results in experiment 1, surgical castration exhibited more leg stamping and tail swishing than banding or entire animals in the hours after castration. Surgical castrates in both experiments showed an increase in haptoglobin , which ressolved after 4 days. Plasma cortisol was generally not affected by castration . Surgical castrates grew more slowly than entire bulls , but faster than banded animals , in 56 days after treatment . In experiment 1, after 56 days , the BW of the surgical and banded castrates were not different from the BW of steers. 14-mounths banded cattle developed persistent wounds above the latex band which remained for several week after srotal dehiscence , but this did not occur in the 9-mouth-old animals.