70 sheep for Falklands

Press, 24 January 1984, Page 8

70 sheep for Falklands

PA Dunedin Seventy stud sheep will leave Port Chalmers today bound for the Falkland Islands as part of an effort to replace stock lost in the conflict there in 1982. The rams and ewes were loaded yesterday into two specially adapted containers to be carried to the South Atlantic islands on the P and 0 Line vessel Mairangi Bay. The sheep, most of which

have been bought by the Falkland Islands Farming Company, will have to sustain an 11-day voyage in open-sided containers carried on deck before being transferred to a smaller vessel at Port Stanley for the trip ashore.

Included in the shipment are 50 Corriedale ewe hoggets and 11 Corriedale ram hoggets from North Canterbury, four Polworth rams from Central Otago, two

from Blenheim, two Romney rams from Blenheim and one Perendale, a gift from the Perendale Society of New Zealand. A spokesman for Wrightson N.M.A., which arranged the sale, said the stock came from several of the same areas as a consignment sent to the Falklands in 1971. P and O’s Dunedin manager, Mr J. L. Mcllroy, said the weather would play a vital role in the venture, not

only during the voyage but during the transfer at Port Stanley. Bad weather there would result in the sheep staying on the Mairangi Bay until it reached England, he said. In that case they would be sold in Britain.

The Falkland Islands Farming Company lost more than half its 120 Corriedales during the battle for Goose Green in the conflict between Britain and Argentina.