SHEEP BREED IN LITTERS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30553, 23 September 1964, Page 17

SHEEP BREED IN LITTERS

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, September 22. A breed of sheep, which produces lambs in litters,, has been imported secretly into Britain. Ten rams and 20 ewes of the Finnish Landrace breed are now in quarantine, under Ministry of Agriculture supervision, at a station in Camden Town, London.

Security measures were so strict that only a handful of Ministry officials knew of their arrival and the firm who imported them will not disclose where they will be kept after quarantine is completed. A Condition of the import licence is that the sheep or their progeny, either pure or part-bred, cannot be sold for four years. This is to avoid risk of adding a new breed, before its value is proved, to the 35 already in Britain. A Ministry spokesman said: “We have to make sure that experiments prove the worth of the Finnish breed and that there is no prospect of a flood of inferior animals getting on to the market.”

The Finnish Landrace is so prolific that in its own country flocks have a lambing average of 3.1 a ewe, far higher than any British breed. Many ewes produce four or five lambs at a birth. A spokesman of the importing firm said: “Our primary aim is to study the breed. If we find it has desirable characteristics we shall blend them into our own sheep. It is a long-term programme and is unlikely to produce com-

mercial stock before the 19705.”

The firm have also secured Ministry permission to import animals of another foreign breed —the French He de France, which is an impressive meat producer, but averages only one lamb and a half. Next month 15 rams and 30 ewes will go into preliminary quarantine at Brest before coming to Britain.