LIVESTOCK FROM THE WAR ZONE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13242, 18 January 1941, Page 4

LIVESTOCK FROM THE WAR ZONE

ENGLAND STILL SHIPPING PEDIGREE CATTLE ROUND THE WORLD

Britain continues in the midst of war to send pedigree livestock across the seas to several remote corners of the world to the value of £IOO,OOO a year. Sheep from, Romney Marsh have recently been landed on the lonely island of Ascension in. the South Atlantic. Bred for generations on these exposed marshes of the English Channel, they thrive where other sheep would perish. One ram of this breed was sold last September \ to Argentina for 210 guineas. Argentina, Chile and Peru have also all received further consignments of sheep from the marshes. Their wool which is excellent, is more important to South America than their mutton. Red Poll cattle have been safely delivered as far from East Anglia as Nepal. They are the only hornless breed in England, sprung from a century of skilful mating of the Norfolk strain, with its red colour and beef production, and the Suffolk, with its excellent milking qualities. A breed which matures even earlier than the Red Poll, a Hereford bull, has been shipped to British India. The breed is practically immune from tuberculosis and stands drought better than any other. A- consignment of pigs has also just crossed the Atlantic and Canada to Vancouver. They are Large Whites, the breed which has a larger proportion of lean to fat than any other. The sows are excellent mothers and very prolific, while their piglets are hardy and rapid growers, equally ready for slaughter at an early age where small joints of pork are required, or to be taken on to a very large size and weight.