And why is tail docking carried out?

So tail docking is mainly done to reduce the risk of a condition called fly strike, which is a really significant welfare issue.

It's caused by certain species of flies that land and lay eggs on the sheep in the fleece that hatch and develop into our friends, the maggots that then cause all the associated problems.

And it's well known that they are will be attracted to areas of wool that have got fecal soiling on them.

So fecal remains down the back end.

So obviously where the tail is an area that is commonly you will get more fecal attraction if you've got a longer tail.

So it's done to reduce that risk of fly strike and should be done alongside other sensible management procedures like dagging, so to removing excess soiled wool, crutching, keeping the wool round that back end short, and certainly also Control of parasites is really important because we know that if you have liquid feces compared to solid ones, then actually the risk of fly strikes unfolded by eight and a half, nine times more likely to happen.

So specifically talking about Scotland, what are the legal requirements that farmers need to be aware of when considering doing these procedures?