CORRIEDALE SHEEP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 13

CORRIEDALE SHEEP.

OTAGO STOCK IN SCOTLAND.

New Zealand evolved the C’orricdale, but Dominion breeders were not allowed to retain a monopoly on the breed, the fame of whose dual purpose characteristics was noised abroad to such effect' that overseas breeders soon began to sit up and take notice. Corriedales have been Otago’s peculiar triumph for many years and it will be remembered that Mr James Piper, of the Grange, Burntisland, Fife, was responsible for their introduction to Great Britain. It was fitting, therefore, that he should seek his foundation stock from the home of the breed. Mr J. A. Johnstone, Bushey Park, Palmerston, supplied him with 30 stud animals, which, with several head exhibited at Wembley, made up Mr Piper’s embryo flock. The progress the New Zealand breed is making in its new home forms the subject of an expert article by Mr J. E. Nicholls, M.Sc., of the Animal Breeding Research Department, University of Edinburgh, in the June issue of the Journal of the British Ministry of Agriculture. The writer gives a description of the origin of the Corriedale breed, and his othqr observations are printed in full: — APPEARANCE IN BRITAIN. Corriedale sheep were shown in this country at the Wembley Ehibition, and at the close of the exhibition the two rams and three ewes, born in September-October, 1£24, were acquired by Mr Piper, who was also negotiating for the shipment of a number of Corriedales to this country for tho purpose of conducting experiments on wool improvement. These sheep, 10 rams and 29 ewes, born in September-October, 1925 were released from quarantine m tho beginning of July, 1926, and the writer wishes to express his most grateful appreciation of tho very complete facilities which are being afforded by Mr Piper for the full observation of his flock by the Animal Breeding Research Department. The Wembley Exhibition sheep were unshorn on their arrival in Fife in October, 1925, but were partially clipped then; the fleece was about 54-6 in in length, and, of this, about 4in were removed preparatory to placing the, sheep under their winter conditions. It is the policy to test sheep under precisely similar conditions of management to those under which the commercial flock, exists, but for about 10 days after this partial shearing tho sheep were housed at night and afterwards, allowed the free run of a small field, with the use of a shed if desired. Later the sheep were on tho hill, running up to 700 ft and much exposed. Extra food in the form of a few turnips was given., The winter was particularly bad, with much changeable weather, and at one time the sheep had to be dug out of snowdrifts, but they stood the climate remarkably well. Ewes were lambed down in a sheltered paddock, and tho first lamb to be born on April 5, 1926, was a pure Corriedale. Tins

lamb was carefully examined and a photo- • graph taken on April 15. A close study of the types of lamb's coats is important in all sheep breeding work, and it was found that the pure Corriedale lamb possessed a dense, fine coat of great uniformity over the surface of the neck and body. Regularly disposed throughout the fine coat are numbers of coarser kempy fibres such as occur in the coats of lambs of many breeds of sheep, and which may persist or may be completely shed, as in the merino. In the early stages of the lamb's post- natal existence, these fibres constitute a coat which is of great value in providing resistance to the weather, and, as such, are of considerable survival value and economic importance. These fibres increase markedly in relative numbers on the legs, and exist also cn the head, but, while the general appearance, particularly of the logs, is hairy, the fine woolly undercoat which is in evidence later is well developed.

In the Corriedale this kempy protective coat is rapidly shed, leaving a dense, uniform fleece of excellent quality extending well over the head and legs. In all, three pure Corriedale lambs have been obtained from the three Corriedale ewes: these lambs are of an excellent type, well boned, standing square, with good shoulders and well-sprung ribs. THE WOOL QUALITY.

As yet there has been no opportunity of examining closely Corriedale wool grown under natural conditions in this country. The fleeces of the sheep exhibited at W embley had been considerably mutiluted by constant and the sheep newly imported were subjected to much immersion by sea water during a stormy Channel passage, followed by 28 days’ close confinement in quarantine; these later sheep have, notwithstanding these unfavourable experiences, clipped fleeces ot s*in for about eight months’ growtK and axeraging 91b for the rams and 9{lk tor the ewes. The wool is of good quality (New Zealand Corriedale fleeces contain a good proportion of 56's quality, ranging to 46’s on the britch), very clastic, and the fleece is of great density throughout, the uniform compactness of the fleece being preserved by a regular network of binding fibres traversing the staples, together with an exceedingly re<nxlar crimp, which is well defined throughouL4he co , nlpletc length of the staples. When shorn, the sheep display their excellent mutton type, being squarely built and handling well; in the clipped'condition it can be seen that the fleece tends to split up along definite cleavage lines into irregular polygonal-shaped staples such as are typical of the merino Thia stapling is peculiar to very dense, finewoolled sheep, and can serve as a useful indication of these characters. CROSSES WITH OTHER BREEDS. The intention is primarily to examine the possibilities of the Corriedale us B pure breed, and, as such, the experiment here outlined is well worthy of serious attention and consideration by all sheepbreeders; but the rams were also allowed to run with a number of ewes of various sorts, and a description of the cross-bred lambs is of interest, particularly when it is realised that ob-_ servation of the behaviour of pure orcede.

in crosses is of great use in assessing the , value of the purebred itself so far as mutton-producing qualities are concerned. The cross-lambs were examined on June 25, 1926, being then on the average six to eight weeks old; by the Corriedale ram five North Country Cheviot ewes had produced six lambs; 10 Border Leicester crossbred Cheviot (lialfbred) gimmers, 11 lambs; one Border Ixncester crossed Cheviot ewe, two lambs; five Dorset Horn owe lambs, five lambs; and 22 Border, Leicester crossed Blackface ewes, 37 nabs. The lambs were all of good mutton type with well-developed gigots, and, while the Dorset Horn cross lambs appeared small owing i 0 their being the offspring of ew T c lambs, they were particularly promising as mutton sheep. It is proposed to keep all the lambs until their first shearing, since the experiment is primarily concerned with woo) characters. In the Cheviot cross, there are distinct traces of the neck folds—a character of the Corricdale derived from the marked folds of the merino The fleece ixtcnds farther down the legs than in the pure Cheviot and a woolly forelock is more or less developed. All the lambs howed traces of the kemp? outer coat still persisting, and while in general, the individual coats were fairly uniform over the whole body, in some cases a distinct keinpiness w'as noticeable, particularly in the lower thigh region In these cases, the crimp was not at all well defined throughout the fleece, but, on the whole, a fine crimp appears typical of this cross, although the crimp is not so definite or regular as in either the Corriedale or the Cheviot. The natal spiral formation of the Jocks was distinct, the spirals being small and close, while, in general appearance, the coat showed certain indications of

the peculiar merino type of stapling to which reference has been made. Compared with the Corriedale x Cheviot cross, tho halfbred cross lambs have a slightly better developed woolly forelock, a very uniform coat with fine wool well down the legs, and a typical Corriedale crimp. The lambs from the Border Leicester x Blackface ewes by the Corriedale ram are interesting in that, while tho coat 's coarser than in , the other crosses, with considerable hairiness on the thighs, there is a well-defined merino type crimp throughout the uniformly dense coat. This crimp is particularly well marked on,the shoulder, and there is distinct improvement on the normal Border Leicester x Blackface fleece. The Dorset Horn cross lambs are the most interesting in many ways. On casual inspection, it is noticeable that the neck folds are here as well developed as in the pure Corriedale, if not more so, and the close, dense coats present also the appearance of the merino stapling. Since both these characters are peculiar to the Merino, it would appear that there is, in this cross, some considerable evidence in favour of the view, which has not been disproved by records, that there are traces of Merino blood in the present-day Dorset Horn breed. While the coat has a distinct similarity to that of typical Down lambs, the crimp is not well defined. The head and legs arc well covered with fine wool; slight scurs were found on some of the lambs. THE WOOL ASPECT. As judged by the lambs’ coats, it would appear that the Corricdale can contribute towards improvement of wool characters; the hardness of the newly-born lamb, as evidenced by the presence of the protective kempy coat, is not interfered with, since the Corriedale itself possesses traces of such

a coat, and any tendency towards shedding this as the lamb grows —a desirable character of economic importance—is preserved. While in some eases, as in the CorriedaleBorder Leicester x Blackface cross, there may be a reduction in amount and coarseness of this protective layer, such reduction would appear to be amply compensated for by the facts of increased density of tho fleece and of well-marked natal spirals with a more definite crimp, resulting in a more compact coat, which is, in effect, a better protection against adverse climatic conditions than a longer and more open hairy coat.