Fertility of Romney improving

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33252, 15 June 1973, Page 13

Fertility of Romney improving

The retiring president of the New Zealand Romney Sheep Breeders’ Association, Mr A. B. Southey, of Masterton, believes that every Romney stud breeder is seeking to improve the fertility of the breed and that these efforts are being attended by pretty good results.

It was the aim of every stud breeder, he said, to have a flock of ewes that would drop 150 per cent of lambs or better, and there were, in fact, some flocks that were doing up to 170 per cent. The director of the association’s International Advisory Service, Mr C. A. Martin, said that over the whole country stud flocks were now achieving an average approaching 150 per cent. This improved performance in stud flocks must filter through to commercial flocks, Mr Southey added. Mr Southey, who was discussing criticism of the breed particularly on the score of lambing performance, said that in New Zealand the breed had been asked to do a job on all sorts of country from the high hills to the flats and it had done a wonderful job, but naturally all of this country was not strictly the most suitable country for the Romney. In the years of boom in the sheep industry many commercial men had also retained all of their twotooth ewes, so that there had not been enough culling, and it had only been in the last few years when wool prices had been low that there had been more culling. Inadequate culling in hill country flocks had

resulted in the retention of too many small two-tooths and it was now well known that ewes performed better when they were at a certain liveweight when they went to the ram. On the subject of exotic breeds, Mr Southey said that he certainly did not

wish to decry any other breed, but he had written that he thought the Government should rather get behind existing breeds in this country. Under hill country conditions he did not think that anyone would want to have a litter of lambs. These sort of people were wanting enough twins and singles so that every ewe would have a lamb. Mr Southey said he always stressed that people should continue to breed good quality Romney wool. The Romney

was a wool sheep and this country had built up its sales of wool to countries like the United States and Japan on the quality of New Zealand Romney wool, and they must see to it that this sort of wool continued to be produced. The Romney association has taken a particular interest in promoting its wool on the Japanese market on the basis that it is the market that offers the greatest potential, and the association has been encouraged iji its efforts in that Japan's

largest carpet manufacturer, when in this country recently, said that New' Zealand’s total exports to Japan now running at about 159,000 bales would in the next three to five years expand to the point that they included at least 300,000 bales of Romney wool. And the Japanese manufacturer said he had come to New Zealand because of the exhibition of wool that the Romney association had taken to Japan. Mr Southey noted with gratification that there had been an upturn in prices for Romneys at ram and ewe fairs this year, but it had been more pronounced in the South Island than in the North, he said. On the recent establishment of the international advisory service, Mr Southey said that for 10 years stud and commercial Romney flocks in New Zealand had been under a survey—the only breed to be so surveyed—and now Mr Martin was taking the findings and data from that survey to commercial farmers from one end of the country to the other.