farmdoc's blog post number 173

Last Sunday Sharon (pictured) crutched about 60% of our sheep – 41 breeding ewes (pregnant, due to lamb in three weeks time), six wethers (being fattened up to kill), and one ram (done his work for this season, now moved to another paddock away from the ewes). Crutching is an abbreviated form of shearing – removing only the crutch wool. There are two reasons for doing it: in ewes so the teats are cleaner and more easily accessible to the lambs, and in all sheep to prevent flystrike. Flystrike occurs in warm humid weather when flies lay eggs on the animals’ shitty bums, and the maggots burrow in to the flesh. The burrowing can be so debilitating that it kills the sheep. Treatment is with powder, plus crutching if required. No crutch wool, no adherent shit, no flystrike. It’s simple, really. Sharon, our friend/neighbour/sharefarmer, tells me she’s Australia’s first registered female shearer. So she holds a proud place in our nation’s history. At age 42, despite pains in her knees and low back, she’s still a wizard with the combs and cutters. It took her a leisurely two hours to crutch the 48 sheep; and as clean as a whistle too. Me? I’m the rouseabout, and only an average one at that. But I’m a dab hand with a drench gun. And I enjoy it. Whoever would have thought?