Numnuts pain relief for sheep

While the clue might be in the name, the Scottish developer of‘ N um nuts ’, a pain reducing cast rati on and de-tailingsystem for sheep, has won the opportunity to work with a major supermarket retailer towards expanding the concept.

Robin Smith, founder of Senesino which invented the product said that Numnuts provided lambs with the best start in life, giving welfare focused consumers, retailers and sheep farmers an ethical and sustainable approach to castration and detailing.

The patented technology is a practical, farmer-friendly method for alleviating pain by injecting local anaesthetic at the same time as rubber ring application to the tail or testes, providing fast-acting pain relief.

While the pro duct i s wel l known in Australia, he said that recognition in a major agri-tech competition marked a substantial commitment by the supermarket Tesco towards improving UK farm animal welfare:

“We are delighted that the team at Tesco are excited as we are about helping to repatriate our technology back into the UK (where it was invented), then assisting the tens of millions of lambs with their Numnuts!”

Tesco’s head of agriculture, Natalie Smith, said the product had been chosen to trial and scale up a simple piece of technology that had the potential to improve the welfare of thousands of animals within the supply chain.

The Numnuts concept originated from work carried out at Moredun which secured early funding for the area and the Institute possesses a shareholding in the company, with director, Prof Julie Fitzpatrick, sitting on the board.