LONG-WOOLLED AND CROSSBRED SHEEP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4667, 28 October 1876, Page 2

LONG-WOOLLED AND CROSSBRED SHEEP.

I Now that the long-woolled sheep are becoming more numerous, and are consequently falling a little in price, farmers ..who are desirous of working into a flock of crossbreds may do so at no great cost. In suggesting crossbred sheep we, of course, keep in view the fact that only a few farmers can be breeders of stud sheep ; for if many wont into that particular line of business the market for males at least would soon be glutted, and stud breeding would be unreruunerative. Wo are not forgetting that in this country the cost of rearing stud sheep is not nearly so great as in Britain ; but even here a great difference exists in the expense of managing and (if properly managed) of feeding rams and ewes for sale for first-class brediug pur. poses, and of rearing mutton for the market, The raising of a stnd flock, on the contrary, is a work of time, and unless the very best animals of both sexes are procured, the result is likely to be far from profitable, for second-rate sheep are now. hardly saleable for I stud purposes. A kind of general allegation has been made of late that, excepting for sale for breeding, pure breds are leas profitable than cros3es. In the latter are classed the Oxford Downs—a cross of the Cotswold on the Southdown —and the Hampshire, which is the result of crossing the Southdown upon the breed indigenous to that country. In this country, as we all know, pure-bred Leicesters, Lincolns, and Cotswolds, and M>:rinos of more than one strain have been found to pay very well. No one to our knowledge has carried out as systematically as Mr. Lawes has done in England experiments in breeding sheep designed to prove whether crossed or pure-bred sheep are the most profitable, but it has to be remembered that Air. Lawes's experiments, which gave the palm to crossbreds, were conducted under conditions which do not exist in this country. The production of mutton is moreover but one point out of several, and that not the most important; a sheep can be made mutton only once, but his fleece is taken every year. tt is often low in price, whilst wool uHars to have permanently attained a much higher value than formerly. Our breeders therefore act wisely in making wool the leading consideration when determining their choice of a breed. Fecundity should bo another point with farmers, for though squatters have never been desirous of having more than one lamb to each Merino ewe, farmers need not follow that lead. Oil their comparatively limited areas of ground the feed supplies are under better control than on the wide areas of natural pasturage on squattages. The larger freehold properties, through improv/stnents in the way of better provision for watering and sowing down artificial grasses, are gradually changing their characters so that on these there should no longer be any difficulty in twins or triplets of which some of the longwoolled breeds are prolific. The Lincoln and Cotswold breeders encourage the production of twins by culling all full-grown sheep which give only one lamb—and also by using none but twin rams. In some of the Ootswold flocks fecundity has been developed to a remarkable degree by careful attention to the point. To that end also prizes are giveu at the local shows to the shepherds who rear the largest percentage of lambs. The breed being very hardy, the dams are good mothers, and with plenty of feed can j rear twins or triplets, and keep themselves lin good order besides. In some of the best Hocks there are always a fow ewes with four lambs, but it is customary to take at least one away and mother it on a ewe with only one. Tho Southdown breeders have by a similar course of selection, and by controlling the supply of food at certain seasons, also developed the principle of fecuudity. Old Southdown ewes often give three and four lambs, rarely less than two. We cannot believe that there would have l>een any difficulty in effecting a like development in the various breeds of Merinos had nook-owners found it expedient to try ; but as single lambs are the rule, crossbred eheep between Merinos and Longwoola are necessarily less prolific than the pure Lougwools. In Australia, from SO to 90 per cent, is regarded as fair to good return for Merinos ; in the Cotswold and Lincolu districts of England, a prize at a show is rarely earned with less thau 175 percent. ; it is plain, therefore, that although we have referred to fecundity last, it is a consideration of the very first importance ; yet it is one of which Colonial breeders are only just beginning to pay attention, and that only in consequence of the results of favourable lainbings in some of the best bred flocks of Lincolns.