Dirty Sheep At Market

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31724, 6 July 1968, Page 8

Dirty Sheep At Market

WITH wet and muddy conv ditions in sheep yards at present, farmers were this week advised to hold fat stock in their wooisheds before sending them in to Addington market.

This question arose last Tuesday, with the offering of a number of pens of very dirty lambs. The lambs were not carrying dags, but their wool was well marked with dung. It appeared that the lambs had either come out of a very dirty lorry, dirty yards, or had only that morning been brought off winter feed. When the lambs were offered a member of the abattoir staff, who was following the sale, warned that there was a risk the slaughtering staff might refuse to handle them. A verbal arrangement was then made with the selling firms, that in the event of lambs having to be washed before killing, any charge would be debited to the vendors.

A senior agent suggested that in the present conditions vendors should put their fat sheep in their woolsheds overnight and load them from there. Standing the sheep overnight would also give the sheep an opportunity to empty out, and was a practice well worth following, particularly if the sheep had been on swedes or chou moellier.