•1 



Farmers' Bulletin ttZk. 



LARGE PROPORTION OF FARM LAMBS NOT DOCKED OR 



CASTRATED. 



It is conserval ively estimated that 80 per cent of the native lambs — 

 those marketed from farm flocks — which reach the markets come 

 undocked and uncast rated, and that the percentage of ram lambs 

 among the offerings during the last year has been as large as ever 

 before. The remark, " What a trashy lot of natives," is often heard 

 in the sheep houses of the leading markets. This is because lambs, 

 uncastratcd, undocked. partly fat and partly lean, and showing no 

 uniformity in weight, qualit\ r , or condition, come to market from the 

 farm States weighing all the way from 40 to 100 pounds each. 



On the other hand, the custom of docking all lambs and castrating 

 the males is almost universal in the range flocks, and to this practice, 

 in large measure, may lie attributed the fact that lambs produced on 

 our western ranges outsell native or farm-raised lambs at the market 

 on the average from $1 to $1.50 per hundred pounds. It is true, of 

 course, that uniformity in breeding is a factor in favor of the west- 

 ern lambs. It is certain, however, that had the flockmaster of the 

 West not found castration and docking of lambs highly profitable, 

 these operations would not be so commonly practiced in that great 

 lamb-producing section. 



ADVANTAGES OF CASTRATION AND DOCKING. 



DISCRIMINATION IN MARKETS. 



The severe discrimination shown by buyers against heavy ram 

 lambs and the harmful influence on consumptive demand accruing 

 from the slaughter of such great quantities of stock that can not 

 make a satisfactory food product seems not to be fully realized. 

 Certainly more vigorous efforts to improve the situation on the part 

 of those directly interested in the welfare of the sheep industry 

 should be made. Big, coarse ram lambs produce inferior meat, as 

 do the thousands of thin, untrimmed, cull, native lambs that have to 

 be slaughtered because the feeder will not buy them. It is not sur- 

 prising that the consumer balks at purchasing such meat and forms 

 a prejudice against it. With our markets flooded with low-grade 

 lambs, the average consumer, an unskilled judge of meat on the block, 

 has little chance of escaping frequent disappointment in purchasing 

 that kind of meat and instinctively turns to other meats in which he 

 feels he has more chance of getting a palatable food product. 



In the fall of 1919 the Chicago market received large supplies of 

 native lambs. During that period (and the condition reported is but 

 a repetition of conditions prevailing in the summer, fall, and winter 

 months of preceding years) the discrimination against ram lambs, 



