Need Seen For Sheep Breeding Research

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 9

Need Seen For Sheep Breeding Research

“Sheep production is by far the biggest industry in New Zealand—responsible for producing more than 50 per cent of our export income. Surely it would be sound business to spend considerable money on research work aimed at major breeding advances in our biggest industry,” says Mr J. R. Cocks, of Te Arawhata, Eiffelton, Mid-Canterbury, who last year visited Britain under a Nuffield Foundation scholarship, in his official report to the foundation.

“A New Zealand visitor cannot help being impressed by the consistently high fertility of the British breeds of sheep. Conversely visitors to New Zealand are singularly unimpressed with the low fertility and poor milking ability of our Romney sheep. The average lambing percentage of 11 farms in a two-day Gloucestershire farm walk organised by the National Agricultural Advisory Service was 159 per cent. Some of this high fertility stems from the natural fertility of the mountain breeds and some from the outcrossing with Border Leicester and other breeds for lowland use."

Referring tn the breeding and progeny testing work being done by Thornber-Col-burn Sheep, Ltd., Mr Cocks said that the Colbred developed by Mr Colburn before joining forces with Thornbers by the intercrossing of the Clun, Dorset Horn, Border Leicester and the highly fertile continental East Friesland, milked 80 gallons in a lactation compared with 30 to 40 for a Romney ewe, had a lambing percentage of 200 and was clipping 71b of relatively fine wool. “I saw Colbred hoggets with twins that would do credit to any full mouth ewe in New Zealand.”

Mr Cocks said that if progeny testing of Colbred daughters of crossings with a number of breeds of ewes in commercial use in Britain proved them markedly superior to conventional halfbreds, he felt that the merits of the Colbred should be evaluated under New Zealand conditions. The over-all aim of the very large breeding and progeny testing programme being undertaken by Thornber-Col-born Sheep, Ltd., was to produce a sire to use on the hill breeds to produce a top performance halfbred ewe for use on the lowlands—this was the aim in developing the Colbred —and to produce the ideal sire to use on that halfbred to give the fanner maximum growth rate and performance and to supply the type of lamb the market required. "Thornber-Colburn Sheep, Ltd, have recently imported

Ile-de-France sheep and Finnish Landrace, a breed with a lambing percentage of 300 to 400 per cent. These sheep will be used in a continuous breeding research programme designed to incorporate their desirable features in producing the ‘idpal sheep’ for 1980.” Further considerable progeny testing work was being carried out to develop improved strains of Down rams capable of siring lambs with a fast rate of growth as well as producing the ideal carcase for market requirements. Suffolk, Southdown, Dorset Down, and Hampshire Down rams were being used as well as two and three-way crosses. A proportion of the lambs from the project were slaughtered and the cuts retailed by a very large retailing firm so that the whole project was related to the needs of the market. A survey of butchers’ shops had been conducted in the first instance in order to assess the type of lamb required by the trade. Research After suggesting that it would surely be sound business to spend a considerable amount of money on research aimed at major advances in breeding in the sheep industry, Mr Cocks said that this work was too big for the private stud breeder, hut the stud breeder had built up, in the Romney and Corriedale, sheep of outstanding conformation with splendid fleeces which must remain the foundation of the industry for many years to come. They were excellent sheep for crossing with a sire with the object of giving a top performance first cross sheep for intensive production. They were also excellent sheep for use in a longterm research project incorporating the use of the excellent genetic material available in some of the highly prolific heavy milking breeds in other parts of the world. The fact that crossing Romney and Corriedale ewes with a Border Leicester ram could produce a first cross sheep with an equal or higher wool performance and a 20 to 25 per cent increase in lambing percentage pointed to the need for further work to be done in this direction. The

merits of the progeny of first cross sheep should be compared with those of pure breeds when put to a fat lamb sire, in order to evaluate carcase quality. Groups of first cross ewes and pure Romneys or Corriedales should be put to the same sire and the progeny tested for growth rate, conformation, grading ability and cutting quality. “The development of high producing varieties of grass and cereals has been worth millions to New Zealand. This has been accomplished over a long period by finding material with the desired characteristics and producing new strains by a programme of crossing, selection and testing. “I feel that work along the same lines as that being carried out by Thornber-Colburn Sheep, Ltd., should be undertaken by some form of animal breeding research organisation financed by the Government, or by a similar research programme promoted by the New Zealand Meat and Wool Boards. This is one field in which we cannot afford to lag behind. This is a long term project and we should at feast explore the possibilities of this work before we suddenly find that we are 20 years behind. “In Scotland I met a farmer who had been working for some years on a similar large-scale project involving the use of Finnish Landrace and Dorset Horns, as well as other breeds, and he has more recently imported Ile-de-France and Westfalen sheep. His aim was to produce a hybrid sheep with ability to give a 200 per cent lambing twice a year, producing lambs for slaughter at 401 b carcase weight at 14 weeks of age. He had done considerable work on indoor rearing and early weaning in an adapted aircraft hanger housing 500 sheep. In two years’ time he hoped to be able to sell ewes which could lamb twice a year indoors.” At the Grassland Research Institute at Hurley Dr. Colin Speddihg, using Dorset Horn and halfbred (Border Leicester by Cheviot) ewes had induced heat out of season by injection of progesterone, and multiple births by use of pregnant mare serum. Lambs which had been fed on a made-up milk substitute for three weeks and concentrates for a further three weeks could be successfully taken to grass at six weeks of age and carried worm-free to fatten on grass. These lambs were being used for experimental purposes, but if stocked to capacity liveweight gains of 301 b per acre per day were possible.