PUREBRED SHEEP.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1937, Page 5

PUREBRED SHEEP.

BREEDING. OR BUYING. WHAT SHOULD A FARMER DO? The following address, delivered by Mr 0. T. Evans, of the Hawarden Club, under the auspices of the New Zealand Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, contains some interesting and instructive observations on the subject of the buying or breeding of purebred sheep by an emineritly successful breeder, says an exchange: “The subject of this talk has been well fought out many times, but I do not intend to express a definite opinion upon so controversial a subject. Firstly, the question of any farmer buying or breeding his ewes depends entirely on whether he is solely a. sheep farmer and also on the size of the flock lie normally runs. If the farmer in the caso does depend on sheep for all his income, I think that the breeding of his own ewes will certainly be of benefit to him. He can, by careful selection and successive cullings, produce a type of ewe which is suited to his particular require-, ments and to his class of country. If he is depending mainly on the production of wool, that is to say th’at the farmer does not fatten his own wether lambs, then the property is probably running a halfbred or Uorriedale typo of sheep. In this case it is most essential that the farmer procures good rams, selected foa- their wool arid carcass, especially the latter point, as this means that his store wether lambs will command a ready sale. “The ewe lambs can all be kept until after shearing, except perhaps in the case of a few obvious culls, which it is always wiser to discard. Some months after shearing the now two-tooth owes csn be thoroughly culled. The same applies here as in the case of the rams —selection for the flock being done on the dual-purpose lines of wool and carcass. “The farmer who fattens his lambs, except for those he keeps for breeding, will proceed along much the samo lines, except that he will concentrate almost entirely on the carcass of his selected rams and ewes.

THE MIXED FARMERS. “Now we come to the multitude of mixed farmers, whom the question of buying or breeding ewes really concerns. There are many factors, ail of which help to determine which system produces the best results. Cerhaps the biggest single factor is the size of the flock concerned. If the farmer is principally dependent on crops, and runs only a few sheep, say anything up to 100 ewes, merely as a sideline to the main object of his farming, then it is practically certain that ho will buy his ewes, as ho would not have the time necessary to ensure the *»ceessful breeding of his own flock. He can replenish his flock from standard station lines of four-year-old ewes, which, in all probability, will havo been -culled as two-tooths, so that a nice, even lino can be obtained. “The only objections here are that a farmer buying ewes from year to year very seldom obtains the same line of sheep, with the result that his wool clip will suffer in the matter of eyenness in the typo of wool. This will prevent his reaching the higher prices, as the buyers do not come to recognise the clip os being the same quality every year. Also, four-year-old ewes bought off hill country do not do very well for 12 months if they are run on fairly hoavy land. “Another point against the small flock owner breeding his own ewes is that the percentage of lambs that he obtains from his two-tooth ewes will not be nearly so high .- as that from the older ones, and since. ho is running the sheep as a sideline he cannot afford to have dry ewes giving no return except for their wool for two. years, more especially if they are of the fat lamb breeding type, where the wool is of only a secondary consideration.

LOWERING THE STANDARD “Then, again, there are numerous farmers who run a slightly larger number- of sheep, and some of these periodically keep a number of ewe lambs to build up their flocks, after the fat lamb buyer: has-been through the whole, line ■of .lambs. .. Ihe practice definitely tends to dower the standard of the flock as the fat lamb'buyer, takes all the prime ewe. lambs that have-fattened quickly on their mothers, leaving'L.the ones that have not done so well, "and it- is from those that the fr> mer selects the lambs which he intends to keep. .’Now a little thought will show thata ewe lamb that has fattened quickly on its mother has a far better chance of producing a similar type with quick-fattening propensities than the poorer lamb that ha 9 not fattened on its mother. MORTALITY IN YOUNG STOCK. “A great bugbear that the smaller or mixed farmer has to contend with when breeding his own ewes is the mortality among lambs and hoggets, which has developed to an alarming extent during recent years. There aro numerous diseases, some of which can be cured or prevented with considerable trouble and expense, but there are also many about which very little is known, and losses from these are on the up grade every year. This factor affects the farmer very seriously indeed, as in a -particularly bad year he may have a death rate .of 10, 15,- or even up to 20 per cent, in his hoggets. Tliis means that the ewes that have produced lambs which have died as a result of these diseases have a non-productive year, and the farmer will have had a complete loss, whereas if ho was using his breeding ewes to produce fat lambs only, the lambs would have been sent to the freezing before the most dangerous period,, -which comes after weaning time. “On the other hand, a farmer breeding his own ewes finds that young sheep once at the two-tooth stage aro easier to keep in good condition than older ewes; that is to say, ewes over five years eld. They will resist setbacks such as droughts, and gain in'condition much more quickly after such a setback. ,/

“Then, of course, there is the farmer who -wishes to concentrate on, a special type of sheep, or some particular'cross, but the only way he can do this is by breeding his own ewes, but this case is the exception rather than the .rule. A case .illustrating this is that of a farmer crossing Ryeland rams with Corriedale or halfbred ewes, and putting the resulting ewe ■ lambs back to Corriedale- rams again with very excellent results indeed. OFTEN LOSE MONEY. “Many mixed farmers, who at various times endeavour to chase the -high market value of fat lambs by buying breeding ewes during a year when fat lamb, or, for that matter, wool, is at a level, well above normal, find that this practice is not' to be recommended, as they very often lose money in their .efforts to make more. The reason for this is that by next year the price of lamb or wool may have dropped very considerably and the returns gained are out of all proportion 'to the high prices paid for the ewes. A very good illustration for the changing from the sheep to wheat, and vice versa, was given some weeks ago, where figures were quoted showing the' swing-over which fluctuated according to £he value of sheep and wheat. 11l one particularly good year for wool and meat the wheat acreage sown was almost half (hat for the year when wool and meat were much lower. “To sum tip the whole thing, it appears, with exceptions, of course, that a farmer with anything under 500 ewes is belter to biiy‘ his ewes, as the trouble of breeding would not repay him. Anything over 500 ewes it is optional, blit thoro is quite a lot in; the favour of breeding ewes when the number of sheep run warrants it.” ■