TREATMENT OF LAMBS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10089, 10 September 1910, Page 3

TREATMENT OF LAMBS.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS.

(By a Maeterton Settler.)

The operation of docking; and the after treatment of the lambs is one of the moat important undertakings which will engage the pastoralistH just now. It is important, inasmuch es upon the careful carrying out of all the details of the work depends in a very large treasure the future health and well-being ot the animals.

Before starting, all yards to be used should be cleaned out, manure and all unsanitary matter bem? removed, and the surface of the pens disinfected so as to (minimis-; the risk of blood poisoning, a disease only too often fatal to the lam ha.

Where circumstances will permit, jt ia a good plan to have temporary and moveable yards, on clean gras?, and erected at such places as will facilitate the working of one or more paddocks and thus lessen the distance the animals have to be driven.

Mustering should be carried out with great discretion and care, and the bringing together of large mobs should be avoided, as the greater the number yarded and massed together, the more difficult it is to "mother" the lambs afterwards. This can be if the paddocks are large, by bringing in the sheep in small cuts, [say, from two hundred and fifty to three and four hundred in each lot. So soon as the docking of a mob is completed it Bhould be returned to the portion of the ground it came from, and the ewes and lambs carefully kept together until such tims as it is apparent that trie majority, at any rate, of the lambs have foundjheir mothers.

To carry oat the mothering process, care and patience is required, for. upon its success, perhaps, more than anything else depends the future health and immunity from disease of the young stock. Nothing is more fatal to the robustness cf the lambs than the loss of their mother's mills at an early stage of their existence. Motherless lambs make weak hoggets, and these presage a heavy "death rate" in the following winter and spring months, to say nothing of weakened constitution of those which survive, the ewes among which become later on the mothers of future generation. If farmers desire a strong and virile constitutioned flock (and who among thein does not?) they must exercise the greatest care in reariug their young stock. This season has been marked by a heavy death rate in the young sheep, and if the reason was closely looked into, it would ba found that the prevalence of internal parasites, from which so many suffered, was largely due fca the want of care the animals received at the previous docking and shearing ) time. If proof is required of the effects of this mismothering, it may be seen in the miserable culb which are paraded for sale from time to time in our auction yards. While on the subject ot ing," it may be stated that opinions differ as to the advantages of using the searing iron in place of the old-faßhioned knife. From investigations conducted some time ago, it is shuwn pretty conclusively that tue latter mode wa3 preferable to searing, vide the following:—"State Farm Tests.—The matter has received the attention of several of the State farms in New South Wales and Queensland. Mr J. W. Matthews contends that the knife is I clean and effective, is safe, and is reliable, which is a comprehensive testimony. Where large flocks are concerned the quickness and cheapness of this method serve to keep it in favour. But the main point is that both the instrument and the wound most he sterilised to prevent infection by micro-organisms. Knives ■hould be sterilised after every operation by immersing them in carbolic solution or boiling water. The point at which the tail should

be severed depends on tha sex of the lamba. Ewe lambs should be cut to the second joint from the tail, as this is an advantage at both mating and lambing time. In the case of males an extra joint may be lelt on, as this improves the appearance of the lamb at a laier stage. If there is much blood, he recommence that a ligature be tied tightly round the slump. It is suggested that the stump be coated with Stockholm tar." , Effects of the Iron. —"At the Wgga £Statae Farm cases of tetanus, according to the official report, were directly traceable to the searing iron used a month before. Another trouble which was noted after the use of the iron, was swelling along the middle of the back. Mr Matthews considers that this waa probably due tu the iren being insufficiently hot, or to the tail beiDg cut too close to the root. Of course, the reasons are not usually condemnatory of the system so much as error in doing the work. It has to be remembered by those who are satisfied with the iron that the tail is very closely associated with the spinal column —in tact, is part of it. Tne degree of heat to which the iron is subjected is of much importance. It too hot, the blood v»isgeh ara injured deeply, and the gape, so that blood flows The iron should be red hot, not raised to a white heat. At the Glen Innea State farm the teets were not quite decisive, but sufficient was known to show that searing wai certainly slower and more troublesome, and of all operations to | which Bheep are subjected, it was th<j; most painful. Some critics go so far j as to declare it is a barbarous method." Complaints are made as to the lamba' tails being docked too long j as a tendency to make the carcase appear unsightly when frozen and placed on the English market tor | sale. An inch to an inch and a half is advocated as about the right length.