BREEDING EWES

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24280, 10 June 1944, Page 3

BREEDING EWES

INSUFFICIENT SUPPLIES NORTH ISLAND SHIPMENTS ADVOCATED The representative of a leading Canterbury meat freezing company expressed the opinion ■ the other day to a representative of “The Press" that lamb fattening areas in New Zealand, and particularly Canterbury, are being seriously affected in production by the shortage of breeding ewes. This was having a serious effect on the whole of the Dominion’s export industry. He stated that whereas two-tooth Romney ewes in Canterbury this season had been selling up to 50s and 53s a head, owing to the shortage of this class, there was a-surplus of two-tooths in the North Island, and tne top prices had ranged from 32s to 35s a head. If shipment were available, as it used to be available, the disparity in numbers and prices of breeding ewes could be removed and some steps should be taken to adjust the position if it were at all possible. The high prices of suitable breeding ewes in Canterbury were forcing farmers to keep their ewe lambs rather than buy high-priced two-tooths, and this, of course, detrimentally affected Canterbury’s lamb killings. The way Chatham Island sheep were snapped up was further evidence of the position as it existed. In pre-war days Romney two-tooth ewes, from the East Coast of the North Island, mostly in the Poverty Bay district, supplied Banks Peninsula and other parts of Canterbury with their breeding ewes, but owing to lack of shipping these sheep, which were of a most suitable type, were not available. While the east coast of the North Island was good, healthy breeding country, it was not fattening country, and therefore the stopping of this movement of breeding ewes to meet Canterbury’s demands was proving a handicap to the whole meat killing trade of the Dominion. Canterbury’s killing figures showed the position quite plainly and if New Zealand was to meet Europe’s urgent demands for our produce, something should be done about it. CANTERBURY EWE DECLINE The policy advocated by the above authority has been recommended by one or two branches of the Farmers’ Union. Back in 1927 no fewer than 134,000 sheep passed over the Lyttelton wharves for Canterbury, and the only other sources supplying these sheep than the North Island were the Chathams, Marlborough, and occasional lines from Nelson. It would be safe to say that for several years the annual. movement of breeding ewes from the North Island approximated close on 100.000 head. This was at a time, moreover, when the high country of Canterbury was maintaining its production of surplus ewes fairly steadily. This Canterbury production of surplus high country ewes has declined alarmingly in recent years. It is now some years since the last of North Island shipments were made, but Canterbury and Marlborough supplies, added to occasionally by lines from Central Otago, have kept the needs until recently of Canterbury lamb fatteners fairly well supplied, With the dwindling of the hill sources, due to successive winter losses, and to the increase in production costs, and the abandonment of a number of high country runs, this hill source is rapidly narrowing. Reduced Station Supplies

Entries at the autumn ewe fairs significantly emphasise this fact. The entries 10 years ago or more were probably 30 to 40 per cent, more than they have averaged in the last few years. The result is that lamb raisers in many- cases have had to buy ewes, unsuited-to them and at high prices, or retain their own old ewes for a further season. The stage has been reached in the latter respect that many farmers, as the freezing authority points out, are retaining their ewe lambs instead of cashing them for export. This cannot be condemned as a general policy, particularly if the ewes are bred right, but this aspect is controlled largely by the fact that the bulk of lambs are unsuitable for flock absorption, being by Southdown rams. A number of farmers this last two seasons have revived the practice of buying cull merino ewes and crossing them with English Leicester rams to produce the first cross ewe lamb for absorption into their flocks. But this excellent, policy is limited to the number of merino ewes available, which number is rapidly growing smaller. -Immediate v. Future Policy

The Government cannot control the weather, which is a major factor in the present position, but it can control some of the effects of the weather by reducing rents, by leaving skilled labour on the runs to do the work, and by making available maintenance materials at the easiest possible rates. Logically, if the high country is becoming subject to successive destructive winters, as appears to be the case, it is not worth the rental charged when it was much less subject to these visitations. It- has always been recognised that the high country man had to run a periodical risk of losing 25 to 50 per cent, of his flock through an occasional rough winter, but in recent years these visitations have come in much closer sequence, and give the flock owner no chance of. financial recovery. It would be no gift from the Slate if rentals were reviewed and based accordingly. Whilst the war is in progress and in the immediate post-war years the policy of meeting ewe needs by North losing 25 to 50 per cent, of his flock Island sheep would be justified—if they are available now that lamb raising has become an important industry in the Waikato. It might be much sounder policy for future needs to take some of the steps possible to increase the production of merino and halfbred ewes—for our own wool manufacturing industry as well as for lamb export—than to pay the cost entailed in shifting ewes from the North to the South Island. POTATO DIGGERS Potato digging this season, owing to the wet weather, is presenting worse problems than have been experienced for many seasons. The tractor or horse drawn digger lias proved that it can handle most crops in average New Zealand conditions. Many owners of this type (driven by the ground wheels with spode lugs) are this season finding that power-driven diggers are practically essential it the crop is to be lifted under present ground conditions. This explains why the New Zealand-made power-driven digger has been in such demand. Up to the present all requirements for diggers have been met, and some power driven diggers arc still available for immediate delivery this season. The locally-made power driven digger has some new and interesting features—one a variable change speed adjustment for altering the apron speed —so necessary for weedy crops. The manufacturers, Andrews and Beaven, Ltd., of Moorhouse avenue. Christchurch, undertake the local manufacture of power driven and wheel drive diggers, and notwithstanding shortages of materials and labour, have produced an efficient and satisfactory machine. —1

A fat lamb was killed at the Ocean Beach freezing works last week that dressed 86ib. It was by a Shropshire ram from a Romney cross ewe. An English farmer writes to the “Farmer and Stockbreeder" of a lambing return on his farm that he thinks must be a record. From 43 ewes he had a crop of 103 lambs, or 210.1 per cent