RIBY LINCOLNS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 20 December 1913, Page 10

RIBY LINCOLNS.

MEMOIR OF MR. HENRY DUDDENG.

Through the death of Mr Henry Dudding, of Riby, Lincolnshire, England, the Riby flock of Lincolns has , . been dispersed; and. also the shorthorn herd, established by the famous JLincoln sheep breeder. The sale was Tield on the estate, nearly 2000 sheep being offered to a very large attendance of buyers, including representar tives from Australasia and Argentine. The grand total realised for the flock was £15,236 16s 3d for 1986 head, -which gives an average of £7 13s 5d per head The stud rams averaged t£29 10s 7d. The top price for a five-;year-old ram, the sire of this year's - Hpyal champion, 80 guineas. For the third prize two-shear at fchis year's Royal Show 75 guineas were paid. The ' flock ewes N (798 head) averaged £3 - 16s Bdj>er head. Our Lincolnshire correspondent (says Dalgety's Review), writing on the renowned breeder who did so much to raise the standard of Lincoln sheep, says the late Mr Henry Dudding was a tenant farmer, the son and grandson of a tenant farmer, famed from as far -distant a date as' 1861, in which year lie and his brother took over the P?n--ton- and Lambcroft farms, together something over 2500 acres, from their father. There the two brothers continued in partnership for fifteen years, till in 1876 Mr Henry Dudding commenced his tenancy of Riby, and went to live there in 1877. In 1879 his brother, William Dudding, died, and their joint farming operations ceased, /Henry carrying on the farms alone. The old Panton flock flourished in its new Home,, and frota the year 1889, when he secured first, second, and third prizes at the Royal Show at { Windsor. Mr pudding's successes were a series of annual triumphs: The '* 'Master of Riby" supplied the stud tsheep which laid the foundations of

the great New Zealand flocks, and in the early eighties the name of Dudding was as much a household word in New Zealand, as, later on, it became, and still is,_ so prominently known in the Argentine, and Mr Dudding has often said that the New Zealand demand for rams was fully as good, if not better, than ever the Argentine demand has been.

The Riby successes in the show ring were phenomenal, and gained Riby stock a world-wide fame. Few breeders equalled Mr Dudding's records, and his prizes, cups, -etc., would fill quite a large museum! With few exceptions, his stock carried off the "Royal" championship, and three times have his yearling rams carried of first, second, and third prizes at the Royal Show in tfie same class and in the same year.

The champion shearling ram of the Royal Show this year, at Bristol, bred at Riby, and exhibited by Mr Dudding's executors, aroused much spirited competition, and eventually fell to the bid of Mr M. A. Martinez de Hoz, at 600 guineas, for export to Argentina. The next ram, which took the second prize at the 1913 "Royal" was secured by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company at 260 guineas, but these figures fade into insignificance when set against the wonderful ram sold at Riby in 1906, for export, at 1450 guineas, which is still likely to remain the record for many years to come.

Talking of dispersal sales carries us back to the great Alyesby sale in 1875, when 82 shorthorns made over £40,000, averaging £510 apiece, the highest individual price being round about £1200. Although iit was as a breeder of "Lincoln Longwobi" sheep Mr Henry Dudding was best known, yet few shorthorn breeders have been more successful than he, and it is seldom that one can find two distinct classes of stud stock run together with such success.