Crutching

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This article is about sheep husbandry. For using crutches to get around, see Crutch.

Crutching refers to the removal of wool from around the tail and between the rear legs of a sheep. It can also refer to removing wool from the heads of sheep (head crutching, also called wigging) or from the bellies of male sheep (ringing).

1 Motivation
2 Procedure
3 Related procedures
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Motivation

Sheep with heavy fleeces of wool often develop stains or dags on their rear ends from faeces. In ewes, urine can also stain the wool. To avoid discomfort to the sheep and damage to the fleece, graziers remove the wool (and any dags) from the sheep.

Urine and watery feces from eating spring grass can also lead to Myiasis (fly-strike), which occurs when flies lay eggs in warm, damp wool and the fly larvae grow and eat into the sheep. Crutching is an effective way to prevent this; in some areas, crutching is carried out at the start of the fly season (which depends on local climatic conditions) and may be needed at intervals of 6-8 weeks in high fly risk conditions.

Rams and wethers may also be rung (crutched) on the belly around the pizzle (penis) to prevent fly-strike there.

Wigging (removal of wool from the head of sheep) is used to avoid "wool blindness", in which the wool covers the sheep's eyes. It also prevents accumulation of grass seeds in wool around the head as a sheep grazes dry grass. Both these problems are more severe in breeds with heavy wool growth such as Merinos.

In addition, ewes are generally crutched prior to lambing if they are not recently "offshears", in order to provide the newborn lamb with a cleaner suckling area.

[edit] Procedure

Crutching is generally carried out in shearing sheds, using the same tools as for shearing the entire fleece, as crutching is simply shearing only a portion of the animal. Blade shears may be used, especially where an individual sheep is particularly dirty, or flystruck. Generally, whole flocks are treated together. A mechanical shearing handpiece is used, and the crutchers sit the sheep between their legs and shear the required portion of the sheep, leaving the main fleece to continue growing. There are also many varieties of crutching cradles which allow the sheep to be crutched with less physical strain to the operator.

For small flocks, a grazier might do the work single-handedly. For large flocks and stud sheep, graziers will hire shearers, or use a contractor who provides professional shearing teams to do the required work. The grazier would decide on the extent of crutching: the rear of the sheep is almost always shorn, whereas wool around the face, ears, underside and pizzle may also be removed depending on the circumstances such as the weather, length of fleece, and amount of seed or other impurities present in the fleece and the underlying reason for crutching (preventative of fly-strike, or to improve quality of the fleece). In a large flock environment the grazier would assess the sheep to judge the required crutching method. Super fine wool Merino flocks are often given a light crutch, known as a New England crutch that removes less of the valuable fleece.

When a single or small number of sheep need crutching, graziers will often work in the field using blade shears or portable powered shearing gear instead of driving the sheep into the shearing shed and back.

[edit] Related procedures

Docking (removing) sheep's tails has much the same benefits for the sheep as crutching. Indeed, there is little point to crutching an undocked sheep.

Crutching is different to mulesing where part of the wrinkled skin is removed, although they are closely related in that mulesed sheep require much less crutching. It is the excess wool which gets most soiled from urination and feces, and which can be particularly dirty due to green feeding, rapid changes in feed, or from diseases such as internal parasites.

[edit] References

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