Title: Productive sheep husbandry
Identifier: cu31924001176159 (find matches)
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Coffey, Walter Castella, 1877-
Subjects: Sheep
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
DOCKING AND CASTRATING 283 flocks often fail to do this, but they are always criticized as being guilty of neglect. It is better to dock and castiate when the lambs are from eight to sixteen days of age, as the resulting " cet-back " in growth is least at that time. For the sake of convenience, both docking and castrating should be done at the same time. Opinions vary as to whether the operation should be performed early in the day or in the evening, but it seems that the lambs bleed less if they are operated upon either before they become active in the morning or when they are about to bed down for the night. A bright clear day with a prospect of several more to follow is the best kind of
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 183.—Raised in a dry lot, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, weather for docking and castrating; healing proceeds faster then than when the weather is damp and cold. The operation should be conducted under sanitary conditions. While the wounds are healing the lambs should not be exposed to storms and they should be on dry, clean bedding at night. In docking, the tail should be cut about an inch from the body, leaving it a little shorter on the side next the buttock. The opera- tion can be performed with a knife, chisel, or docking iron. The latter is an instrument with a blunt blade, which upon being heated to a dull red, burns its way through the tail and sears over the stump or dock so that there is no bleeding. At present a number of sheepmen in the western part of the United States are enthusi- astically advocating the use of the docking iron (Figs. 184 and 185). In castrating, the end of the scrotum should be cut off so as to permit drainage. The testicles should be grasped firmly between the thumb and fingers and drawn out. The work should be done

Note About Images