Skins are a valuable product of the lamb industry, contributing up to 30% of the return from lamb. Lamb skin prices are generally highest in spring as manufacturers of sheep skin rugs purchase their requirement for the entire year over a few months. This intense buying focuses on unshorn second cross lambs with little colour or vegetable fault in the wool. Prices will not be so high for other lambs or at other times but a few simple management guidelines can always be followed. These will ensure the value of skins is as high as possible at the time of slaughter.

The main factors affecting skin value are: wool length wool quality and cleanliness seed and burr contamination breed shearing cuts skin weight misuse of brands poor vaccination technique Ways to improve skin value Avoid pigmented sires as black fibres in the fleece of lambs reduce the skin value. Even black fibres at the points reduce skin value. Vaccinate near the edge of the pelt (behind the ear for example) so that the blemish can be easily trimmed if necessary. Do not vaccinate along the back. If possible, graze lambs in the paddocks free of burrs and grass seed. Consider spray topping of grassy pastures and vary time of shearing to reduce contamination. Avoid full crutching, or you could lose several dollars in skin value. A narrow crutch under the tail (a "bung hole" crutch) will maximise the skin value. Do not do a full crutch up and over the tail and well out onto the legs. It is unnecessary and substantially reduces the skin value. Control external parasites to minimise the risk of fleece rot, dermatitis, flystrike or matting of the wool. All these adversely affect the fleece structure in dressing skins. Minimise scouring and soiling by controlling worms, and by avoiding sudden changes in diet. Give the lambs time to empty out before loading on transport - ideally this should be about 12 hours. Recommended crutch for slaughter lambs Spray markers and raddle used to identify lambs for sale are best applied on the wig or nose of the lamb, not the middle of the back. Lamb skin processors use lower temperatures than wool scours leaving traces of the mark on the processed skin. Before sale, neatly trim off any soiled fleece or the skin may be discounted by up to 10%. This trim before slaughter reduces the risk of carcase contamination. The "bung hole" crutch is recommended; it maximises the skin value and minimises breech strike, carcase contamination and soiling of the skin. The "bung hole" crutch requires a blow on parts of the leg that face each other, and on the backs of the legs (inner half only), and one blow on the tail butt. Tell your shearers that this crutch is to be used before you start crutching. Only use a bung hole crutch. Do not use crayons and spray marks on the skin, only on the head. Vaccinate near the edge of the pelt.

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