140 Western Live-stock Management 



All lambing systems, whether shed, tent, or corral, have 

 two purposes : first, to prevent ewes and their lambs 

 from becoming separated until the lambs are old enough 

 that there is no danger of their being disowned; second, 

 in those cases in which lambs are unavoidably disowned, 

 to remedy the difficulty by some special means. Minor, 

 although important, considerations in lambing are to 

 prevent lambs from becoming chilled or trampled to death 

 and to assist ewes that have difficulty in parturition. 

 The large size of the range flocks makes the dangers of 

 lambing many times greater than with small farm flocks, 

 hence the system of lambing on the range is always 

 elaborate and painstaking. 



PERCENTAGE INCREASE 



The percentage of increase varies with the climatic 

 conditions, and with the care given. Severe weather tends 

 to decrease the percentage while good care tends to raise 

 it. The percentage usually varies from about 50 to 100 ; 

 that is, there are 50 to 100 lambs for each 100 ewes. 

 The average in the western states is between 80 and 85 

 per cent. A percentage higher than 100 is not to be de- 

 sired, since not many of our ranges are good enough to 

 support ewes bearing twins and one good strong lamb is 

 better than two weak ones, neither of which may live 

 through the summer. The percentage increase is usually 

 calculated on the basis of the number of lambs and ewes 

 counted at the time of marking. 



MARKING 



The term marking is used on the range to designate 

 the operations of docking, castration, and branding lambs. 



