DUNEDIN RAM FAIR

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6489, 8 April 1908, Page 3

DUNEDIN RAM FAIR

THE PREDOMINATING BREEDS. ■Some interesting lessons are td bo taken from the Dunedin ram fair. In the first place the predominating breeds were Border Leicester and Romneys, rams of these breeds overshadowing all others both in number and qnalitv. There were 1286 rams offered, the breeds being thus represented; 825 Borders, 189 Romneys, 165 Corriedales and halfbrcds, 21 English Eeieesters. 80 merinos. t Shropshircs, and 2 I/incolne. It will bo seen there wore no Southdowns offered. Romneys met with the keenest demand. the studs running from 7gs to 3»gs and the best flocks Sgs to ijgs.

Tho stud Borders realised from ogs to 20gs and the best Hocks 2iga to Oo<id sheep throughout, wore rathei conHpicuous by their absence. There w/oro some good Borders and Romneys, Any of the former showing breeding and quality sold unexpectedly well, and there was a teen demand for Romneys. Tn reporting tho sralo the "Otago Daily Times" remarked that "a fair j proportion, in fact, being inferior and j poor-conditioned sheep, hardly fit for : service.” This suggests a great weakness in our rarn sales and a great weakness in stud slock business. Tho culling of pure-bred rams is not by any means what it should be and there is, apparently, too many owners of purc-hred flocks men who cannot afford to cull to tho extent they should. The main secret of success in advanveing a typo is culling: but there nro two classes of men who ignore this necessary principle—the man who has no reputation to lose and will keep and sell every ram ho breeds, and the man who buys a few Flock Book sheep and proceeds to establish a foreign flock therefrom. It is high time tho system of "old conservative England” was adopted and a representative of the Flock Book Association visited ©very breeder and affixed tho Association's tatoo work on tho ear of each slu'op considered fit to breed from. Some of our breeders will breed from anything and sell anything as a purebred. Tho inferior ram is tho weakness in our sheen business, and the unfortunate part of it is that the d an Ser is increasing instead of diminishing. Tho number of stud flocks is steadily increasing year by year. Tho 1907 issuo of tho South Island Flock Book shows that fifty-five new flocks wore registered in tho previous twolvo months. Quite a number of these have been established by small farmers with six up to twenty ewes and a ram. It is obvious that tho culling necessary to maintain a high standard of quality is impossible under tho circumstances; and it is this fact which is responsible for the large number of inferior rams offered at Dunedin, many of them culls and not fit to breed from. If the quality of the country s sheep is to bo maintained the Flock Book Societies will require to undertake a more severe inspection than is the case at present—something after the method followed at Home, where nn annual insnection is made by an official of the Breed Society, who personally tatooes tho ear of each young sheep considered fit to breed from. Of course the work would bo more costly in this country on account of the wider area tho different breeds cover and the more extensive nature of the flocks; but this should not deter the carrying out of such an important work.