THE TREND OF SHEEP-BREEDING IN THE SOUTH ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 19

THE TREND OF SHEEP-BREED-ING IN THE SOUTH ISLAND.

; £h& New Zealand Sheep-breeders' Flock Book for the South Islam! and the Romney Marsh Fleck Bcok have been circulated for 1 some time, and now that the second interim returns giving particulars of the stud flocks as collected by the Agricultural Department are a^allable, it may be of in ter.est tc give a digest" of the figures presented to breeders, as there are but few who care to try and glean from them any information. With the objeo' of helping the busy man, the nvo accompanying schedules have been prepared to enable him to see at a glance what particular breed is now in the ascendancy, al=o the number of rams thac arc available for the- coming "reason. Taking the Fleck Book schedule j fir-t, it will be seen that there was 26,820 ram lambs kept la»«r year, which are now two-tooths. The numbers arc taken from I the Flock Book, so that 10 per cent, at , lea>t has to bj- taken off for deaths and culN. Howe\er, meanwhile, we will leave that out until wv come to sonsider what rams are available. It comes as a most au<reeabk surpiise to find there ;s; s very little increase in the number of rams- kept compared with 1907. Two years ago the .register showed 24.971, and the increase is only 1859, which goes to bhow that studmasters are looking fcr improvement rather than numbers, and tnu?t be culling heavily t< bring- about such a satisfactory state of ■affairs. Wiih regaici to what the figure* ?ho\\ as to the trend of breeding; the only noti.eeable feature h the norease of tlie Bordei Leicester and the decrease in Shrop-shir-eo, the other breeds having all small 1 increases. During the past two ycttrs there has bean an increase ir> ..he number of 1 flocks of 115, t')3 Hocks now reg-istered standing ai 522. of which 301 have le=s tha:. 100 ew-cs. T'nis i« al c o another encouraging ffiuu-re, showing that bheep-ownor* are taking greater interest in improMng their g-eneial flocks. Still it has to be remembered that few ha\e the nccc=sar\ intu Iti\,-> crift of becoming- successful stud-masters, and that soiri; will fa il in mating 1o F-eciuv 1 th? dssiwc' "nick" that makes for in.pro\onieut. Now, jf we compaio Ih<* '•-iit--p i r<.tiun=" ol t-tud sheep in the South l-'-.j.d and tho=e in the Flock Book, it will Lo Mci that there are fct ill a laigc numLsir of rams being bred that .cannot show puiiiy ! of blood to enable them to be entered in the Flock Bcoks. Yet probably the most of them "aie as of good birth ac 1 hose registered but owing to the care!ei=n.?£,, of the owners in not preserving th-pir history th?v are ineligible. Th-o only fcymes we can take as ? comparison ,iie the two-toorh ranv=, which number 38,732, an increase in that cla-o of 11.911. Ficm this has- to bs dtylu-W tha 2895 cla.-scd as other bre?d.*, winch leaves only 9000 that are not registered, cr from regi.=t3red flocks Thh shows that .South Island bleeders ars b»eeding almost exclusively from purebred rams. With regard to '-other breeds," the.re are only 312 entered in that class under the Noith Island heading, which proves the u-a t^at is being made of the Corriedales. According to the sheep returns, there are 135,141 rams over twe tooth, from which in the ordinary course, it may be reckoned, 25 per cent will he disabled or dead. Befcre deaths and cull* air- deducted from the , two-tooths, th 3 number of rams available i for tha coming va'on will ba foinow Jion' j near about the same a? last year, which it '

f not much ove the number required for j somewhere near 6,000,000 ewes. 3 In explanation of the following table it 3 may be stated that -"there are 29 South - Island flocks registered in the New Zealand i Romney Marsh Flock Book, and 22 flocks s appear both in that book and the New Zeat land Sheep-hreeders' Flock Book ; the siza ■ of the flocks is taken from the number of J ewes put to the ram last year, and the rams 1 only represent tho lambs kept as rams. ■ Stud flocks in the South Island, New Zea1 land : — t

; 75.59 i 36,820' 301 126 522 , Number of stud sheep in South Island, [ aoegrdMng to sheep returns recently published : —

go J|| Breed. *£ S r g |" Merino 507 16.472 3,389 16 566 Lincoln .. 325 4,056 2,312 4,153 Roniney . . 1,632 20,771 7,081 22,578 Border Leioe3ter 1,247 30,434 M.0,435 27,162 English Leicester - 1 342 31,706 5.594 30,184 Sbropsliiic 376 G,414 2.214 p,222 Souihdown 101 1,785 812 2,359 Other Drecds 730 17,243 2,895 9,153 6.260 128,881 38,732 121 676 ANTIQUA OVIS.

Breed. Lincoln Knglislx Leicester Border Leicester Southdown .Shropshire . „ Meririb . , Cheviot . * Ryeland Oxford Downs Dorset Horn , ; Komney Marsh .' li |! fitq s5 3,703 1,281 22,94G 5.414 18,456 7,379 2,486 906 6,371 1,876 7,274 2,179 202 86 160 24 12 3 29 c 14.280 4,666 0 g J^ r-t Co? 19 9 25 71 40 147 117 46 183 22 3 29 33 10 52 4 6 22 112 7 -^ 7 11 — 1 11 — 1 32 12 53