Higher Welfare Alternatives

Sheep with lambs in organic system

Most sheep are farmed in extensive systems, outdoors on pasture. However several million sheep are housed permanently indoors and some lambs are fattened indoors. When buying lamb, unless the label says ‘grass fed’ or ‘access to pasture’ sheep may have had no outdoor access. Organically farmed sheep graze on pasture throughout the grazing season.

Good stockmanship with good grazing regimes and strong breeds help ensure ewes remain healthy and improves lamb survival. Smaller numbers of sheep cared for by more shepherds allows proper supervision of the animals’ health and welfare. Provided that they are given sufficient care, ‘easy care’ breeds which are better able to look after themselves, can have many welfare advantages. They have fewer problems with lambing and are more resistant to fly strike so they don’t need to be tail docked. However, it is essential that sheep are given adequate supervision to ensure any welfare issues are quickly noticed and addressed.

Effective anaesthesia can be used to reduce the pain caused by mutilations such as castration, tail-docking and mulesing. These mutilations are often unnecessary and are not carried out in the highest welfare systems.

Use of chemicals and breeding could reduce the use of mulesing altogether and it is already being phased out in New Zealand and Australia.

Find out how you can help improve the welfare of sheep.