Fat Lamb Prestige Challenged

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 1423, 19 June 1936, Page 8

Fat Lamb Prestige Challenged

Australian Breeders’ Bid for Supremacy DISTURBING NEWS FOR DOMINION BREEDERS Dominion live stock breeders recently in Australia have returned very much impressed with tho improved quality of tho Commonwealth’s cattle and sheep and concerned over the organised effort of breeders across tho Tasman to capture a leading position in the matter of the quality of both lamb and beef. ‘ 1 We are shaping for a nasty bump, ’ ’ remarked one widely-known sheep breeder, when discussing tho Australian position with a “Times” representative yesterday, ‘ ‘ and unless those interested in the fat lamb industry are prepared to sit up and take notice of what our Australian competitors are doing, we can say goodbyo to our supremacy in the fat lamb trade on the London market. The position Australia has reached in her efforts to produce high quality lamb is such as to give us cause for serious concern and my conviction is that wc must, without further delay, seriously tackle tho problem of improving the quality of our flocks to enable us to meet the challenge of the fat lamb breeders of the Commonwealth.”

This considered comment by one intimately associated with stud sheep breeding will not surprise those who have reepatcdlv directed attention to the disinterested attitude of the general run of those engaged in sheep raising and wool growing, to the necessity for the maintenance of quality but it will be disturbing to the generality of their number if prepared to accept the unvarnished truth concerning the Australian position. However much New Zealand breeders may dispute and argue over the issues concerning the quality of their flocks the truth remains that they, except in isolated instances, have ignored the views and opinions of those in touch with the trend of overseas competition both in the matter of wool and fat lamb. Generally speaking, many of the steps launched with the object of improving the quality of our flocks, both for wool purposes and for the production of tho right fat lamb carcase, have been received with a lack of enthusiasm born of a mistrust of those sponsoring the proposals and a cast-iron conservatism which refuses to admit the revelations of science. Further, there is much unjustifiable suspicion of the motives actuating stud breeders when advancing proposals for co-ordinated effort in eliminating the inferior ram and in stressing the virtues of types and character in sheep. For these and other reasons the honest conclusions of those who have spent a lifetime in building up stud flocks with the one firmly fixed purpose of producing only tho best, are generally coldly received with the inevitable result that much of the laudable work of outstanding breeders is damaged and undone. Slow to awaken to an appreciation ol all that science has offered the industry the general run of sheep farmers have plodded on steeped in an ignorance that shelters behind tho price factor of their produce. For many the price of rams is always too dear, little realising that the cheap ram is the most expensive while tho more expensive sheep is, in the long run, really the cheapest. Considerations vital to the welfare of the industry are never weighed, as they should be, nor allowed to influence the pocket of the average sheep farmer. The connection between fat lamb rearing and wool qualities is not generally realised. In their thousands the breeding ewe is bought each year for mating with the Southdown ram and ewe fair activities are marked by an almost complete absence of any studied appreciation of the peril to tho fat lamb and wool growing industries of low-conditioned and generally infer-ior-quality ewes. Each ewe fair with its indiscriminate offering of sheep culled from flocks of every description strikes a blow at the efforts of stud sheep breeders to remove the cause ;£or the varying quality of both lamb and wool.

The position with New South. Wales breeders was that they wore definitely on the way to producing a superiorquality lamb following on planned and organised effort to 9 bring the Commonwealth to first place on the London market. Altogether surprising results had been realised from the MerinoRomney crossbred ewe mated with the Southdown ram. Not only were they achieving the ideal lamb carcase from this mating but in addition were improving the quality of the wool and thus profiting along two avenues while Now Zealand continued to refuse to appreciate the necessity of arresting those influences, so widely apparent, which were tending to undermino her prestige for the high quality of her produce. New South Wales breeders were working to a plan and those New Zealand breeders who have had the opportunity of studying their methods, are satisfied that tho Dominion's fat lamb producers will ultimately be facing a crisis unless they take the earliest opportunity of putting their house in order, Producing on relatively highpriced land tho New Zealand aheep farmer could not afford to ignore, any longer, the remarkable activity of the Australian sheep breeder whose industry under planned direction, was a serious challenge to New Zealand’s supremacy. The Dominion's sheep breed societies have tried in vain to creato the right atmosphere among sheep farmers and it would appear that more is required in the way of Government action if the quality of our lamb and mutton, along with the standard of our flocks, is to be maintained and improved.