My notes after the meeting with farmer and crofter clients of Kenny Lang held in the Rural Community Centre at Fort William Mart on 27th Nov 2025 .. prepared for us by the wonderful Isabel Campbell, so much more than a Nevis Radio presenter – including the Mother of Ewan Campbell ex Farm Manager of SRUC Kirkton Campus !
I was looking forward to a good breakfast on the morning after our meeting but a bolt of lightning at the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe put a sudden stop to that!
However, I had really enjoyed Kenny’s informal evening chat with farmers and crofters .. he’s a master of the bedside manner and especially encouraging farmers discuss an awkward subject openly and honestly. What a good crowd, numbers wise too .. (around 20-30).. were tempted out – in wild weather ! Several had travelled a long way, Ardnamurchan included.
One open & honest message from me was that if you need ClipFitter to be easy and fast from the start – you should think about trying Numnuts instead … (or at least buying one of their cool T-shirts). Their clever system will be more familiar to habitual ringers, although it might become more complicated as the law changes; you will probably be required to use more drugs (analgesic as well as anaesthetic) to make it work well enough as useful pain relief.
We did neverthelessl discuss the scientific benefits of clips over rings referring to this extraordinarily visual chart (illustrating the almost invisible yellow pain level scientifically recorded for clipped young lambs
So, I explained that if you want to experience this amazing performance you need to be patient and use all the help you can get at least at the start. It could be in the form of a friend (who holds balls for you .. like the interestingly diferent McSporran video) .. or if you can’t raise a friend, use the NipSafe guards.. or even an unexpected ‘gather-ring’ (remember to cut it off afterwards!). The gather-ring can be an ordinary rubber ring .. or possibly one of our own softer versions, still to arrive on the website and it’s put on the scrotum first to gather the flesh – making fitting a clip easier, quicker and safer. However it must be removed afterwards with one of our simple ring-cutters.
I reassured Kenny and his audience that Numnuts was also a Scottish Invention – 4C Design in Glasgow – but funded in Australia many years ago, hence the confusion around its origin sometimes. I should also have mentioned that the difference between our ClipFitter system and Numnuts is described in the AWC’s report (Animal Welfare Committee) on the future for castration & tail docking in the UK; it summarises Numnuts and ClipFitter performances too, on pages 26-28
So. if farmers and crofter make that effort to find the application method for clips that suits them, they do the lamb a huge favour. If the feedback I get is worth its salt, you may even get a payback for your trouble ….well beyond the extra cost of the clip ! I won’t have any trouble persuading people to use ClipFitter if that turns out to be the case.
Some of the key questions from the evening with no-one present with any commercial experience of ClipFitter were Q.1 Why is it different to a ring ? – A.1 because it cuts and doesn’t strangle the nerve…so it’s immediate and forever pain relief. It could be likened to a capital punishment … hanging v guiloutine !!
Q.2 How long will the BIO clips take to degrade ? – A.2 as long as a stick or any piece of wood … in other words it doesn’t melt away. They are made from an all-plant raw material, with the highest proportion of wood. Press the image to read the supplier’s blurb.
Q.3 Do you have to use one set of Fitters for each different Clip ? A.3 No, bigger fitters can fit smaller clips with care, although there is a deal on all three sizes of Fitter if you want !
Q.4. Does the clip interfere with the lamb’s legs because it lies straight across the lamb ? A.4 Not exactly .. there has been no evidence of wear and tear on the inside of lamb’s legs. However there is no technical reason why you have to fit the clip in that ‘east-west’ direction (directly over the teats). North-south would be the other extreme, directly over the ‘invisible’ urethra, but provided you know what you are doing it could be the most comfortable for the lamb. I also advise 45 degrees as a good compromise.
Because this was a vet driven meeting, I wanted to make sure Kenny (and his clients) knew that it can go wrong with clips too .. possibly more easily (and unwittingly) than it can with a ring .. if you get complacent or are not fully aware that you are mutilating a lamb and not putting a clip on a plastic bag. I don’t want to put people off at all, simply make them aware that fitting clips is a really responsible job and not a race against time !
I do think it’s up to farmers themselves, with the help and support of vets interested in welfare, to find out how best to use Prof Vince Molony’s invention? Kenny studied under Prof Molony at Edinburgh as did many of our important vet community. We manufacture something that works, and the way of exploiting it and getting the most out of it is still to be revealed as more and more farmers use it. We played this video over and over again to illustrate HOW easy it is to fit clips to young lambs, and WHY it is so important. That method for young lambs was only ‘discovered’ in the 2025 season !
You may or may not know that the Scottish Government (HIE) bought, through SAC/SRUC, 500 applicators and around 50K clips which have been distributed to RAVIC (Inverness) and Shetland .. and as far as I know they are for the use of farmers and crofters and vets in that HIE Region.
I do suggest vets make use of the scheme if they can ! After one full season SRUC/SAC will report on it at the HIVSS conference in January ’26). Sharing knowledge will be the key to success and that’s up to users and their advisors to do that, over time
Keep your eyes out on this new Website www.clipfitter.co.uk I should be keeping it up to date with what’s happening .. fingers crossed for that.
I should have left the cradle with Kenny, one or two of his farmers were interested I think. It’s another ‘accessory’ that you can use to help – they have sold ‘like hot cakes’ at £125 (half the price of the opposition I heard one of the farmers say !)
Thanks to Kenny, and the super Ben Nevis Vets team once again. I really enjoyed my visit back to Lochaber.
Brian
07802 555115