IMPROVING WOOL IN THE FLOCK

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30094, 30 March 1963, Page 6

IMPROVING WOOL IN THE FLOCK

About this time of the year farmers are sorting out their ewes for putting with the ram and Mr L. Galloway, sheep and wool instructor of the Department of Agriculture in the district between the Rangitata river and the main West Coast road, including Banks Peninsula, emphasises that, from point of view of financial returns from wool and lambs, it is one of the most important phases of a farmer’s flock management programme.

Unhappily this sorting is in many cases not done adequately. Mr Galloway says that from talks with farmers it seems that very few go to the trouble of sorting ewes by hand so that the wool is opened and examined. The usual practice where ewes are being sorted seems to be that they are run .through the drafting race at about one every three seconds. In this brief space the farmer has to consider size and conformation, which are reasonably obvious characteristics, but there is little •ime in which to make decisions about such wool characteristics as hairiness, staple length, crimp formation, mushiness and tippiness. Mushiness denotes a lack of definite crimp formation on the back and a fuzziness such j as is found in Southdown type of wool, which could mean a loss of 31b of wool production worth about 10s 6d for average Romney wool and a downgrading of two grades involving a further loss of about 2s 6d, giving an over-all loss of about 13s a head. The i view that it was impossible to assess sheep for wool by running them through the drafting race in | th is way was supported by 50 farmers who had been advised how to cull their flocks by inspecting individual sheep by hand. Inspection Mr Galloway said that for this purpose sheep had to be put through a crush pen, preferably about 3ft wide, and working from the back of the pen the wool on each sheep should be opened in two places—preferably the rump mid-flank area and most important on the back. In this way staple length, which had a direct bearing on fleece weight, could be judged, hairiness could be identified, well defined crimp or lack of it could be recognised as well as faults like tippiness. A major fault in Ashburton county, according to Mr Galloway, had been bad backs with the particular weaknesses being mushy wool and bad colour. Where there was a wet season a type of close fleece in which the fibres did not part easily could be susceptible to a variety of discolourations but these fleeces could be largely elimina’od

from the replacement flock by culling by hand.

These discolouration® included pink tip caused by bacteria. The back wool was most affected and the tip was weakened. Pink rot characterised by a whitishpink tinge was caused by a soil bacterium which, under warm humid conditions, lived on the fleece, resulting in the fibres appearing to be fused together and becoming quite rotten. Canary stain, a diffused golden yellow discolouration which showed some permanence in the fleece, was found in cots and could be avoided by spring shearing. Yolk stain, dry yolk or cakey yolk resulted from bacterial activity on the skin when the fleece was damp and was a hard skin exudate Occasionally a stain might result from true yolk within and under a cotted zone ; n the fleece. Green discolouration resulted in wool being tinged with varying shades of colour, but predominantly green, m transverse bands across the fibre. It was caused by a colour - producing bacteria which lived on a moist scurfy skin and most of tne colour was retained in scouring This discolouration was quite common in the foothills behind Ashburton with the finer wools, including many of the finer Romney fleeces which were not true Romney types, being badly affected Fleece rot was quite often associated with this staining. Mycotic dermititis was less common than those faults already mentioned and farmers frequently confused if with discolourations and yolk cakiness. With mycotic dermititis there could be hard grey waxy lumps which bound together groups of fibres. “I therefore consider that selecting ewes and rams with good backs, with a crimp carrying right out to the tip and a fleece that opens up well is of the utmost importance,” said Mr Galloway. Mr Galloway said that in the process of flock improvement it was necessary to initially go through the whole flock inspecting by hand and culling on size, conformation and obvious wool faults. There should be at least six months’ wool growth on the sheep and

where the farmer was doing the inspection preferably nine to 12 months’ growth. Culls could be identified in the crush pen by dotting on the nose. Raddle should not be used on the back for fear of detracting from the value of the wool. Subsequently these culls could be marked permanently by placing an ear tag in the ear opposite to that normally used or by not ear-tagging them at all. Once the whole flock had been culled on this basis, hand inspection could thereafter be confined to the twotooths each year. Culling at this stage rather than at the ewe lamb stage was desirable because frequently a smallish lamb could grow intp a good two-tooth. Some farmers engaged in flock improvement had managed to mark twins at birth and this had also proved of great value when selecting replacements, said Mr Galloway, as he felt that every farmer should have a certain proportion of twins going back into the flock and this should apply to selection of rams as well as ewes.

Depending on the practice on the farm the culls twotooths could, for example, in the case of a Romney flock, be sold, used to maintain the prime lamb flock or be mated to the poorest Romney rams for production of lambs that could be sold or carried through to the two-tooth stage for sale at the fairs. More Two-tooths In the light of the encouraging market for two-tooth Romn’ey ewes Mr Galloway said that some farmers in Mid-Canterbury were planning to increase the number of replacement sheep bred so that they would have more surplus two-tooth ewes available for sale. With the level of sales this year and two years ago with a good twotooth selling at 80s or better and producing a 7jlb fleece at the hogget stage worth 27s 6d it gave a total return of £5 7s 6d compared with 40s for a lamb.

While these sheep had to be carried over an extra year this could normally be done without affecting ewe carrying capacity and if necessary these sheep could be sold as lambs or hoggets. In some cases Mr Galloway said that farmers operated a fat lamb flock for three or four years until they had disposed of all their undesirable types as aged ewes and then they put all their ewes to the replacement breed ram and sold their surplus as twotooths.

Mr Galloway emphasised that the further step of fleece weighing as an aid to flock improvement should only be embarked on after hand culling had been practised for at

least three years, the standard of the wool had been raised to reasonable levels and years of good breeding had produced a fairly uniform type. Preparatory to fleece weighing at the two-tooth stage these sheep had to be shorn previously within a day or two of each other and then shorn again as twotooths at about the same time so that all sheep were carrying a fleece that had been growing for a similar length of time. Immediately prior to shearing they should be put through the crush pen with an estimate being made of the count and grade of wool of each sheep and any other comments being recorded. These details were best recorded in an exercise book with each sheep being identified by ' a number. Number tags could be attached at this stage or as ewe lambs. For about 500 ewes with two men doing the job of inspection and recording Mr Galloway said that the time taken would be about five hours. Shearing When the sheep were shorn a slip of paper with the number of the sheep was placed with each fleece and accompanied it to the scales where the weight was recorded in the exercise book. Where there was a reasonable supply of labour Mr Galloway said that the farmer should be able to do some skirting as well as weighing the fleeces. If out of a flock of 500 two-tooth ewes 100 had been culled on visual inspection and 250 were required for flock replacements the lowest 150 on a wool weight basis could readily be selected for maintenance of the lamb flock or other purpose, where

a chart was prepared with the number of each sheep being shown in columns under ascending wool weights. However, Mr Galloway emphasised that grade was taken into account at this stage and where a sheep was in a weight group that just fell short of inclusion in the replacement flock it might be included if it had a high grade compared with a sheep with a fractionally greater fleece weight but low grade Mr Galloway said that care had also to be taken with ram selection with the same characteristics being aimed at as in the ewe Before going to buy rams all rams on the place should be brought in and closely examined for wool. A ram which looked good as a twotooth could show a fault as. say, a six-tooth and where a particular fault was showing in the ewes the rams should be particularly closely inspected. Generally he said that a ram should have wool at least one count lower than the type of wool being aimed at. In the case of Romneys the ram should not be selected with a higher count than 50s. Otherwise a finer not true Romney wool susceptible to mushiness and colour might be produced with a consequent loss in wool production and grade. He said that rams should not necessarily be culled on account of age. Where an aged ram was reasonably sound in the mouth and had good wool and conformation it should be retained.

Where selection by hand had been practised, particularly for colour and bad backs for four or five years, fly strike on the body had been practically eliminated. Mr Galloway emphasised that flock improvement was a slow process with a lapse of four or five years before

much benefit was noted. It was not until all the ewes in a flock had been inspected as two-toothe that production of the wool aimed at began to show up and then provided the system was maintained improvement was a slow continuing process.