Fleece Improvement

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18591, 29 December 1934, Page 13

Fleece Improvement

A SHI PM,EXT of 700 crossbred sheep was taken to Wanganui from Pieton, reports the Wanganui Chronicle. The sheep were consigned 1o Hawera for sale. This is the third shipment to arrive from the South Island this summer. “It is an indication and sign of the times, showing the desire of the farmers on the higher country to grow finer

wool,” said Mr. A. J. Parris, of the Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, the firm which handled the sheep. “The majority of the stock firms in ‘Wanganui have been supplying their clients in tho Taihape, Hunj tcrvillc, and Pactihi districts with j crossbred sheep during the last three years, and, as the demand still continues, it appears that good results are being secured. Fanners have been buying merino rams also to cross with . Komney ewes, and last year wc brought up from the South Island some 250 merino and half bred rams.” Tho “crossbred” sheep referred to arc possibly half broil ewes. There is a wide area of high, dry country in the upper Pangitikei, through the Wai- ! marine towards Hawke’s Bay, which should be suitable for halfbrodx, although flic rainfall being heavier than in Canterbury might make the wool more open than in the south. Some j of this country is high and hard, and 1 possibly belter results might be secured by crossing the merino rams with local owes. The latter would have Hie advantage of being more acclimatised. 'The new development is very-interest-Sing, and shows that flock masters are !determined to get away, if at all possible, from prices that, appear as if their limit for some years will be little more than fid per lb.