CARE OF LAMBING EWES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1938, Page 3

CARE OF LAMBING EWES

SOME SOUND ADVICE. BY A PRACTICAL FARMER. (By W.E.R.) An article on management of ewes and lambs at lambing time may be of use to some farmers. First, you should look at least 5 chains in front, when you enter a lambing paddock and keep it up. There are a lot of ewes lost through lambs coming the wrong way. If you see a ewe not feeding or lying down, go to her every time. If her wool seems to be wet or when she moves she shows a stiffness behind, catch her. The lamb may be coming the wrong way. She may not be, showing signs of lambing and the pains may have left her. Catch her and test her. If she is lambing tie two legs and stand her on her neck. She is much easier to handle then. If the lamb is coming tail first, push it back gently and get the legs. Then lay her on her side and pull gently, not straight but up and down. If a ewe is tight and you cannot get the head out, place the legs back and put a. piece of binder twine on each leg tightly. When you get the head, you can then get the legs. By doing so

you do not knock the ewe about so much. Sometimes you get three legs coming at once. You save a lot of trouble by pinching one leg hard with your nail or a knife. Thelamb will move his leg and he also will move his other leg if it is showing. You will know which to put back then. You should have binder twine handy in order to hobble the ewe after, taking lamb, or if a ewe will not take to her lamb. Sometimes a ewe has two

lambs and will only take-to one. Hobble her and take the lamb away that she takes to for a day. You may have to do it for several days. When she

1 is hobbled she cannot 1 get away. Bin1 der twine, two strands about 16 inches long, is good for the purpose. Tie a double knot about 6 inches from the end and tie the end round the joint above the hoof. Allow about 4 inches in between the knots. It saves a lot of trouble and does not knock the ewes about so much. A ewe cannot then get away from her lambs. If you hobble on the front legs and one front and one back leg, they can hardly move. I have fos* tered lambs on to ewes by putting hobbles on the three legs. The front and hind leg hobble should be about 20 inches long. We nearly always tie ewes up when we foster lambs on to them. We hobble and tie them up for. an hour or so, before we put the lamb on. They are “civilised” then. I skin the lamb like a sheep is skinned. I tie under the neck, and at front legs and at the back legs. Sopie people skin the lamb as they would a rabbit*'’ It is very much slower and ho better. I use plough line rope for tying up, about nine feet long, with a swivel on the end and a short rope round the neck. You can tie them up anywhere and it saves a lot of knocking about. They can be shifted to get feed, if they do not take to the lamb. Tying them up I think cowers them. If a lamb dies, say, when it is 3 to 5 days old, and you skin it, leave at least 2 inches of the skin on each side of the navel string. It may be blood poison and the foster lamb will die, too, if you do not reduce the skin. If a lamb’s head is out without its legs put knife in the eye. If it does not wink, cut its head off. It saves the ewe a lot. You can put neck back and get the legs then. If a sheep is getting down, hobble it. I have only known one sheep to get down with hobbles on. The hobbles will last for 4 or 5 days. The ewe has its balance then, and may not get down again. Lambs' navel strings should be disinfected as soon as possible after lambing. Put a mark on the lamb’s nose, so that you will know that it has been done. I do not think we lost a lamb with pulpy kidney last year. We had a fair lot with stiff joints. Last year I used Condy’s fluid and a dip. This year I am going back to turpentine and Condy’s fluid. I have used it before with good results.

You had a good article in Monday’s paper on footrot. I believe in going into the hoof. I also do not mind drawing blood. If there is proud flesh on the end of the toe or between the hoofs, cut it off every time. Squeeze the hoof hard to stop the blood and put the cure on. The blood may shoot out 3 or 4 feet, but it will be a cure, and I believe the only cure. All rubbish under trees Should be cleared away. Rubbish is a source whereby footrot is spread. I would be pleased to let farmers who cared to know my cures for certain troubles experienced in connection with rams and wethers and for scabby mouth.