Sheep Flocks Can Be Examined At Shearing Time

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 70, 28 March 1949, Page 7

Sheep Flocks Can Be Examined At Shearing Time

Shearing, always a busy time, provides another opportunity for a general examination of all flocks. Culling for wool must be done immediatelly before or at shearing time.

Where mustering difficulties do not apply, it is usual to cull for wool before shearing, and the culls are marked, but not drafted out, at that stage. They can be marked with raddle on the nose and, after being shorn, with a distinguishing dot on the shoulder.

In the case of large flocks culling for wool is usually dene either in the shearing shed or, if space and lighting there are not satisfactory for the job, in a yard and preferably one with a grating or concrete floor in order to minimise dust. If the flock is one of the fine-woolled breeds in which the fleece is the most important economic feature, much greater stress is laid on culling for wool than in the case of dual-purpose sheep.

Weaning is seldom carried out at shearing time, but may be forced upon owners of high-country stations where shearing has been delayed until near the normal weaning time by bad weather or. more commonly, through shortage of shearers. Where these conditions obtain shearing, weaning, culling and dipping may be carried out at the same time, thus making one muster suffice arid reducing costs. Dipping off the shears is uncommon and cannot be recommended as a means of tick eradication. It is sometimes carried out to avoid a second muster. In cases where a property has an area of “summer country” run in conjunction with easier hill country some distance away, wethers for the former are sometimes dipped off the shears.