FAT LAMBS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 167, 18 July 1927, Page 4

FAT LAMBS.

NORTH ISLAND V. CANTERBURY,

BREEDING AND FEEDING

Hie supreme position so long occupied by Canterbury lamb on the Eondon market formed the basis of a discussion by the W anganui Provincial Farmers' Union the other day, arising out of an interview given by Mr. R. S. Forsyth, London manager of the Meat Producers' Board, to a London interviewer. Following up this topic, which has created considerable discussion m farming and mercantile tlle Christchurch "Press" savs:— Ihere is no gainsaying the fast 'that • f I fi * ai 'd has improved a con- J siderable percentage of its fat lambs, because of the line of breeding for the export trade that has been adopted bv many faimers that is the mating of the Romney type of ewe-the standard flock ewe in the north—with the Southclou n ram Ihe ewes are good milkers, excellent growth of grass in the pastures in the spring and earlv summer a large percentage of the lamli are got away off their mothers when the lamb flesh is at its primest quality. When it is considered that about half the lambs bred in the North Island are bv Romney rams, and that Lincoln, Border' Leicester English Leicester, Shropshire, Rveland' and other rams are used, the proportion of Southdown cross lambs is not verv large, but it is undoubtedly increasing. It if t :! r ? UK ' 1 tllis increasing percentage of Southdown crosses, which are the mo«t pop,, ar in the trade to-<lay, that the North Island is making a better name in the frozen meat trade, and the fact as belore stated, that the bulk are got away as milk It is only in parts ot the North Island that rape and other todder crops are grown for finishing fat lambs, and consequently a larsjt proportion of lambs are held over till the next season, which gives the North Island a much higher position in the export of wether mutton. The holding over of lambs is also to be seen in the large sales of hoggets that take place in the late autumn and during the winter and spring.

The Canterbury Position. Tn Canterbury there has not been any falling off in the finality of the lambs as some would have it, but there has not been any distinct progress for some years past, especially since the war years created a demand for weight of mutton and weight of wool, with quality a secondary consideration. The same breeds of rams are used for fat lamb production. Ihe English Leicester, the Borckr Leicester (now to a less extent), the Southdown, the Shropshire, and the Ryeland ram are still the most popular. It is the want of more uniformity in the type of breeding ewe available that is a handicap to the producer of fat lambs, and thus has not been met by a greater use of Southdown ranis. For instance, during the last two years thousands upon thousands of breeding ewes have come down to Canterbury from the North It is with the use of this type that North Island farmers can produce excellent lambs for export by the use of Southdown rams. Even had the buyers desired to mate the ewes in the same way, the rams were not available, lor besides the usual local demand, many of these rams are every year sent to the North Island to fill the demand from there. The first cross halfbred ewe and the next longwool cross from her, that played such a great part in building up ''antei bury's fat lamb trade, are not now available in anything like the numbers of former year*, and their place has been taken by ewes that do not cross so well 1 from a fat lamb point of view.

Longer Fattening Season. The aim of the Canterbury fat lamb producer should be to take more into consideration the production of the lamb that the trade is now demanding. He ha« a longer fattening season than the North Island farmer, for he can grow feed to finish off his lambs after they have left their mothers.

The fact that buyers piive a little more for liimhs that go through the Canterbury works is to some extent due to the keener competition, for there are no fewer than seven freezing works to be kept going, and Otago and Southland have to be drawn upon to maintain the supply. It has to be remembered that the prices paid for lambs for export are not uniform in the North Island. Hawke's Bay and Wellington lambs, according to the schedule of prices issued during the freezing season by the Meat Producers' Board, bring higher prices than those in other districts for which quotations are given. Confined to Milk Lambs. "Boiled down," the claim that the North Island has an equivalent class of lamb, if not a superior, to Canterbury, is true — for a few weeks at the beginning of the season when the early Southdown milkfattened cros« lambs ,appear. F»r quite three-fourths of the season after that its Komney cross over-sized, lightly finished, grass-fattened lamb does not excel, or equal, the rape-fattened lamb of Canterbury. In effect, one swallow doc 3 not Viake a slimmer.

Value of Addington Market. Another thing is that the North Island has not an Addington market, whore every clement, for export as well as for local consumption, is competing at the limit of valnes. This applies not only to lambs, but to every department of fat stock. Hence we see every year North Island fat cattle or fat sheep bearing the cost of transport to Addington and being sold at a profit Addington market sets the standard of values for outside the bounds of iUs home province."