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age. Over and over again have the various live stock journals told 

 the public that "buck" lambs are discriminated against on the mar- 

 kets and yet they seem to be as prevalent as ever. Thousands of dol- 

 lars are lost in the flocks of the central states thru their owners neg- 

 lecting to castrate the ram lambs. Each year the market cries out 

 louder than ever before against the cull "buck" lamb, which means 

 that he is more sharply discriminated against as years go by. Hence 

 every producer of native lambs should awaken to the unfavorable 

 standing of the "buck" lamb, and also to the fact that with very 

 little work and small risk this same lamb can be castrated and thus 

 be made much more desirable for the meat trade. 



SHIPPING SHEEP AND LAMBS TO MARKET 



In shipping sheep or lambs to market care should be taken to 

 handle them so they will appear to best advantage at the time of 

 sale. The car in which they are shipped should be well bedded 

 with dry straw or some other material which is its equivalent for 

 keeping the animals clean. It is not necessary to give each sheep 

 or lamb in the car more space than enough to stand comfortably, 

 but overcrowding should be avoided. In hot weather especially, 

 overcrowding results in losses. At this time losses are likely to 

 result from mixing lambs in with older sheep, because the lambs 

 often suffocate from being crowded in between animals larger than 

 themselves. 



At the time of shipment the fleeces of sheep or lambs should 

 be dry. If they are wet it is difficult to keep them clean in appear- 

 ance even though the car be well bedded. If they are very wet 

 when they reach the market buyers do not like to bid on them, and 

 if they do they attempt to allow for the moisture in the wool by 

 offering less for them than if they were dry. 



If at the time of shipment some of the sheep or lambs are foul 

 behind from dung being lodged in the wool, it is well to clip this 

 soiled wool off before they are loaded. This should be done because 

 the close crowding in the car causes the sheep that are foul to soil 

 the sides of those that are clean. There are also other reasons for 

 clipping away this soiled wool. It detracts from the appearance of 

 the animals and from their value when considerable in amount. 

 Sheep or lambs that are docked are less likely to be foul behind than 

 those that have long tails and hence all sheep growers should prac- 

 tice docking their lambs when they are a few days old. 



To avoid heavy shrinkage in shipment, sheep or lambs should 

 be either hauled or driven in a slow walk to the shipping point, 



