EXTENSIVE CATTLE BREEDING

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1039, 31 January 1911, Page 8

EXTENSIVE CATTLE BREEDING

■/>;" A NEW STOCK 'COUNTRY, ■' Since New* Zealand slock breeders have been, strongly ..advised to. turn their eyes to. South-America'as-a business ground it' inay interest some growers oi sheep and;, cattle to know that cattle -breeding on'an,, extensive scale is one of the most important'industries of Peru.

'•In an "official survey, just published, of the different departments. or.,that country we find that nearly every district'is •TOinarkable . for. its cattle, • wfiilst several, arc thus classified:—"Pasturage, otc., for all kinds Of-wooUbeariug animals, such as. sSieep, llamas, alpacas, and vieunas; cattlp'-aiid pigs extensively bred." .The introduction of Patagsnion" sheep for crossbreeding is one of the recent developments .in the pastoral industry of; Peril;' and a British' enterprise conducts' a- sheep ranch; extending over ISO squaro ■miles. l Sheep's wool is less important than.'alpaca, 1 both, on account of tho poor. quality of the, wool—which is year-, ly, being impoverished owliig to tho want of-flew ■ blood in the, existing stock—and nlso .of the. reduced quantity exported. This decrease has been conspicuous during! recent years,- and it is attributed in part-to the heavy "death, rate iii sheep during that period..'' A few owners of "hadiendas" (sheep''farms) have l«en induced latterly to devote' some ' of their attention-'toithe Work of renewing their stock by the importation of sheep from the south, of Chile, Australia, "Argenthe United Kingdom; but, according to official authority, such enterprise will have to»be carried out oh a much larger scale before' any -real improvement is perceptible ill the average of Peruvian' wool exported.