WINTER SHEARING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 934, 5 July 1957, Page 11

WINTER SHEARING

Sir,-In an article on page 9 of your June 21 issue, "Sundowner" claims that winter shearing is bad business and cruel to the sheep. As a person who has been concerned in scientific research on "pre-lamb shearing" during the last five years, and not just "noticing" the effect on the sheep, I challenge "Sundowner" to prove his claims, and explain why each year more farmers are shearing in winter, to such an extent that additional early wool sales have now become an annual event in*the South. Island. In our research work we have been mainly concerned with the effect on the wool. To eliminate variable factors as much as possible we shear half of a flock of sheep before lambing, and the other half after lambing, so that all the sheep get exactly the same treatment apart from the different time of shearing. We have found each year that the wool shorn before lambing is very much superior to that shorn after lambing, as the former is uniformly sound, while much of the latter is tender and cotted. We have found no evidence of any consistent difference in fleece weight or length, nor have actual measurements of the rate of growth of the wool shown any adverse effect of shearing in winter. While we ourselves have not been greatly concerned with the effect on the ewe, the winter-shorn ewes have not "threatened to die," they have continued to produce wool, and their lambs have thrived just as well as those from the ewes shorn after lambing. With regard to’ possible cruelty, I would ask "Sundowner" to consider the following facts instead of just comparing the sheep with himself and saying, "I do not take my coat off in the winter. .." (1) Sheep are less sensitive to cold than human beings. having a different temperature controlling mechanism. Thus they never suffer from frostbite. (2) Lambs are usually dropped about two to four weeks after winter shearing. If it is cruel to shear full-grown sheep in winter how much more crue] must it be to have the lambs born in winter and suddenly precipitated from the even warmth of their mother’s womb into the cold paddock (even if it is sheltered from the wind). 2 (3) Though it is on the average colder in winter than in spring, yet much larger temperature changes can occur in spring storms, causing greater losses for the unwary (or unlucky) shepherd. Finally, may I suggest that "Sundowner" refreshes his memory on the facts of pre-lamb shearing by re-reading our article in the October, 1956, issue of N.Z. Journal of Agriculture and his own column in The Listener on Novem-

ber 30.

L. F.

STORY

Director, N.Z. Woollen Mills Research Association, Dunedin.