Salon for gimmers (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Salon for gimmers

5:46pm Tuesday 6th September 2011 in Farming By Andrew Long, Westmorland Gazette columnist

THIS week we are busy among the mule gimmer lambs - mule lambs being a cross between a hill breed ewe and a blue faced Leicester tup – and a gimmer being a girl.

We are preparing them for sale at Kendal Auction next week, with an eight in one injection to prevent disease and pneumonia, We then dip them in a solution containing pearl dip, and sheep scab prevention dip in water. The pearl dip is pretty much like having a perm, to curl and tighten the wool and to make the jackets darker.

We will do this three times in the next two weeks, and also clip out the heads and neck.

Then we trim around the bottom of their jackets to straighten edges, and finish with washing their legs and face. After that they get their ear tags, and after two or three weeks of being pampered, 250 gimmer lambs are ready to strut their stuff at auction.