Lamb marking is a regular practice during spring, but how can we make these practices better for lamb welfare?
In the latest Stock Talk, James speaks to SRUC Veterinary Investigation Officer Kythe Mackenzie and farmers Ewan Runciman and Scott Fraser about the latest approaches to pain management, the rules around castration and tail docking in Scotland, and their experiences using technologies like Numnuts and ClipFitter.
Listening to the opinions of one farmer can have a big influence on others, especially when published by FAS and the Scottish Government so it’s worth noting that there are many other views which are unheard. For example, Scott (ClipFitter users for 2 years) found it difficult to use on a Te Pari chute but finds the benefits of ClipFitter worth adapting his system to castrate off the chute and then load for all other ops onto the chute. Lot’s of people do manage on the chutes as you can see from these videos.
Scott also found fitting clips to baby lambs difficult but others find it easy as you can see here.
Finally the capabilities of our BIO clips has improved with time thanks to material and design changes, and farmers do succeed with fitting clips 8+ week old lambs regularly. Application techniques can also extend the range of clip use.