M'URNAI AG Illi I Care of Sheepskins from the Farm to the Store

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 74, Issue 1, 15 January 1947, Page 1

M'URNAI AG Illi I

Care of Sheepskins from the Farm to the Store

By

H. M. SIEVWRIGHT,

Instructor in Sheep

Husbandry, Wellington.

AT least half of the skins of sheep killed by the farmer and. the country butcher in New Zealand are classed as “dead” or “damaged,” despite the fact that, when they are removed from the sheep, they are potential “abattoir” grade skins. To reduce this loss a little more time and a great deal more care must be spent in preparing sheepskins on farms. To the farmer who does not know how to prepare sheepskins correctly this article explains common faults and how to avoid them; to the farmer who does not care it shows that he is losing a large profit from an important product of the farm.

r T'HE sheepskins bought by the Sheepskin Control each year are made up of the following classes:— 52 per cent.: abattoir quality. 16 per cent.: country skins. 18 per cent.: slightly-damaged skins. 14 per cent.: dead and badly-damaged skins.

Abattoir grades are from abattoirs, or are other properlybutchered skins of good shape, well taken off, free from excessive fat, and properly dried. They are invariably fresh and maintain their original bloom.

Country grades are mostly farmers’ skins, sound, but neither as spready nor as good in shape as the abattoirs’, and frequently semi-stale.

Damaged skins are those with slight defects, such as cuts, scores, off-shapes, and sweated butts or necks.

Dead and badly-damaged skins include those damaged by weevil, rat-eaten skins (but not badly enough to be classed as broken), and skins with excessive fat.

The 18 per cent, slightly-damaged skins, representing about 400,000 skins and 2,864,8001 b., are for the most part skins which would have been sound but for avoidable damage caused by bad butchering, careless handling, or damage by pests. A considerable proportion of skins classed as dead and damaged would also be of greater value if they had been treated with more care.

There is no reason why a farmers’ sheepskin, if properly taken off and correctly dried, should not be equal to the abattoir standard, and thus bring up to ss. more. Apart from dead skins, which are estimated at about 5 per cent, of this classification, and, say, 5 per cent, for unavoidablydamaged skins, it should be possible to get “abattoir” grade for all skins.

Abattoir-quality skins' are sold at a premium of about Id. a pound above the country-grade prices in the price chart.

Cost of Handling

The price for damaged skins reflects the fact that the cost of handling them is the same as for sound skins. In some cases the damaged skins give an inferior wool, usually because of poor colour and lack of lustre. The pelt from these skins is always of a secondary type, the proportion of rejects is much greater, and a poorer pickled pelt is produced. However, the labour and materials used in processing are not less than for sound skins. When the pickled pelt arrives at the tannery further labour and tanning material are required to produce a second-class basil or roan. The cost from the farm to the finished leather is much the same, whether the skins are in first-class condition or have, been neglected.

During the processing scores and cuts are frequently enlarged by the machines which treat them. The knives of a fleshing machine, for instance, when travelling across a cut skin will frequently tear the skin right across. The original neglect on • the farm or in the slaughterhouse is multiplied several times before the finished article can be produced.

Skinning Precautions

Allow the sheep to stand for an hour or two before being killed; this avoids overheating,, allows the paunch to be emptied, and prevents rapid heart action, which causes unsatisfactory bleeding. The sheep is best killed in shade on battens or on a concrete floor which can be sluiced down with fresh, clean water. Skin the body while it is still warm; the process is easier and a cleaner skin results. Make sure the sheep is well bled. When bleeding the sheep take care not to stain the wool or carcass with blood; any such staining which may occur should be washed off with a clean cloth and fresh water, which should always be kept on hand. Blood hastens the decomposition of the skin and causes the wool to deteriorate in appearance and value. The perished portion of a skin on sliping appears as a pattern of holes or dissolves completely.

After allowing the sheep to bleed thoroughly lay it on its back and run a sharp knife down the front of the foreleg to the point of the brisket and up ..the throat to beneath the chin. Next, run it down the back of the hind leg on the same side to the butt of the tail, followed by the other hind leg, and then the other foreleg, thus working in sequence round the sheep.

Use the knife as little as possible. A blunt knife usually accounts for more cuts than a well-sharpened one, because more pressure is required. Punch, “thumb,” and pull carefully, where possible, using the wooden handle of the knife for punching at times. Care must be taken, especially when

skinning lambs, not to punch and thumb so severely that the wool side, or grain, of the skin is ruptured. Avoid cutting in the body of the skin, as a single cut there reduces the value of the skin by one-third. Skin as squarely as possible, being careful to cut down the middle of the belly line.

PRICE CHART FROM A GOOD AVERAGE FARMERS’ SELECTION

★ SHEEPSKINS IN STORE

Leave as little fat and flesh as possible on the skin, and remove what little remains while the skin is still green. If that is not done, the skin beneath sweats and does not dry readily or evenly, decomposition takes place, uneven tanning occurs, and the resulting basil is spoilt. Keep the skin free from foreign matter.

Expelling Body Heat

A good way of making sure that the body heat of a skin is expelled before it is stretched is by the process known as “potting.” Place the freshlyremoved skin wool upward on the floor of the woolshed, lift it by the wool in the middle of the back, and lower it gently to the battens. The skin is then in a heap through which air can circulate freely. This must be done before the skin is stretched or painted with anti-pest solution.

If a skin is dried in sunlight, skin side out, before the body heat is dissipated, it sheds its wool. In the trade a sheepskin with this fault is called a “puller.” It becomes porous on being sliped and is graded unsound.

If a skin is stretched before the body heat is expelled and before a crust is formed, it may be distorted easily to any shape. A skin well prepared in every way except that it is wrongly stretched deteriorates in value.

Drying the Skins

It is best for the farmer to dry his sheepskins thoroughly in a woolshed, implement shed, or some covered space at sufficient height above the ground to avoid the risk of damage by dogs. Skins must not be hung on barbedwire fences, dray wheels, fence posts, farm implements, or anything that puts the skin out of shape. A simple yet efficient way to hang the skin after it has been potted is skin side out, with the neck and the butt squarely along two taut parallel wires kept 4in. apart, by stapling them at intervals to small blocks of 4in. by lin. board. If these wires tend to sag, it is easy to tighten them from the ends. The separate wires allow the free passage of air and do not compress the wool to the exclusion of air, as is the tendency when the skin is placed on rails or battens; this eliminates the possibility of sweating. The average woolshed is an

ideal place for the drying of sheepskins.

To prevent the butt end from curling up and consequently sweating turn it under; or, better still, turn back just enough wool to prevent the skin from folding. Cut off the trotters. Clip off any dags or urine-stained wool. Keep turning down the edges of the neck, tail, and legs, and see that there is no overlapping until they have dried out.

Leave the skin placed along the wire until it becomes crisp; it may then be placed neck and butt across the wires until the pelt (especially the edges, neck, and butt ends) is dry and firm. If the wool is damp, the skin may then be placed wool out until it has dried. Skins must be dried under cover, because sunlight crusts the outer layer, preventing the inner moisture from escaping. The internal temperature rises and, as the inner layers contain a high proportion of fat, this, in effect, fries, raising a blister which, when the skin is tanned, forms an inferior basil. It is evident, therefore, that to prevent putrefaction the moisture must be removed from the skin, preferably by a current of dry air. Drying ‘in direct sunlight is harmful. A woolly skin weighing 121 b. dries to about 81b. under cover but to about 6Jlb. in sunslight. A carefully-dried skin has no unpleasant smell. A skin dried too slowly becomes sloppy. Freezing or chilling of skins for the market is not practicable as in the meat trade, for in freezing the fibres of the undried skin are ruptured. Carefully-dried skins, carefully packed, can arrive at their destination in good condition.

Weights of dried skins are not standardised; for a sound crossbred pelt 31b. to 3ilb. is allowed. The buyer of skins has to estimate what a skin will slipe in weight of clean scoured wool, and add the weight of pelt. Weighing damp skins, like weighing damp wool, is very unsatisfactory. If insufficiently-dried skins are packed in with a bundle of carefullydried skins, both the undried skins and others in contact with them will deteriorate because of sweating and a general increase in bacterial activity causing decomposition. For that reason it is bad practice to put green skins on the top of a bundle of dried skins. Preventing Pest Damage Thorough, fairly quick drying is all that is needed if care is exercised in the packing and disposal of sheepskins. If there is danger of rat or insect damage, the skins, may be painted with an anti-pest solution. The average dip solution on the farm, provided it is not of a carbolic (Phenolic) type, is satisfactory. With a carbolic dip there is a tendency, if the dip is over strength, for the phenol to tan the outer layer of the skin on the living sheep, as well as on the painted skin. That can be noticed in a comparison

of the pulling qualities of skins treated with carbolic and with non-carbolic dip solutions. The dip must be painted on as a dilute solutionnot dry as is sometimes done. If the solution is too concentrated, the arsenic in it will burn the skin and spoil the grain of the leather.

Care must be used to ensure that the points, butt end, and neck are unrolled and thoroughly painted or all the gain from efficient skinning is wasted, because “sweating” will occur in the points and edges that have not been painted. That results in perished edges and points which have to be removed.

An arsenical solution painted on the skin has the desired effect of keeping down bacterial activity while the skin is drying, as - well as keeping out weevils, silverfish, rats, moths, etc. A tin. of dip solution and a brush should be kept in the woolshed for painting skins. Do not wait until the pests start their damage before painting. Here are two reliable weevil preventive mixtures:—■ 1. 251 b. of arsenite of soda; Jib. of bitter aloes; 25 gallons of water. Stir and boil. This forms the stock solution. Use 1 gallon of the solution to 2 gallons of water. As well ,as being bitter it is a deadly poison, so label the container. 2.2 gallons of water; lib. of washing soda; 1 eggcupful of arsenite of soda. Dissolve the arsenic first /in a small quantity of boiling water. Add the soda and the arsenic solution to the remaining water. Bottle and cork firmly, and label “poison.”

Salt as a Preservative

Country butchers, who seldom have the necessary drying room under cover, may find salting the skins the best means of preserving them.

When taken from the carcass the skins should be potted out singly to allow the animal heat to dissipate. It is important not to leave the skins in this state longer than is necessary. Salting should be started as soon as the heat has gone. The skins should be trimmed (particularly neck pieces, which are heavy in blood) and opened out, flesh side up, preferably on a concrete floor. Each skin must be completely and evenly covered with fresh coarse salt.

- Working along one side of the space available, place the first skin at one end, pelt up, and spread the salt evenly over the whole surface. Place the next skin so that it overlaps the previous one by half, and then salt that. Continue this process backward and forward until the stack is about 2ft. 6in. high, when a fresh stack should be started. It is important to salt right out to the edges and not leave any extremities folded in. By this method of salting, space is saved and the brine is conserved in the stack.

The amount of salt used should be not less than 2111). a skin for sheepskins and 21b. for lambskins. The skins should be left in this stack for about a week to allow them to cure. Skins should be forwarded, for marketing promptly and not kept longer than necessary. Packing and Despatching When the skins are thoroughly dry, carefully stack them away, preferably

not in a corner but in the middle of the shed. Stacking in a corner makes a home for rats, mice, and weevils and prevents the free access of air. Skins should not be bundled pelt to pelt, as some time may elapse between bundling and transport to the store, though that delay should be avoided as much as possible. Dried skins must not be held in the shed for lorw periods, or even until the wool season, as is often done. Warmth and moisture

may combine to renew bacterial activity, and bundles and loose skins are very subject to attacks from pests. It is much more profitable to bundle a smaller number of skins often and send them, to the z broker than to let the dried skins accumulate. Bundle the skins squarely with no loose ends exposed, wool out, and tie them securely with rope or bale wire. Label the bundle clearly, and advise the broker when the skins have, been consigned. ' Avoidable Faults . Following are some of the major faults in handling the skins which result in their being graded down: — Scored necks, done when opening round the neck with a knife, particularly in country butchers’ skins. Ruptured grain, especially in lambskins, caused by punching too fiercely when thumbing up. Bad shapes, caused by hanging over posts, wool presses, cart wheels, and farm implements. Faulty drying through hanging skins on fences without attention, the north side usually getting all the sun and most of the wind. The result is an overdry pelt on the north and a decomposed pelt on the south side. Sweated edges, particularly butts and necks, caused through these parts not being properly opened up during drying.

Sweating on the body of the pelt, caused through the flesh side of the

skin coming in contact with material such as a floor rail or implement, but particularly with another skin, during drying. Sweated necks through blood-clotted wool not being opened up properly for drying. Rat, mouse, and weevil holes through the skin being stored away too long before being marketed. Common Trade Terms Animal heat: Residual heat in a skin after its removal from an animal. Basil; An undyed, vegetable-tanned pelt. Broken skins: Very badly-damaged skins, usually badly torn, rat eaten, or weevil damaged. These are sweated to remove the wool. Cockle: Small, hard lumps which are found on the grain side of some pelts after the removal of the wool * and which remain as a fault in the finished leather. This fault is found mainly in pelts from long-woolled skins.

Dead skins: Skins taken from animals which have died from natural causes. They are distinct from skins from sheep which have been butchered in that the blood has not been drained from the carcass. The wool will invariably pull from such skins and the pelts are of small value.

Depilatory: A preparation applied to' the flesh side of sheepskins to free the wool; usually composed of lime and sodium sulphide. Fellmongery: Works where wool is; removed from sheepskins. Flaying: Removal of skins from carcasses. Flesh side: The surface of the pelt attached to the carcass before flaying. Fleshing machine: A machine with rotating blunt knives, somewhat similar to those on a lawnmower, used in fellmongeries and tanneries. The flesh side of the pelt is brought into contact with these knives by a rubber roller so that flesh' and fat are removed. Grain side: The surface of the pelt previously covered with wool. Glue pieces: Pieces of skin from which the wool has been separated by pieing. They are used by gluemakers. Green skin: Fresh, moist sheepskin or lambskin. Pickled pelts: Pelts, both sheep and lamb, which have had the wool removed and been treated and cured with salt and acid. They are usually casked and sold to tanners, local or overseas, in this form. Potting out: Placing out skins (usually green) singly so that only the edges rest on the floor, the centre being raised like an inverted cup. This allows free circulation of air and will prevent heating and consequent damage for a short time. Rejects: Pelts which are not considered worth working and are thrown out at some stage of fellmongering. Roan; A finished sheepskin leather.. The pelt is usually treated to give a. moroccan or other grain. Skin pieces: Neck and shank pieces cut from sheepskins or lambskins in trimming. Only the wool is of value, and it is removed by sweating or pieing. Slipe wool: The wool pulled from the skin after treatment in the fellmongery. It is dried and baled ready for sale. Thumbing up: The, process of easing skin from the carcass by using the thumb. Used by butchers when taking the skin from sides and back. Acknowledgments

Thanks are expressed to the New Zealand Sheepskin Control and to sheepskin brokers in both islands for data and co-operation.

Points to Remember

Dry sheepskins under cover in a current of air. Stretch them neck to butt along two taut parallel wires 4in. apart. Keep folding out the edges. Despatch them to the broker as quickly as possible— the skins become stale.

Average Weights Type. of Skin Average i Weights of Skin Dried (lb.) Country Skins, sound and free from faults. Slightly-damaged skins, resulting from neglect by farmers. Dead and badly-damaged skins, most of which could have been saved. Caused by neglect, sweating, heating, poor take-off, cuts, weather, Type. weevils, or tearing. Per lb Per skin. Per lb Per skin. Per. lb Per skin. Half-bred full wools 10 Per lb 131d. Per skin. 11s. 3d. Per lb Hid. Per skin. 9s. 8d. Per. lb 91 d. Per skin. 8s. lid. " Half-bred 1 wools .. 8 12£d. 8s. 6d. 101d. 6s. lOd. . 81d. 5s. 8d. Half-bred 1 wools .. 6fd. 5s. 8d. Half-bred 1 wools .. 7 7 Hid. 11 }d. 6s. 6’d. 6s. 6fd. 81d. 81d. 4s. 11ld. 4S. 11 Id. 6ld. < • 3s. Hid. Half-bred 1 wools .. 51 9?d. 4s. 5gd. 71d. 3s. 3Jd. 51d. 28. 61d. Half-bred shearlings 4 8{d. 2s. 9d. 4 Id. Is. 6d. 21d. lOd. Half-bred hoggets 7 12|d. 7s. 51d, 10d. 5s. 10d. 8 Id. 4s. 8d. Half-bred lambs - 5 13 Id. 5S. 71d. 10jd. 4s. 41d. 9d. 3s. 9d. Crossbred full wools 11 13 Id. 12s. ltd. 11ld. 10s. 3fd. 9d.' 8s. 3d. Crossbred J wools 81 12ld. 8s. 101d. 9|d. 6s. lOfd. 8d. 5s. 8d. Crossbred 1 wools .. 71 I1jd. 7s. 0§d. 81d. 5s. 31d. 6|d. 4s. 2fd. Crossbred 1 wools .51 9|d. 4S. 5gd. 7 Id. 3s. 3fd. 51d. 21d. Crossbred shearlings ' 41 81d. 3s. lid. 41d. Is. 81d. 11ld. Crossbred hoggets 71- ... . .. 12fd. 7s. 11gd. 91d. 5s. Hid. 8d. ;: 5S. • " Crossbred lambs 5 13ld. 5s. 61d. lOd. 4S. 2d. 81d. 3s. 51d. Bare pelts .. 3 7d. 1s. 9d. 3d. 9d. 1ld. 41d.

New Zealand Sheepskins Control 9th Schedule Prices at July 29, 1946