• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 5, 2023

No statement related to the safety of the animals was seen at the end of last week’s episode of “Farmer Wants A Wife.”

And yet, by most people’s yardsticks, some animals did come to harm -- bull calves that were neutered (i.e., castrated) on Fox’s down-on-the-farm, romance-reality show. 

“Farmer Wants A Wife” has four rugged rancher-farmers choosing future wives from a group of 32 female suitors.

On the show, portions of every episode are devoted to teaching the women -- almost all of whom have no familiarity with farming and ranching -- about the various chores and responsibilities that are part of the farming and ranching life.

“Farmer Wants A Wife” premiered on March 8, airing Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Eastern. Last week’s episode, titled “You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too,” was the series’ fourth.

In the episode, one of the tasks that some of the women were recruited to participate in was the the castration of bulls.  

This was a task that these women would rather have not performed, but for the sake of romance and television, they went at it anyway.

In the scenes that made up the castration segment of the episode, the camera did not actually linger on the procedure.

But at the same time, there was no mistaking what had happened. First, a calf was roped and then bodily flipped. Then, a pair of special snips were deployed on the target area and the deed was done.

The testicles were then dropped in a bucket, to be julienned and fried later to create a ranch-table staple known as calf fries. The women had a taste of them too.

“Castration -- it’s genuinely for the animal’s best interest,” insisted the 31-year-old rancher named Hunter, whose ranch in Watkinsville, Georgia, was the location for this calf-fry feast. “It’s not an everyday deal, but it’s part of [garbled] that has to be done,” he said.

The animal’s best interest? That might be debatable, although the way the newly castrated calves scampered away after they these unkind cuts may indicate they were not in any particular agony. Or maybe cattle are just stoic about pain. I wouldn’t know. 

This rite of ranching may be more in the interest of ranchers and diners, according to a Google search of the subject.

The procedure is aimed at turning a bull into a steer. Basically, a bull is a male bovine in possession of his testicles. A steer, on the other hand, has been separated from them.

Bulls are neutered as calves at 3-6 months of age, according to online sources. The steers thus produce less testosterone, and as a result, do not fight with each other for dominance in the way that aggressive bulls do.

Not only are the steers easier for the ranchers to handle, but “lower levels of testosterone in beef leads to higher quality grades and more consistent marbling,” according to one ranching web site.

Whether or not these castrated calves suffered harm in the glare of prime-time television is for others who are more expert to determine.

Suffice it to say that another TV taboo has now been broken now that contenders on a romance-reality show are castrating calves.