DOMINION'S STUD FLOCKS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21315, 7 November 1934, Page 8

DOMINION'S STUD FLOCKS

WIDE VARIETY OF BREEDS HIGH STANDARD OF QUALITY It occasionally has been stated that the sheep of the Dominion are deteriorating in quality. Such a statement is wide of the mark. New blood is desirable in most flocks as a simple, sound breeding practice, but that does not mean that without it sheep are deteriorating. Any person who labours under this hallucination should visit Addington to-morrow and he will quickly be disillusioned. There he will see what has been admitted by competent authorities to be the best sheep show in the world. Successful sheep raising is measured by the demand and the market value, and New Zealand sheep are in demand in practically every wool and mutton export country in the world. Fashions come and go in sheep, according to the market requirements, and the Dominion breeders have shown themselves more adaptable to meeting changing customers than any other shedp-raising country. It is recognised that in many of the long wool breeds Great Britain is supreme, but it is not so obvious that these sheep are so suitable for the needs of new countries as are the sheep raised in the more natural and harder conditions of the Dominion. In the rapidly growing sheep export industry of the Dominion the province

of Canterbury takes the leading place. Notwithstanding the world-wide economic depression there has been a largely increased export of stud sheep, principally to Australia, but also to South America. Our Corriedales have gone to Australia, America, the Argentine, Chile, Scotland, and the Falkland Islands. Border Leicesters, Ryelands, and Southdowns regularly go to all the states of Australia, and Romneys and Lincolns are regularly shipped to the Argentine. As the Corriedale stud sheep of the province number more than 30,000 head in a total of 43.500 in the Dominion, and our Border Leicesters 12,300 in a total of 22,698, the extent to which it figures in the export trade can be easily estimated.

This export of sheep, it has to be remembered, has been in face of the most difficult conditions the exporting countries of the world have ever had to contend with. It is a reasonable assumption, therefore, that when economic conditions improve throughout the world this valuable trade will be rapidly extended. 4 The soil and climate are ideal for the purpose of raising hardy, strong-constitutioned sheep, fit to put out on country where the climate is variable and severe. Actually it is this constitutional quality and freedom from a pampered development that is turning the attention of breeders in other countries to the Dominion for their source of supply. The limestone quality of the pasture throughout much of the South Island and in parts of the North gives young stock an advantage over many other countries. Added to these natural advantages is a complete freedom from diseases. About the only primary product in which there is no prospect of a world surplus is wool, and as time goes on it is inevitable that wool-raising countries will increasingly turn to New Zealand for sheep to improve their flocks to meet the growing demand.