to the rubber ring and afferent conduction of activity from nociceptor in this area may still have been present. However, there some evidence of earlier shedding of the scrotum and the RR, median time from castration until complete healing was 13 days shorter in group BRR as compared to groups RR and 3RR There was a transient and insignificant increase in plasma cortisol concentration 5 min after removing the dead scrotal tissue in calves in group Rcut, but levels were at baseline 15 min later. Cortisol levels were generally low and did not differ significantly between group Rcut and control calves, which indicated that removing the dead scrotal tissue on day 9 was less stressful than applying the rubber ring on the day of castration, although there may have been some effect due to calves being more accustomed to handling by day 9. Only one calf showed any physical response during cutting off of the dead tissue. The reason for this remained unclear and was not attributable to the presence of obvious pathology such as pronounced inflammation. The removal of the dead tissue needed to be as close as possible to the rubber-ring which required good restraint of the calf Decrease in daily weight gain is an indirect sign of chronic pain The our control calves was significantly greater than that of the calves in group 3RR in the last observation period of the study. Molony et al. (1995) considered decreases in daily weight gain to be a poor indication of chronic pain after castration Nevertheless, if the chronic pain is severe enough and lasts for a