BRANDING SHEEP AND LAMBS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25147, 31 March 1947, Page 8

BRANDING SHEEP AND LAMBS

SALEYARDS MANAGER’S STATEMENT

A reply to statements made at this week’s meeting of the Canterbury district executive of Federated Farmers on the branding of sheep and lambs, has been made by Mr O. D. Fraser, manager of the Canterbury Saleyards Company.

“At the commencement of the store sheep sale at Addington on Wednesday.” said Mr Fraser in a statement last evening, “at the request of the Department of Agriculture, I announced that from next Tuesday, all sheep offered for sale in the saleyards must bear the registered brand of the owner. I explained that in certain circumstances the company is liable as well as the owner of the sheep, and the question of prohibiting the sale of unbranded sheep would have to be considered by the directors of the company.

“Section 62 of the Stock Act lays it down that all sheep immediately after shearing, and all lambs before April :j0 in each year, shall be distinctly and legibly branded with the registered brand of the owner; and for every sheep not branded the owner shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 10s. “Exception was taken to this announcement by a few speakers at the Wednesday afternoon meeting of the Canterbury section of Federated Farmers, apparently unaware that action is being taken at the request of Federated Farmers of New Zealand. Sheep stealing is rife everywhere, and the police are frequently at Addington making inquiries about missing lots.

“Sheep disappear in transit both to and from Addington, and recently in North Canterbury an owner who had returned to the trucking yards to pick up something he had left, found two of his prime lambs, which had been taken from the truck, tied up ready to

»e taken away. “Branding of all sheep and lambs vould certainly tend to lessen this svil. If farmers marked their sheep ind lambs with branding oil approved )y the Department of Agriculture, no oss would be incurred by freezing vorks and other buyers, as the brand narks would disappear in the process »f scouring.”