RAMS FLY IN SPECIAL PEN

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31047, 30 April 1966, Page 8

RAMS FLY IN SPECIAL PEN

Six Merino rams have been flown from Australia to New Zealand for two South Island breeders in a specially - constructed portable pen in the forward baggage hold in an Air New Zealand Electra. The rams have come on three flights and another three rams are expected by the same means of transport early next week.

The special pen has been built in Christchurch as a result of the close collaboration of the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand, Ltd., and Air New Zealand to overcome the problem of getting a crate or cardboard container into the limited space in the cargo hold.

Fitted up in the hold the pen is like a drafting race. It is 106 inches long and slopes outward, being 20 inches wide at the bottom and 30 inches wide at the top. It has wooden framework and plywood panels on both sides which have a core of light foam plastic to give them extra strength. The sheep stand on a liner inside the pen which comes up about 15 inches above floor level. It consists of plastic sheeting reinforced with nylon cloth. The .pen

holds two sheep comfortably. So far two of the rams have been flown to Christchurch from Melbourne and four have come through Wellington from Sydney. All have arrived in excellent condition. When the sheep have been unloaded the pen is dismantled and returned to Australia for use on the next flight. The last three rams are due in Christchurch next week. Four of the rams are for Moutere Station Ltd., Chatto Creek, Alexandra, and four for A. C. Sanders and Sons, Little Valley, Alexandra, and one of those still to come is for B. Beattie, Fairlie. One of the rams for the Sanders and one for Moutere station are from A. W. Taylor, Kenilworth, Campbell Town, Tasmania: three for Moutere and one for the Sanders from H. E. Kater and Sons. Egelabra, Warren, New South Wales: one for the Sanders from R. G. Walker, Pleasant Park, Goroke, Victoria; one for the Sanders from P. Russell, Mawallock, Victoria: and the ram for Mr Beattie will be coming from D. Rollinson and Son, Mysia, Victoria.

. Mr H. D. Matson, stud stock manager for the National Mortgage and Agency Company of New- Zealand. Ltdsaid that Air New Zealand had been most helpful in the designing and building of the pen.

Discussing the stringent regulations governing the im-

portatlon of these sheep, Mr Matson said that apart from the need for an import licence the importation of the sheep was subject to a special permit issued by the Director of the Animal Industry Division of the Department of Agriculture. Dr. S. Jamieson. They had to travel on a clean Australasian vessel or [aircraft. They had to pass tests for brucella ovis and leptospirosis. They had to be shorn and dipped in lime sulphur within 14 days of being exported and they also had to be drenched with thiabendazole. They had to be inspected by a Government veterinarian and certified free of contagious diseases. The sheep had to have come from districts in Australia free of nodular worm and these sheep must not have come in contact with sheep from a district subject to this worm. Australia had to be free of foot-and-mouth disease, scrapie, blue tongue and rinderpest at the time of their export. On arrival in New Zealand they had to be kept isolated from other animals of the same species for 30 days —they had to be isolated on the farm—and at any time during that period they were subject to inspection by the Department of Agriculture and at the conclusion of the period they had to be drenched with thiabendazole under Government supervision.