Catriona MacLennan: Protect lambs from spring's icy touch

COMMENT

More than 500,000 newborn lambs froze to death this year in spring snows.

This is becoming a regular occurrence in New Zealand.

Soon after pictures of daffodils begin appearing in the media, photos of thousands of dead lambs are seen on television.

Around Balfour, Riversdale and Kaiwera in Southland, approximately half of the lambs born died.

We should investigate options for preventing this because it is cruel to let young animals freeze to death.

For farmers, it is also bad economics.

Farmers receive $1 for each dead newborn lamb.

Several months later, they would receive $70 per lamb.

Meat and Wool New Zealand's economic service estimated that farmers lost $7 million over one late September weekend alone, when 100,000 lambs froze to death.

The deaths of a further 400,000 lambs brought lost income to around $35 million.

So what steps can farmers take to protect lambs?

Shelter belts would provide protection from the wind, which is often the key cause of death.

Windchill rapidly lowers the animals' body temperature, and they can freeze to death in a short time.

Trees would also offer protection to animals in summer heat.

In Europe, animals are protected from snow by being sheltered in barns.

Surely on economic grounds alone it would be worth weighing up the cost of providing temporary shelter against repeated losses of millions of dollars.

Lambs in danger of succumbing to cold can be fed a cheap, energy-boosting glucose solution.

A 20 per cent strength injection of dextrose glucose helps to protect the animals when they rapidly lose body heat and risk hypothermia.

The injection was developed in Scotland more than a decade ago and Clutha vet John Smart started using it in the spring of 2002, when hundreds of thousands of lambs also froze to death.

Additional protection can be provided by lamb covers, available in plastic and in wool.

Southland farmer Jim Ryan invented plastic covers in the 1970s and now exports them internationally. A Canterbury farmer, David Brown, developed wool covers for lambs in 1993.

Around 100,000 wool covers are now produced each year. They can be fitted in half a minute. Wool covers cost $3 each and plastic covers $18.

Wrightson Invercargill rural supplies manager was quoted in September as saying that sales of the covers were up, but not by much, and he was surprised that more were not being purchased.

Farmers worried about the cost of the coats can improvise; one Southland farmer used to protect his animals with plastic chicken bags.

Another option would be to consider delaying lambing until the chance of spring snow has passed.

So-called late snow is becoming a regular event.

Putting lambing back a few weeks would mean the animals would not be subjected to the freezing cold.

Farmers may criticise townies for not understanding the realities of rural life.

But the reality for farmers is that townies, in New Zealand and overseas, are their market.

Consumers are increasingly sensitive to animal welfare issues, and dead baby lambs are very bad PR for farmers.

* Catriona MacLennan is a South Auckland barrister.