[Ag-eq] Probably the final report on lambing

[Jewel]

I think that all the ewes may have dropped their bundles.  I haven't seen all the lambs but I seem 
to have more ewe than ram
lambs.
When they are all out in the paddock, which will be within the next day or two:  that is:  when I 
have finished feeding out the opened bale of hay, I will get Sam, my honorary shepherd, to count 
them, but it will not be until I get them back in for docking and castration that I will know, 
precisely, what I have.
Last lambing which, for me,  was 2011, I had heard a sheep farmer saying that he was going to try 
leaving the tails on the lambs.  He gave a number of quite valid reasons:  after all, wild sheep 
survive very well with tails and in many parts of the world, they aren't docked at all:  more of 
that shortly:  so I left the tails on too.
However, I don't think that I will do it:  that is:  leave the tails on:  again as the disadvantages 
far outweigh the advantages.
I had 3 ewes that did not get into lamb, and 2 of them were those that I had left tails on;  must 
have been coincidence surely, but it does make one wonder!
I would not be surprised if Europe, with all its namby-pamby animal welfare regulations,  started 
putting up trade barriers against importing lamb meat where the animal had been docked;  all quite 
ridiculous as to import the meat, the animal had had to be * killed which makes the operation of 
docking seem to be of very small moment, but ridiculous or not, it wouldn't surprise me if that is 
what happened, and in the not so distant future either!

Jewel
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