CORRIEDALE STUD FLOCK.

Southland Times, Issue 21073, 3 May 1930, Page 15

CORRIEDALE STUD FLOCK.

POINTS OF MANAGEMENT. OTAGO BREEDER’S VIEWS. Of late years the Corriedale sheep has rightly come into considerable favour, largely because it is a dual purpose breed of sheep, producing both a large quantity of valuable wool and a shapely mutton carcass, writes Mr J. A. Johnstone, of Bushey Park, in Farm Economy. If one is the fortunate owner of an established Corriedale Stud Flock, the most important point in the management of this fiock is to provide an abundance of suitable feed # for the sheep comprising the flock during' the entire year. Good results cannot be obtained where food supplies arc irregularly maintained nor on farms where overstocking is allowed to occur. Good lands produce good crops if intelligently cultivated, and superior stock, whether sheep or cattle, will be produced if grazed on pastures rich in feeding value. Everyone cannot have first-class land where abundance of good pasture can be provided for only a small outlay in the way of labour and manures; consequently the lower the natural fertility of the particular area of land you arc farming, the greater will be the need for careful and thorough cultivation and for the application of suitable fertilizers in order to produce plentiful crops in the required rotation for feeding your flock at all periods of the year. Stud sheep and cattle on agricultural areas are now living an artificial and more or less unnatural existence, brought about by man’s ability to make the earth produce fodder for all seasons of the year, and by so doing, encouraging early maturity. The day is now long past for the bullock to be six years old before being fit for the butcher, or the wether three years old before being ready for mutton. Improved methods of agriculture, hand in hand with careful selection of foundation stock, have brought about heavier milk yields, earlier maturity in beef breeds of cattle, better quality mutton and pork, and fat lambs at an earlier age, as well as an improved quality and increased weight of wool per sheep. Grain and other feeding crops have also been produced in greater quantities as a result of the use of up-to-date implements and the intelligent application of artificial manures. These remarks will help to show how important agriculture is in the provision of ample feed supplies for the successful maintenance and development of a Corriedale flock. In the management of Corriedale sheep, the same rules apply as wit h any other breed of paddock sheep—namely, daily attention, frequent shifts to fresh pastures, an adequate supply of clean water, attention to crutching and dagging, and at least once a year, have all the sheep’s feet trimmed to keep down overgrown hoof, thereby preventing foot rot. In my experience, the Corriedale sheep, on ordinary ridge or terrace land, is no more subject to foot troubles than any other breed. It is only a small amount of labour that is required to turn up each sheep and cut back any overgrown hoof, and this is well repaid by the greatly reduced risk of foot rot becoming established in one’s Hock. No matter what the breed, all flocks must be culled regularly, and preferably by one man, over a period of years, in order to establish type and uniformity. After annually culling out the undesirables for a number of years, a noticeable improvement will become apparent in the young stock, and as time goes on the number of culls will grow less and a greater family resemblance will be noted over the whole flock. The object aimed at by every stud breeder is to have his whole flock as alike as peas in a pod, so that an outsider has difficulty in picking one sheep from another. . Patience, persistence, and a loving regard for the welfare and progress of the flock must be deeply implanted in the character of the man who will lift his flock to a leading position in the stud stock world, and although he will not fully attain to the degree of perfection he desires, yet nevertheless his efforts in the study of the breed will be of permanent benefit to those who follow after and aim at the improvement of the breed. Next to culling and almost equally important in flock management is the selection and mating of stud rains. I place mating second to culling because no matter how careful a stud master may be in selecting, both for blood lines and general conformation, with the object of eliminating faults and passing on only the good features of the parents, yet many disappointments will be found among the progeny of these animals. These, then, must be ruthlessly cast out from the flock, and only those possessing the desired qualities retained. In the selection of stud sires it is most important that line-breeding should be practised and that any outcross should be introduced into the flock only after being carefully tried out so that should any undesirable characteristics manifest themselves, the use of that particular line can be discontinued before the faults have got too widely distributed through the flock. The use of line-bred sires will be found to have wonderful results. In a stud flock where the male and female blood lines are closely allied one gets greater fixity of that type aimed at by the stud master, and when line-bred sires arc used with ewes unrelated to the stud, the prepotency and ability to impress their character has a most marked effect on the progeny. As the Corriedale is a dual purpose sheep, it really requires more careful attention and consideration than do either the straight out mutton or wool breeds. In the case of the mutton breeds, quality of meat is the first consideration, wool being only a secondary qualification, while with the Merino, carcass counts for little provided it is big enough to carry a fair weight of good wool. * Corriedale wool is now the most valuable wool on the New Zealand market, and in addition to this, many of the best fat lambs for export are either straight-out Corriedales or else bred from Corriedale ewes. Here again you will see the need for drastic culling. It is difficult enough to preserve the good wool qualities in a breed of sheep, but when one has also to produce the shapely mutton carcass now demanded by the meat export trade, I think you will agree that the Stud Corriedale breeder has a difficult task in front of him when he sets out to breed a sheep with a heavy high yielding fleece of superior wool as well as a shapely carcass of good quality mutton. But this hard task is being accomplished by quite a number of Corriedale flock masters, and each year now seems to bring forth a slight but nevertheless noticeable improvement in this very valuable breed of sheep. This improvement is easily apparent when one surveys the splendid pens of sheep of the breed brought forward at such shows as the Canterbury Metropolitan or the recent Royal Show at Invercargill. There one can see the result of intelligent breeding and farming, and one is encouraged to go on striving to produce an animal just a little better than its predecessors. Wise cultivation of one’s land, drastic culling and careful breeding are, as you will see from these remarks, the chief rules for the successful management of a Stud Corriedale Flock. Twenty people in America have incomes of over £1,000,000 a year. Bread sold in America must not contain more than 38 per cent, moisture.