Allen Richards sheep are not raised for wool all ram lambs, unless pedigree, are destined for slaughter

@@dairecassidy3783, it is true that many more of lambs that are slaughtered are ram lambs because they need to keep more ewe lambs to grow up to become breeding mothers. They need many more ewes than rams for breeding since they can use the same rams for multiple ewes. They can have 40 ewes and only about 5 rams for breeding. This doesn't mean though that there aren't some ewe lambs that get slaughtered.

Allen Richards yes you are correct some ewe lambs are fattened, however the vast majority of ewe lambs go on to be breeding ewes. A cross-bred ewe is preferred by the majority of farmers as they tend to be a lot tougher than a pedigree. However, in the case of ram lambs, they are no good for breeding if they are cross-bred. A ram lamb is also a lot easier to put flesh on

Allen Richards a ewe lamb is also worth a lot more as a breeding sheep than a fat

Better than getting killed by wolves

Belclare

How ?

How is this an issue?

These are lambs who were rejected by their mothers or their mothers didn't have enough milk to rear them

These lambs would have died if this farmer didn't intervene. Farming is hard work you city ppl wouldn't understand. There are programs that are followed strictly for animal health and profit of the farm. Otherwise you loose stock to morality and eventually loose your business. Keeping animals healthy, maintaning good body condition and content is the main objective.