Sheep - Crutching

One of the great advantages of winter shorn ewes is that you can see them springing an udder and therefore can quickly spot them lambing. It also has advantages for the newborn lamb, helping him to quickly find the teat. Although it is too late now to shear ewes, you can compromise by crutching wool from around the tail area and shearing a blow of the shears in front of the udder. The few flock owners that have tried crutching pre-lambing have found ewes were much cleaner all round, both pre and post lambing.