Stud Sheep Sail For China

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 1

Stud Sheep Sail For China

Three hundred stud Corriedale and Border Leicester sheep were on board the China Navigation Company’s Kwangsi when the vessel left Lyttelton last evening for Hong Kong and Shanghai.

They represent one of the most valuable cargoes of New Zealand stud stock exported overseas for. a considerable time.

With the sheep went 750 bales of lucerne hay and 600 bags of sheep nuts. Travelling On Deck

The sheep are travelling as deck cargo in 26 double-unit crates. If the weather is favourable, they are expected to take 16 to 17 days to reach Hong Kong, and after a 24hour stop, another four days to reach Shanghai. Loading at Lyttelton occupied most of yesterday afternoon. The sheep, bought from studs throughout the South Island, had been held at Wright, Stephenson, and Company’s farm at Southbridge.

All had been recently shorn, and all arrived at the ship’s side wearing canvas covers. Some unusual conditions were attached to the sale, one of them being that the sheep had to be shorn, and the wool separately parcelled and shipped with the sheep. The wool amounted to eight bales, but each fleece had first been put in a cotton bag, and tagged with the sheep’s number, and the breeder’s prefix. Mr A. L. Smith, livestock manager of Wright, Stephenson, and Company at Christchurch, was well pleased with the class of sheep offered by breeders. With the knowledge that this was a trial shipment, he said, breeders had put forward some fine sheep. The double-unit crates in which the sheep are travelling weigh a ton, and each unit holds six ewes. The sides and tops of the crates have been weather-proofed, and in the event of cold, wet or rough weather, a sack curtain can be pulled over the front. There are 140 Corriedale ewes (mated), 10 Corriedale rams, 140 Border Leicester ewes (unmated) and 10 Border Leicester rams. Mr Smith said it was not known where the sheep were bound for in China. 1947 Shipment Mr H. M. Sievwright, of Timaru, who was in charge of a shipment of 1000 flock sheep exported to China from New Zealand in 1947, was an interested spectator at Lyttelton yesterday. Now with the Lands and Survey Department, Mr Sievwright was a livestock consultant with the United Nations Relief and- Rehabilitation Administration after World War 11, and spent six months in China.

The 1947 shipment, he said, suffered from heat fatigue. Many of the sheep were penned on the second and third decks, and there were some losses among them, but those on the top deck travelled without loss.

The sheep were shipped to Shanghai, and travelled on to Nanking, from where they were flown into Kansu Province. This country was 8000 ft to 12,000 ft above sea level. The vegetation was three times as sparse as in the Mackenzie Country and the winter temperature fell to 40 degrees below zero. The Chinese made a type of hay from chi chi grass, but it was very coarse. It was tougher than tussock, and was also used for making paper. Mr Sievwright said that in the interior of China it was the practice to house sheep, mainly for warmth, but also as a protection from wolves—and, in the days when he was in China, against bandits. The shipment in 1947 had been seriously affected by dust, and all had to be treated for pink eye on arrival in China.