Thread: Down on the Farm

Taking the thread in a completely random direction, did you know you can castrate chooks?

Its called caponising

Capon - Wikipedia

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by trout1105

How many sheep did you have to treat for flystrike or loose from flystrike each year??

It depends on the breed more than anything else. Merinos are wrinkly where as a lot of British breed and cross bred are not so much.

Originally Posted by Tote

Taking the thread in a completely random direction, did you know you can castrate chooks?

Its called caponising

Capon - Wikipedia

Regards,
Tote

No,but we used to cut their heads off,and watch them run around the yard,take bets which one would last the longest.

Hi

Originally Posted by Old Farang

From what I have seen and read, some international buyers are demanding this information and will not buy wool from producers still mulesing.

Absolutely correct. The number of buyers requiring wool from unmulsed sheep is rising as their customers are wanting ethically sourced wool for their garments. It doesn't matter if your sheep are well looked after (most farmers of course do care for their sheep very well), it's what the customer wants that counts in the end. If they want Kosher food then that's what you provide, if they want Halal food then provide that, if they want certified organic, Kosher, vegan just work out how much more to produce or prepare and charge accordingly.

Mulsing is the same. Sheep producers need to follow what the market wants.

The sheep industry is also now prioritising breeding of plain breeched sheep which will not need mulsing. Similarly some are moving to short tailed sheep so that tail docking won't be required.

PS. Just last week the shearer finished shearing our Alpaca flock. Fortunately we do not need to mulse or tail dock!

Mike

Originally Posted by Old Farang

It depends on the breed more than anything else. Merinos are wrinkly where as a lot of British breed and cross bred are not so much.

And that is why mulsing occurs in Australia. We bred Merinos for superior fleece and far larger fleece weight by breeding for the folds in the skin (among other traits) and that led to the requirement for mulsing in Aust with our flies. Now we have to breed out those folds, particularly at the rear, and not lose the fleece weight and quality.

Mike

Originally Posted by scarry

Dunno how you would do a pig,they are internal aren't they?

They are wild out our way,so we just destroy them one after another,and they still keep appearing...

Although those exclusion fences are slowing them down.

Nutting pigs is quite easy, The hard/dangerous part is making sure the sow doesn't tear you apart while you are doing it

Originally Posted by trout1105

How many sheep did you have to treat for flystrike or loose from flystrike each year??

We treated for flystrike, but I doubt that we ever lost any sheep to it.

Just checked with my father and he confirmed - we never did mulesing on our sheep. And from the way he responded I'd take it that he doesn't have a high regard for the practice.

And in case you're wondering, they were merino cross-breeds, so plenty of wrinkles.

I've treated sheep for fly-blown dog attack injuries, and I was surprised at how tough the sheep was. Given that I was digging maggots out of its flesh and then treating with what I had at hand.

I lived in Winton up until the early sixties as a boy and young man and a couple of short stints later. The golden years of wool, and the heyday of the big runs and big flocks. The C&N district then had over 3,000,000 sheep. Nowadays most of the big runs have been cut up for "closer settlement" and there are barely 400,000 sheep in the district. Most graziers have gone to cattle. I do remember the flies. At times the flies nearly made life impossible out there. When did mulesing come into fashion? I can't remember anybody doing this. We were carriers and not involved with animal husbandry. We carried mail, goods, passengers to the stations and wool to the railheads. I do remember some stations that dipped constantly. Some of the flock sizes I remember of the big runs were Wellshot 400,000, Lerida 250,000 - 300,000, Elderslie 150,000 sheep and 15,000 cattle. Others like Dagworth, Vindex, Rangelands, Brighton Downs, Warrnambool Downs, Llanrheidol, Cork had sizable flocks. A bloody big lot of sheep to neuter and mules.