We have to take off most of the lambs tail for animal health reasons. If it is left on there is a far greater chance that a lot of dags (poos) will accumulate, and that attracts flies. The flies just love laying eggs around the tail area in damp faeces and urine soaked wool. Some types of fly will even lay little live maggots, missing out the egg stage. And it is a very horrible death for anything that is flystruck and not found in time to be treated. You get hundreds of maggots feeding on the live animal, and the smell of course attracts other flies who lay more eggs. There is no doubt for anyone who has seen this that it is far preferable for the stock to be tailed than have flystrike. It also means less chemicals are used on the animals through the rest of their lives, and the chemical we use to inhibit the fly larval development stages is a very safe one, not like the ones you have to use if lambs have maggots on them.
The earmark has to be done so neighbours with the same breeds can differentiate between the flocks if there are any mix ups. And the ram lambs have to be castrated to prevent unwanted breeding (especially with half sisters). We use a rubber ring system, which constricts the blood supply and the tails and purses just dry up and eventually fall off (yummy tucker for the dogs over the summer as they are out and about supposedly concentrating on working).
Some people use a hot iron to take off the tails, which cauterizes the open wound as the tail comes off, but when we used to have a tailing iron we found it caused trouble in the wind, or if it became too hot, so went back to the rings.
