TAILS LEFT FOR WEIGHT TEST

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30953, 8 January 1966, Page 8

TAILS LEFT FOR WEIGHT TEST

Farmers in * certain district north of the Waimakarirl wondered last spring why a neighbour left a small mob of lambs untailed. In due course, however, they were let in on the story. The neighbour, who prefers to remain anonymous, told an inquirer this week that the lambs were left untailed in order to compare their weights when killed with tailed lambs of the same age. The lambs represented the drop of several successive days, and, until they were marked by a freezing company buyer, were set stocked, most of the time in one paddock.

When put into the works, they killed out at 36.081 b, compared with an average of 341 b for tailed lambs of the same age. All lambs were by Dorset Horn rams from bought-in ewes. Asked if he had had any trouble with dirty long-tailed lambs, the farmer said he had not. He had, however, crutched the odd tailed wether lamb. The idea of leaving a proportion of lambs untailed—in this case 10 per cent—came from an English publication. The farmer said it appeared to be a fairly common practice in the United Kingdom.