Exotic sheep a great help

Press, 12 July 1985, Page 24

Exotic sheep a great help

The recent importation of exotic sheep breeds may help determine future directions for the sheep breeding industry, according to Mr Roger Marshall, a Marton farmer and member of the Meat Board.

The new breeds are expected to produce what the meat consumers want and may help to change some of the more traditional ideas still dominant among many breeders, he said.

“The overriding consideration in market and consumer signals is the need for an increased proportion of leaner, heavier lambs.” In the next few years a dramatic increase in the chilled lamb trade will occur, and it has also been suggested that a goal of 50 per cent of New Zealand lamb be packaged in consumer cuts, he said. “It is against this background that the potential

usefulness of the imported breeds must be evaluated. “The Oxford Down will sire heavy lambs suitable for boning and the Texel will do the same and provide high grade and high yielding carcases for the chilled lamb trade. The Finn will increase fertility and, perhaps most importantly, impart its ability to lamb over an extended period.” Mr Marshall said embryos of the three breeds had been imported and the first year’s programme of implantation into recipient ewes at the Somes Island quarantine station completed. Release from quarantine was planned for 1989. The Oxford Down is a very large sheep and rams of 164 kilograms are not unusual. Crossbred lambs sired by these rams are generally killed at weights of 20 to 30kg. There are no

indications of any special lambing or lamb survival problems, Mr Marshall said. “The Texel’s strongpoint is its ability to transmit exceptional muscle and carcase quality, it has a 2 per cent better dressing out yield than the Suffolk, a good European breed. Premiums are being paid there for Texel cross lambs at livestock auctions and a carcase premium is paid on both better yield and quality-

“The Finn provokes more argument, for and against, than any other sheep breed. The popular concept has been of a small, rather scrawny sheep with fragile, light-boned legs. Previous importations from the United Kingdom looked rather like this.” Mr Marshall said he was quite surprised to see that the Scandinavian flocks from which the recent selections were made were, in fact, quite large, solid

sheep. Not heavy boned, but with ewes averaging 65kg and rams which have to weigh at least 90kg at 18 months to qualify for breed society registration. Although New Zealand has many hill farms which seem unable to handle dramatic increases in lambing percentage, there are a great number which would benefit from increases of 30 to 50 per cent without resorting to expensive hormone treatments, Mr Marshall said. “The quarter-bred Finn will give this, apparently without marked effect on carcase or wool qualities. However, its most valuable attribute may be the ability to lamb over an extended season, helping to spread the kill.” All the new breeds would need to be evaluated, and very possibly modified and adapted, in the same way the present breeds had been, he said.