STUD STOCK EXPERT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 103, 25 January 1939, Page 13

STUD STOCK EXPERT

Mr. E. St. C. Haydon’s New Appointment

WIDE EXPERIENCE

Well known in Argentina, Great Britain anil New Zealand as a stud sheep breeder and a judge of live stock. Mr. Ernest St. C. Haydon, Methven, Canterbury, has been appointed by Dalgety and Company, Ltd., manager of their stud stock department.

Mr. Haydon is the son of the late Mr. Joseph Haydon, Virginia Country, Hawarden. He was educated at Cook's School, Christchurch, and Wanganui College, ami at the age of 39 left New Zealand for the Argentine, where for 20 years lie was a sheepfarmer. He established the first Corriedale Hock in South America with stud sheep imported from New Zealand, and was also one of the first to introduce Lincolns and Romney Marsh sheep, and soon became well known us an expert sheep breeder. He also bred Shire horses and Middle White pigs.

He was able greatly to influence the trend of stockbreeding in South America. His Kia Ora stud won iu all more than 200 medals and cups at the great South American stock shows. He won outright the Newton Cup for the best Romney Marsh ram bred in Argentina, and on two occasions won the Shire Horse Society of Great Britain’s medal for the best horse of that breed bred in Argentina. Direct descendants of it is stud flocks are still leading prize-winners in South America.

In 1924 Mr. Haydon disposed of his South American holdings, and purchased a' property at Tenterden, in the South of England. During the live years he was farming in England he annually took English stud stock out to South America for sale nt Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

Mr. Haydon returned to New Zealand in 1928, and, after farming for some time near Napier, made his headquarters at Methven, Canterbury.

Few men have had as wide experience in judging stud sheep. Mr. Haydon on four occasions judged at Ashford show and sales, the leading English show for Romney Marsh'sheep. He judged at all the leading Argentine, Uruguayan and Chilean shows. and was twice appointed by the Argentine Rural Society its special delegate and judge at the Punta Arenas Show, Chile, and the Montevideo Royal Show. In 1927 and 1928 Mr. Haydou was invited to go from New Zealand to judge the Lincoln, Romney Marsh, Corriedale and Southdown classes at the great Palermo Show at Buenos Aires. This is the only time a judge from overseas has been honoured by an invitation in two successive years.

NEW ZEALAND SHEEP Stud Stock In Demand In South America At present there is a big demand in the Argentine for New Zealand stud Corriedale and Southdown sheep, stated Mr. E. St. C. Haydon, newlyappointed stud stock manager to Dalgety and Company, iu au interview. New Zealand should be able to build up au excellent export trade in such stock, he said, because of several factors. First, with large Southdown flocks to choose from, buyers coming to New Zealand could obtain highquality stock at a better price _ than would be asked for sheep of similar standard from the leading English studs. Moreover, the New Zealand breeding season corresponded with that of the Argentine, instead of being the opposite, as in the Northern Hemisphere. This was au important factor to buyers of stud stock. A third reason was that the stock was

not subjected in transit to the intense heat of the tropics. British, sheep were reared under different conditions to those prevailing in the Argentine, and did not always adapt themselves to the new surroundings as well as the hardier New Zealand animals, brought up under conditions more natural and more closely approximating to those of the Argentine. “I’m not maintaining that New Zealand sheep are any better than those of Great Britain, or vice versa,” he said. “But those are the reasons why Argentine sheepmen are looking to New Zealand for stud stock.”