BREEDING OF FAT LAMBS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3801, 18 January 1927, Page 12

BREEDING OF FAT LAMBS.

The question of breeding the most payable lamb exercises a considerable amount of thought on the part of those who hold pastoral or arable (or both) kinds of country. We are advised to breed an animal which, when prime fat, weighs, say, around 341 b off the mother. On some classes of country this is a comparatively easy matter, necessitating, say, medium size ewes mated with possibly a Southdown ram or one of the Down breeds. This will depend generally upon the class of country and environment. For instance, it is questionable whether, on the heavier class of land in Otago and Southland, it is feasible to turn off lambs, prime fat “off their mothers’’ at under, say, 401 b. This weight, we believe, was exceeded last season for all first-grade lambs frozen in Southland, emphasising surely the necessity of a good deal of propaganda in the Home country of the fact that our milk lambs weighing around 401 b are every bit as valuable per lb as those weighing the present accredited popular weights. The ideal of every fat lamb breeder is necessarily to make as much as possible per acre per annum, and he must, in justice to his country, handle ewes that will give a valuable yield of wool each year, together with a lamb that will mature quickly, and fatten readily into a saleable lamb carrying a decent skin. The -best fat lamb from a butcher’s point of view is not necessarily the most payable animal. It is the wool of the ewe plus the return from the lamb that counts. One • of the commonest mistakes made by breeders is to sell off all the early fat lambs, and build up their ewe flocks with the small late cull ewe lambs, which are generally of mixed types, and, of necessity, jeopardise the idea of grazing a level good clipping ewe flock. The choice of mutton breeds of sheep is wide. We have the various British long-woolled, white-faced breeds and the short-woolled, black-faced breeds. The former comprise Romney Marsh, Lincoln, English, and Border Leicesters, the latter the Southdowns, Shropshire, Hampshire, and Suffolks, all of which give good results when mated with the right type of ewe. It" is necessary, however, if black-faced rams are used, that a clearance of all such lambs as fat should be effected, growing, if necessary, extra feed for the ewes—such, for instance, as young grass, oats, etc. In regard to the long-woolled breeds it is advisable to keep the lambs always on the improve,, avoiding at all costs the loss “of any of the lamb flesh, a matter which is too frequently neglected.

The growing of some good mixed young grass yearly, or possibly the top-dressing of some not too old pasture, makes for the successful fattening of lambs. It is essential for best results that the lambs should have clean feed. Better fattening reulte will be achieved off a young grass paddock of a 100 acres divided into, say, several paddocks, and constantly removing the sheep and lambs, than if they had the “run” of all the paddock. Good drinking water in the paddocks is a great advantage, especially in a dry season, while the use of salt licks should not be ignored. Sheep owners who have places big enough to breed their own ewes should do so. There are buyers for their rejected ewes on the lower levels, and eager buyers, provided the owner of the hill sheep culls drastically each year. His sheep get a good name, as they will develop and yield more than one crop of lambs on the farms nearer the coast and on the plains. The ordinary small farmer has not the room perhaps to breed his own ewes, but he nevertheless may well endeavour to secure a good looking lot of crossbred ewes. Our Corriedale ewes make excellent mothers of fat lambs, and breed well with either the white or black-faced greeds. There is not now much in tht contention that the very early lambs pay best, seeing that the prices offered by the various meat companies vary but slightly for the light prime lambs during the season. It any case, it is not an easy matter to get the British breeds to mate early in the season, while the question of feed in early spring cannot be ignored if lambs are dropped in Augustan Otago or Southland.