lo Nov.. 1909.] Losses in Lamb-marking. 689 



LOSSES IN LAMB-xMARKING. 



H. IF. Ham, Sheep Exfert. 



With the raising of the best class of export lamb, come new methods 

 ■of management, amongst which are the judicious crossing of breeds, tail- 

 searing and early castration. That these latter methods are steadily 

 gaining in favour is certain, but there is a good proportion of farmers 

 who have suffered more losses by these methods than they did under 

 ihe old ways, and a great many have not as yet ventured from the early 

 day, rough and ready, methods of the large wool-grower, with whom 

 speed was the chief consideration, and, under his conditions, often with 

 good reason. 



One thing is certain, we could be much more careless with laml)S 

 grown for wool purposes than we can afford to be now with lambs in- 

 tended for export. There is less danger in castrating store lambs of 

 any age than there is with fat lambs. There is also more risk of 

 checking growth and of loss by tetanus in sappy full-blooded lambs of 

 the British breeds, than there is in merinoes. 



Manv farmers hold that, once lambs are allowed to get to six or 

 «ight weeks old before marking, it will pay better to sell them at about 

 twelve weeks old, \<\W\ the testicles in, than to lose a percentage of them 

 in marking, which is almost inevitable, nO' matter what method and care 

 is practised at this age, especially so if wind and rain be met with within 

 a f^"^ days. It is not the deaths that form the greatest loss with prime 

 lambs at this age either. It is the fact that all the ram lambs undergo 

 such a check that they cannot recover in time to go off and look like, or 

 strip the same as, the ewe lambs. The younger they are marked the 

 better, but here again there is no fast rule. A strong lamb born in 

 favourable weather can be marked with safetv at two days old, whereas 

 a weakly lamb from an ill-fed mother needs fuUv seven davs before it 

 is safe to mark if. 



Young ram lambs are the better for not being tailed when 

 •castrated. They can be done later on with the ewe lambs. Searing 

 does not check sappv lambs like castration. There appears to 

 have been less danger in castrating ram lambs before searing became 

 known. With sappy lambs, there is no' bleeding at the tail when the 

 tail is seared at the time of castration and, consequently, there is a 

 greater rush of lilood to the purse than was the case w1ien the tail was 

 •cut with the knife. 



Lambs castrated and turned immediatelv on to long wet grass or 

 fodder crops appear to contract tetanus ; lambs on rich pasture land 

 develop it more than those on poorer soil. A lowering of the tempera- 

 ture, through wind and rain, or frost, appears to favour the development 

 •of tetanus. Wind, especially, is bad for causing a form of inflamma- 

 tion to set up. According to the best authorities, tetanus can J)e de- 

 veloped from within the wound as well as bv coming in contact ^vith 

 spores through lying down, or moving in long grass. The former is 

 most probable in such a severe season for cold wind and excessi\e rain 

 as we have just experienced. 



Searing cannot cause any deaths in lambs of anv age, if done pro- 

 perly. An occasional one mav bleed to death as in cutting with the 

 icnife, especially if the lambs be full blooded, and the dav warm, and 

 the lambs have lust been yarded after being dogged and allowed to ring' 

 round and round all the wav from their paddock, as is too often the 

 case. If. in searing, the skin and flesh be stripped off (as is often done 



