[Jackie]

I have just bought 7 texels, some ewes and some wethers but some of them have still got long tails.
Is it just lazyness by the previous owner not docking the tails or do wethers always have their tails left on?

[dixie]

Some dont bother as they dont believe its justified, they may have come from a large flock and got missed? I have 2 ewes with long tails, not as hygeinic at the docked ewes.

[Jackie]

Thank you

I didnt know if it was a serious health issue for them to be left on. I have sprayed with crocovet for fly strike around the tail and picked it up and sprayed under so hopefully its ok.

[dixie]

They do tend to be messier round the back end, I assume they have been sheared, later on in the year its a good idea to dag them around the tail and bum, helps keep it cleaner.

[Hellybee]

Some are left on depending on theyre environment,  i spek a lot to a local farmer who sheep run the preseli hills, he never dock his, one, beccause they need the extra protection, and two because theyre grazing is much more thrifty and nothing like the rich grass of lowland flocks.   We dock for the opposite reasons. 

[Jackie]

dixie they are only lambs of approx 5 months so no they havent been sheared yet and hopefully they will go to slaughter before they are 1 year old so may not need shearing. They will probably need dagging at some point though.

[dixie]

If its a warm autumn it will be worth dagging them.

[Jackie]

Will do then, thank you 

[piggy]

We have 5 orphan lambs,the ram still has his tail so do 2 of the females,the ram got fly strike although none of the others did, had the vet who dagged them all and crovected them,if it were me although they have been crovected to be safe i would dag them as soon as you can just to be safe,trust me ive just had my bill from the vet.

[dixie]

piggy, now you've seen it done you could do it yourself if it happens again, as long as you got dagging shears and a can of flyspray you can save yourself a fortune!

[Fleecewife]

Hi Jackie. Some sheep farmers do leave their wethers with long tails as a way of quickly telling them apart from the ewe lambs.  This is if the wethers are going for slaughter at a few months old but the females are being retained as breeding stock.

[Fleecewife]

I should also have said that some breeds are not docked at all, not through laziness but because they don't need it.  Many Jacob breeders no longer dock and Northern Shorttailed Sheep such as Soay, Shetland, Hebridean, North Ronaldsay and so on have naturally short tails and must not be docked.  Texels are not NST sheep so would naturally have quite long tails.  Some dockers get a bit carried away and dock far too short so ewes have no cover for the vulva, which is now seen as a welfare issue.  Draggly tails can get daggy and be flystruck, but so can the very shortest of Soay tails - more to do with if dung sticks.

[Jackie]

Thank you Fleecewife so it is the Texel wethers that have long tails, I did wonder if this was a common practice.
They are going for meat at a few months but the ewes arent, although saying that Texels are much finer than the Suffolk cross I have so not too much meat me thinks so I may send the Texel ewes to slaughter too as I dont really want the fleece.

Im planning on buying pedigree Leicesters or Rylands next year for meat and breeding but this year as my first year I just bought what was avalaible as cades at Louth market and cades from a local farmer.  These are my 'learning sheep'. 

[ellisr]

If you do go for Ryelands you will see a much calmer sheep than the x breeds or texels, they are a little slower growing breed but are the choice of the queen for her table.
I have some x breeds that I picked up just for the freezer and they are very slight compared to the Ryeland lambs but I have just had some texel x ryeland lambs born that are very interesting and are filling out like the ryelands but at a quicker rate. This wasn't planned but the ewes got in with my ram and of course he was only too pleased to see them. I also have a suffolk due to lamb and she was caught by my Ryeland Ram as well so that will be interesting we are taking bets on if there legs will be wooly