You are such a wealth of knowledge!There is no need for you to dock your sheep unless you like that look. After 30 years of sheep, an undocked sheep looks strange to us. Hair sheep (except Dorpers) are seldom docked. The reason for docking in wooled breeds is to avoid fly larvae and maggots in the wool under the tail from blood and birth fluid, poo and pee. When you are raising sheep for a wool crop, the wool from that region will be discarded due to the above reasons. Most breeders/ranchers who run commercial Dorper/ Dorper X flocks often don't dock. If you are bringing 100+ lambs to the sale yard and selling by the pound (dream on So Cal breeders LOL) those extra ounces of tail (not to mention testicles) per lamb translate into $$$. At just 8 ounces per tail per lamb that is 50 extra lbs. on your check, and if you have pasture and are keeping your lambs until 70-90 lbs., those tails and testicles will weigh a lot more. Anywhere from $100 to $200 per 100 lambs. Since a lot of commercial ranchers are bringing in several hundred lambs at a time, those tails and testicles can give you a big bonus. And you save time castrating, avoid the possibility of infection, and/or cost of an extra vaccination for tetanus.
We dock our ewe lambs but no longer dock or castrate ram lambs going to the sale yard. Ram lambs grow faster and heavier than wethers and ewelings. And our ethic buyers prefer lambs with tails and testicles. Since we don't have any graze here, we pull our ram lambs straight from the ewes at 3 months (weaning), toss them in the trailer, and take them to auction. They usually average 50 - 70 lbs. at that age depending on whether they are twins or singles. If I plan to keep and register a ram lamb, we will dock him.
Isn't it a small world about you knowing Laura N! We got our first goat - a beautiful little Toggenburg yearling from her, as well as our original Dorset sheep when she lived here in Tujunga. When DS2 sold his Dorset flock to concentrate on his dairy goat herd, Laura bought the small flock from us since they were her original line which she purchased from the sheep instructor at Cal Poly Pomona. He had developed them over the years, and they were wonderful sheep, super cam, great wool and carcass, and could have doubled as milk sheep. We all learned a lot from those Dorsets. Those Dorset traits are what I love in my White Dorpers. She is also the instructor DS3 and I went to with our Aussie for herding classes.
Huge thank you on the tails and testicle info -- things I hadn't though of. LOL of course I'm not looking at that many sheep - but info is priceless. My reasoning on the tails is from a stand point of them being a "handle" for dogs/coyotes. Though I will not work with dogs that are going to grab a tail (I recommend someone else for training), I have seen a few de-gloved tails at other facilities. Not a good thing. If I want to keep a ram lamb as a future working/training sheep I would definitely castrate. At this stage in the game I'm trying to build up -- LOL trying to find and get more sheep earlier this year was next to impossible. It seems like things are opening up now -- but I'm already on my current path - not sure if changing directions is a good thing because things take time and don't happen overnight. WHY CAN'T I JUST GOT TO THE STORE AND BUY A FEW SHEEP OFF THE SHELF 
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Yup! I was about to ask you if she kept her ranch name. Glad she did
. I’ll have to drop her an email when I get a chance. . Busy weekend of judging for me so DH has been taking care of the sheep. 
.! I decided to take the south ranch road back to the barn. BUT....... Mother Nature had other plans. Remember that coyote from last week?? Well he presented himself centered on top of the huge boulder on the south end of the pasture. God he was gorgeous. AND CLOSE. As I was reaching for some persuasive encouragement the photographer in me said 'This is a National Geographic photo op - grab your phone first' - I thought it, but I continued with some persuasion and he beat feet the heck out there well persuaded. I was glad that I left the family unit at the barn. I am 100% certain that had any of the sheep moved fast or bolted his prey drive would have completed his mission of finding breakfast. As Obi and turned the sheep to continue this time to the north ranch road I once again realized just how amazing my dog is. He kept and held the sheep still, standing between them and the breakfast hunter. Never once doing anything to cause the sheep to worry, move or bold. The hunter was maybe 50-60 ft way max. I am yet again amazed, and know how blest I am to have him and to continually be in awe of what he does. I'm sure you all have the same as well. I thank God every night for him and the others I have. 
) and listened to Mike Rowe's new podcast. On with the rest of the day.)...
Years ago I showed goats and one of the other exhibitors (who won tons) shredded his alfalfa hay (stems and leaves) before offering it to his goats. He mixed some grain with it and they scarfed it up. No waste! He also offered grass hay in it's natural form for the long-stemmed roughage that ruminants need.
