ON THE SHEEP FARM

Te Ao Hou, June 1960, Page 55

ON THE SHEEP FARM If crutching has not been completed by now, no time should be lost in having this work done as the ewes will now be getting very heavy in lamb and should be yarded and handled as little as possible. Ewes should be watched closely during the next few weeks, and they should have access to reasonable good feed. Ewes, if done too hard, will not lamb well and many will be subjected to sleeping sickness or twin lamb disease. As the ewes start to lamb and a clear paddock is available adjacent, it is a good plan to draft all the twin lamb ewes into this paddock. This is done for two reasons, firstly to give the ewe better pasture to enable her to make more milk, and secondly, to enable the shepherd to mother up stray lambs. If he finds a lamb without a mother he only has to look for a ewe with one lamb and the job is usually finished. There are several ways of making a ewe whose lamb had died take on a foster lamb. One of the most effective methods in the writer's opinion, is by skinning the dead lamb and placing the skin over the spare lamb (which was a mis-mothered lamb or one of twins or triplets). The ewe recognizes her own lamb by smell and the smell of the skin of her own lamb on the foster lamb is usually sufficient to make her take the foster lamb without any trouble. Care must be taken however, to remove the skin as soon as the ewe has completely accepted the lamb as her own. Maori School committees in Northland are to form their own Northland Maori School Committee's Association. The decision follows three months of discussion. It was generally felt that a separate association of Maori school committees would be assured of a warm welcome. The new association hopes to work closely with the existing Northland Association of School Committees when matters of common interest or policy are under consideration, but intends to maintain its identity when the study of problems peculiar to Maori education may be undertaken.