TYPE IN LIVESTOCK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21983, 14 December 1934, Page 6

TYPE IN LIVESTOCK

IMPROVEMENT BY &ELECTIO

OBJECTIVE IN BREEDING

INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT

BY H.B.T

It is an historic fact thai the most permanent improvement in the health and utility of livestock hag been effected by selection, rather than by crossing different breeds wfth the object of establishing a blend of the virtues of each. One of the chief reasons for this is that selection within the breed lends to uniformity of type, which in tinje produces a uniform product, whereas crossing produces diversity of type. It is obvious that there must bo one " best " type for production in any particular locality, and any animal which does not conform to that type is not producing the maximum of which the land is capable. In Great Britain, where stock improvement has been concentrated upon to a great extent, and over a longer period, than in any other country, experience has taught that in almost each district and county a different breed of the same species has had to be developed to suit local conditions, and that the most outstandingly successful of these breeds have been those which were improved by selection from within the breed. Production of Mutton

Instances of those, which have developed great uniformity of type, are the English Leicester, the Border Leicester, the Southdown, the Cheviot, and several other less well-known sheep breeds. As the production of good and early mutton was, at the time these breeds were improved and fixed in type, of greater importance than wool production, the improvement of this feature is most noticeable in the British sheep bfeeds, whereas in Australia, where wool is ranked as the most valuable sheep product, this received primary consideration and considerable improvement was effected by the same method of selection.

Selection, of course, must be directed toward a definite goal, and in the instances where this method has been most successfully applied, the goal has always first been improved adaptation to environment. Once tho animal can be bred to flourish on the fare in the climate where it must depasture, it is a comparatively simple matter to improve its production in the direction of meat, wool, early maturity, or any other feature which may be desired.

Possibilities of Selection ■ It would have been just as possible for the early breeders to have made the Southdown primarily a producer of a heavy clip of wool, or the Merino an essentially mutton sheep, as the reverse. Like suitability to environment, these features are fostered or created by the breeder through selection. We have recently frequently heard our New Zealand stock' criticised, particularly by stook-breeders from Great Britain, on the grounds that thoy are not true representatives of breed type, that they are not " even " in type, and that their products are inferior. The first of these accusations I consider is absolutely unjustified, as their own experience should have informed the critics that it is unreasonable to expect a continuation of British type in an environment so different from that of the original home of the animal. That our flocks are not even in type is undoubtedly the fault of our breeders and farmers generally, who have attempted, by using crossing of breeds instead of selection, to secure sheep fitted to their new surroundings, and have succeeded only in producing diversity. That our sheep products, particularly our crossbred wool, has serious defects, and lacks many desirable features, is obviously the result of our trying to carry types of sheep on country to which they are not suited. In the North Island, in particular, the crossing of breeds and the attemut to establish breeds and crosses on country entirely unsuited to them has „ inevitably resulted in inferior products. This policy has resulted chiefly from the attempt by growers to follow popular fashion or altering demand. Scope lor Improvement

Improvement of stock by selection is possible to any farmer whose country has an established flock, and it is safe to say that there is not a flock or stud in the Dominion which could not be further improved by intelligent selection to better fit the animals to their environment, improve their products, or further reinforce their constitution. Indeed the charm of livestock breeding lies chiefly in the fact that these possibilities are never exhausted.

Improvement by selection can best be effected by the ordinary sheep farmer by going through his own flock immediately before they are shorn, and raddling on the face .all those which have the broadest noses with capacious nostrils. These will no doubt be of mixed type, but on examination will be found to have characteristics in common. They will be in better condition than the balance of the flock with which they have been running; their tleeceß will not be cotted, and will usually bo sound in fibre; and few, if any, will be carrying dags.' Among these marked ewes an observant man will notice that there is a large proportion whicli are very similar in conlonuation, and which carry much the same class of wool. They may be big sheep, or small sheep, coarse in the u-ooi, or fine woolled, according to the class of country being grazed, but of whatever wool type or conformation they may be, it will be fodnd that, when they are run off at the race gate, there is a distinct similarity between all the individual sheep. A Middle Course Selection for type can, of course, be taken further, until only those sheep are left which undoubtedly best suit their environment, but, as this would in all probability reduce the numbers of the selected stock to a very small lot, from which it flight take many years to build up a considerable Hock, the sound practice can be adopted of observing the type which is midway in wool between the finest and coarsest, and in frame, between the largest and smallest of the selected flock. For practical purposes these are the idoal sheep in wool and frame for profitable froduction on the country being grazed, mpress this type on the memory by close study of the sheep and set about securing verile rams of this typo only, to mate with these and the balance of the flfick.

By unswervingly following this ideal and practice,, uniformity of type and maximum production can be secured in the matter of a few years, although the sheep may by no moans conform to the British type of the breed of which they are the overseas descendants.