LIVE AND DEAD WEIGHT OF SHEEP.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8169, 22 August 1887, Page 7

LIVE AND DEAD WEIGHT OF SHEEP.

The following useful article that will help to determine the live and dead weight of sheep is taken from an English paper 'lfa newly-clipped fat sheep be kept from eighteen to twenty-four hoars without food and then weighed, and .subsequently slaugbteted, II will be found that the dressed carca e will weigh eight pounds for every stone of fourteen pounds the sheep weighed when alive. Thus, if the sheep weighed nine stones (1261b5) When alive, it will weigh seventy-two pounds dead, or in customary parlance eighteen pounds per quarter, so that the proportion of meat to offal is as eight is to six. But this is only true supposing the sheep to have been properly fasted;if it has not been so treated before weighing, the proportion of dressed or dead weight to live weight will bo somewhat lower, about seven and a half pounds to the stone or -seven and a half pounds of meat to six and a half pounds of offal. And again, it the sheep tie not fat, but comparatively poor, the proportion will be more than six pounds totheat„ne. This is the general proportion, but there are •exceptions to the rule./ When small sheep weighing when alive seven stones (ninty-eight pounds) or leas are dressed, it will be often — ■indeed generally—found that the proportion of ■dressed weight is a little less than above ■stated ; and on the other hand io the case of large sheep when realty fat weighing ten or ten .and a half stones (140 to 147 pounds) alive, the proportion of dressed weight is somewhat jgreater, ranging from eight and a quarter to eight and a half pounds to every fourteen pounds of live weight; and thoroughly fat ■sheep of fourteen stones weight (199 lbs) will yield close upon nine pound* of meat to five pounds of offal. But such a proportion is the •exception not the rule. In calculating the in■creaae or decrease of proportion of meat to •offal, it must be remembered that it is the fatmess of the sheep that has to be taken into and not its actual weight. Thus tenstone sheep may offal much less that a twelve■gtone sbeip if it happen that the less animal us much fatter than the greater, and the differ■once in weight be due to size of frame, etc. But as a general rule, the proportions here given are pretty correct it applied npon a'large >scale. If tried upon a d'zen different sheep, ■individually, it may not be exactly correct in •a single case; bat if an average be struck of the dozen it will probably be found exactly trne. The writer has tried it both ways, and Jias found it pretty nearly true and oftentimes when tried upon a large scale, fifty or hun--dred at a time, and under proper conditions—'that is when the animals have been fairly weighed both alive and dead, and honestly lasted before weighing alive, the proportion here given baa been found literally true, and ■the calculated weight has proved absolutely ■correct. In odd cases the results may be very •different. Once I saw a really fat sheep (a Ihogget) which, after being fasted twenty hours, •weighed a hundred and twenty six pound j -•alive, only weighed sixty-six pounds dressed ; •while the very next sheep weighing but one qpouod leas alive, weighed eighty two pounda ■dressed. Such caaea are very rare, and probably due to some abnormal causes of health, *atc. At the present time there seems to ba arising amongst dealers a certain amount of -objection to buying by weight, but the reason da not far too seek, A great many farmers ■honestly observe the terms of their contract, but there are some who do not. These men bargain to fast the animals for a stated period before weighing, but instead of sticking to ■their bargain, they feed them on'the sly up to the time of weighing, and consequently the weigh more than they do, and thus the dealer is robbed. • It is a great pity that such things should be done ; for selling by dive weight seems a very honest method of do. ing business, and may be advantageously followed by men who do not understand the weight of their animals, as, knowing the market price per pound of fat mutton, they can •easily calculate the value per stone of live weight. The above proportions principally supply to fat hoggets or sheep clipped for the first time ; sheep now clipped for the second ■time usually offal slightly less, other things •being equal. But the class of sheep which ■O.Tad.tbe greatest proportion of any are ramhoggets, partially fat. It is impossible to give -any rule applicable to these, as many of them, -oven when properly fasted, offal nearly , tseven pounds to the stone, or nearly half their live weight.