder Lee, manager of federal-provincial relations.
Nevertheless, he says, if a particular practice “is required in dairy, the question will always be asked: Why isn’t it the same in beef?”