VISITORS TO SHOW

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29051, 13 November 1959, Page 12

VISITORS TO SHOW

Buyers From Peru, Japan

Visitors from Peru and Japan were closely following the sheep chow at Addington Show Grounds on Wednesday, The representatives from both countries are in Canterbury to buy sheep. Quiet spoken Mr Jorge Gallegos, an agronomist and farm manager from Peru, is interested in buying Corriedales for a Government experimental breeding station, and also for a. private farming organisation for which he is manager. The property which Mr Gallegos manages lies about 200 miles from Lima and has 108,000 sheep running on about 200.000 acres at altitudes up to 12,000 ft. The organisation already has six Corriedale rams imported from New Zealand and 20 ewes.

Mr Gallegos said that even at up to 12,000 ft good results were obtained by crossing native sheep with Corriedale, Romney or Merino rams. Corriedales were taking a leading part in this development, he said, producing sheep with a good carcase and good wool. Mr Gallegos’s visit is the outcome of the interest aroused in New Zealand Corriedales by Mr H. -C. A. Sidey, of Hawarden, when he visited that country a few years ago and more recently by Mr Harry Little, son of Mr J. R. Little of Hui Hui, Hawarden. Two top ram hoggets from the Hui Hui stud have already been selected for Mr Gallegos and a ram has still to be selected. After the show Mr Gallegos will visit as many Corriedale breeders as he can and he is also interested in going to Canterbury Agricultural College, and in studying methods of farm improvement in this country. Impressed by Corriedales

Discussing the display of sheep at the show Mr Gallegos said that he had been impressed with the size, conformation and wool of the Corriedales. “The Corriedale stud farms in Canterbury are well known in Peru,” he said. The four Japanese visitors at the show are members of a buying mission who are in the South Island to buy 52 Corriedale, Southdown, Romney and Suffolk stud sheep. All of these sheep have been drawn from Canterbury apart from the Southdown element and they will be shipped to Japan in early December. At the show some of their purchases won prizes for their Canterbury breeders.

Mr K. Yoshida, who represents the largest stock handling firm in Japan, said that they had been impressed at the scale of the sheep show and the variety of breeds of good quality exhibited. In Japan, he said, the bulk of the sheep were Corriedales. Every six years there was an All-Japan sheep show and every year there were shows in the prefectures. At present all the sheep shown were Corriedales and at the All-Japan show there would be about 350.