HOW TO HANDLE SHEEP.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2119, 8 December 1880, Page 3

HOW TO HANDLE SHEEP.

Many a crawler or cripple on the run is accounted for by the thoughtless and often very brutal manner in which sheep are handled in the yard or by the shearer. It is very probable that the idea of large numbers being about causes men to be careless, their object very often being to get through as many in the day as possible, the loss of one or two sheep being considered insignificant when compared with the value of the work done. In this they are but too often encouraged by their employers, who designedly cause to be yarded such numbers that all hands are likely to be kept very busy for the whole of the day, many of them oaring little or nothing by what means their ends are accomplished. Little thought seems to be devoted to the fact that many of the poor brutes sustain permanent injury through the rough handling which they receive, the consequences of which may not become apparent for months afterwards, when it is usually ascribed to some constitutional or natural cause. The drafting-race has no doubt done a great deal towards removing the risk of injury, but even this, when the gate is in the hands of a careless or man, is the cause of a great deal of harm, asin either ease many an animal enters the receiving pen with broken ribs, while occasionally there is a broken neck to be dealt with. Sheep must be handled for paring and shearing, and it is a notorious fact that it is then that the most injury is inflicted. The usual mode of handling a sheep in the shearing-shed is most barbarous. The ehearer goes into the pen, selects the animal he wants, and catches it either by the wool or by the hind leg, and drags it out of the crowd and into the open part of the pen. As a rule, it is then dragged by the leg on to the shearing floor, the ehearer walking upright, probably carrying a pair of shears in his hand. Having arrived at the proper place, a kick against the fore logs, something after the style of the Cornish wrestler, brings it to the ground, after which shearing commences. We must give the colonial shearers credit for the manner in which they handle sheep while they are taking the wool off, and believe that injury is very seldom inflicted while the shears are at work. When sheep are yarded for paring, or for drafting in ordinary yards, they are usually caught and handled in a very similar manner. That under these circumstances very few escape without bruises or more serious injury is self-evident. Where the flock is small, the owner or manager generally attaches too great a value to it to allow any ill-usage of any description, either in the yard or the shearing-shed, and he generally takes care that the proper rules are strictly adhered to. To handle a sheep properly, it is not necessary to to catch it by the hind leg except when the animal is very wild, and even then it should only be held in that fashion until an ana con be placed around the neck of the animal. The leg should not be held longer than this, otherwise the sheep is likely to sustain internal injury. If the right hand is placed on the neck so as to prevent it from running away, the left should bo put on the tail. Thus held the sheep will bo a little in advance, and naturally inclined to make efforts to get ahead, as the best way to get away from its assailant. These are very easily controlled by occasionally raising the fore feet off the ground. In any case,. a man with even the least practice will find no difficulty in getting to the place he desires to reach, the greatest difficulty being that the sheep wants to get along too fast. In no case should a sheep be held by the wool or skin, as a very bad bruise would be a certain consequence. There_ is a right and a wrong a wrong way of turning a sheep over. The proper method is to lift up the fore part of the animal, so that the feet are a few inches from the ground, at the same time grasping the off hind leg (the higher up the better), and then putting it on its haunches. Taking hold of the_ flank is most objectionable, and a man who is caught doing it should be dismissed without a moment’s warning. Once down there should be no further difficulty, for occasional struggles are easily overcome by a little patience. All sheep are not alike, and some are more easily managed than others, but a comfortable position will always be found a good preventive. —“ Exchange.”