SHEEP INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22006, 12 January 1935, Page 17

SHEEP INDUSTRY

FASHIONS IN WOOL

VARIOUS FLEECE TYPES

BY H.B.T,

Because of the greater demand and the higher price paid for fine wool there is more than a tendency for owners of crossbred flocks to envy the man who can grow this class of fleece. In the stress of financial difficulties the return from wool counts much in balancing the farm budget and there is considerable temptation for the sheepman to attempt to improve the value of this product by selecting finewoolled rams for mating this season with his ewes.

Borne persons, more often connected with the manufacturing rather than with the growing end of the business, are indeed advocating the crossing of our longwool ewes with Merino, Corriedale or half-bred rams to secure quick improvement in the quality and value of our wool. Experienced sheepmen are not likely to be led astray by any such suggestions, their experience having taught them that it is fatal to attempt to follow the fashions in wool. But there are many farmers who may ba beguiled by the promise of improved returns into taking a step which will require years to retrace.

Passion lor Grossing

To explain the position to such men in as clear, unbiassed and practical a manner as possible is, I think, a duty which cannot be neglected, for only now is New Zealand, and especially the North Island, emerging from the chaos into which the passion for indiscriminate crossing, which obsessed our earlier sheepmen, plunged our longwool flocks. Slowly but surely we are developing longwool types which are adapted to the varying conditions throughout tho Dominion. Any introduction of a typo designed to alter materially the quality of tho wool must make these flocks less able to thrive in their environment. A change from coarse to fine wool must produce diversity and wreck conformity of type in the flock, and even were the goal of a fine-woolled flock achieved in the shortest possible period—say from five to ton years—• there would be no guarantee that fine wool would then hold the advantage in values that it does to-day. Many further arguments against a change to fine wool might be cited, not least among which is the fact that the fine, longwool fleece is almost invariably lighter than the coarser-woolled type. A greatly increased price must therefore be secured to compensate for this loss of individual fleece weight. It is, however, more important to pass on to the serious results which would undoubtedly follow the introduction of Merino blood in any form to our North Island flocks.

Merits of the Merino

The Merino is acknowledged to be the premier, wool-producing sheep of the world. To achieve this position the production of quantity and quality in the fleece hag been concentrated upon to the partial neglect of frame, mutton qualities and early maturity. A good many of these defects have been corrected in the Corriedale and Polwarth sheep, but beside being slow in reaching maturity these composite breeds have not been established for a sufficiently long timd to have achieved prepotency, and their offspring, when crossed with another fixed breed, must result in undesirable diversity of type. Again, in this country, where the early fat lamb is taking a more important position in the products of the farm, the slow-irtaturing qualities, the faults in conformation and the delicacy under unfavourable climatic conditions inherited from the prepotent Merino, are serious drawbacks to the further development of the fat lamb trade. The Merino or half-bred mated with the Romney is probably the worst cross one could make from a carcase point of view. Both breeds have a strong tendency to the " goose rump," which goes with a narrow an<l long hind leg; both normally have the same .fault of * serious dip behind the shoulders, Which accompanies high-set shoulderblades and a narrow fore-end; and both in their original characteristics have a predisposition to produce a " bloeky " type of wool which stands upright on the back. This type of wool is admirably suited to the sheep in their original environment, where they had to withstand cold winds, snow and frostj but where, as in the North Island, the sheep are subjected to frequent heavy rains throughout the Winter the water penetrates rignt to the skin and the sheep is seldom dry. Under such conditions no animai can be healthy and productive. We have found that the " locky type of wool which hangs downward rather than grows at right angles to the skin, acting like thatch, the rain better and keeps the animal drier and warmer than tho " blocky " wool. This largely accounts for the fact that in districts where the rainfall is high sheep with " blocky " wool almost invariably produce a " tender " and light fleece. The sheep receives so many checks from unfavourable wot weather that it cannot produce sound wool. Unsuitable Conditions There is, however, a still more important reason why Merino blood should not be re-introduced into the bulk of the North Island flocks. The Merino is originally an open-country sheep. In its home on the mountains and upland steppes of Spain, in the districts in which it lives in Cape Colony and throughout Australia it thrives in open country and on sparse but nutritious pasture. In the South Island Merino country the open tussock plains and mountains provide much the same class of grazing. In the North Island, however, scrub, fern and felled bush with generally much more luscious pastures present a set of conditions entirely unsuited to the Merino or any of its close descendants. Sheep from on fern, scrub and other rough keep, and will starve on the open faces and tops rather than seek the plenty that the RomneV and other longwools find in the scrub and fern-covered valleys and foothills Thus, year by year, the man who uses Merino blood in the North Island —except, of course, on the high, tussock-covered uplands—will find his sheep being beaten back by the encroaching scrub and fern, and the carrying Capacity of his land steadily decreasing- , . While I have the greatest admiration for the Merino, Corriedale, Polwarth and other Merino-cross types in their own environment, I think it only fair to point out their deficiencies for acclimatisation under conditions generally existing in the North Island.