FLOCKS IN ENGLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1933, Page 9

FLOCKS IN ENGLAND

SHEEP-REARING TRIALS. WILTSHIRE EXPERIENCE. Thought the conditions of sheep farming in New Zealand and England are not altogether comparable, some conclusions reached as the result of extensive breeding and rearing, trials with sheep on grassland in the country of Wiltshire—a district that must have been pastoral for 200 years—may be of interest to New Zealand flockmasters. The trials, covering many flocks of from 100 to 500 breeding ewes, have been in progress for four years and have dealt with a number of popular crosses. The outstanding point which has emerged is that in ordinary practice, flock management counts for more than breed or cross, or even than the nature of the pasture, in ensuring profitable results. One definite conclusion is the better return given by intensive management, this meaning smaller flocks and fairly close attention. Especially when the production of early fat lambs was the object, was the superior profit-earning capacity of the small flock proved. In fact, the lessened amount of labour, relative to numbers, which is the strong argument in favour of big flocks, was shown to be a minor asset compared with the possibilities that lie in intensive management of smaller flocks. In flocks of 250 ewes or less, not only were higher percentages of lambs reared, but there were fewer under-sized lambs than in flocks of from 300 to 500 ewes. PROPORTION OF TWINS. The acid test of success in grass sheep-farming is the production of a high proportion of really fat lambs weighing 35-451 b. dressed. In these trials it was found that the 50 best lambs from a flock of 100 ewes were frequently of superior grade to the best 50 from a 500-ewe flock, while the remainder in the smaller flock were often proportionally better grown and fleshed at weaning time. With the larger flocks, too, there was need of frequent changes of pasture and much supervision, while the relatively small units under test showed little or no advantage in being moved about, assuming the land was not stocked heavily. This gives the idea that change of pasture—thought usually considered as very beneficial to sheep—probably causes some check, even though it may not be apparent. Over-sheeping of land is probably a more common evil in England than in New Zealand—the land becoming unhealthy for the flocks through the multiplication of internal parasites of sheep which pass part of their life in the soil. Close observation in the Wiltshire trials brought out definitely the results of the practice, increased cost of keeping the sheep in good condition, smaller profit following on higher losses, lower lambing averages for the ewes, and less money for the lambs which take longer to become marketable. The simplest way of avoiding shcepsickness was found to be by maintaining a permanent and not too heavy stocking per enclosure (1-2 ewes to the acre) and dosing regularly for worms. Supplementary feeding of grain or cake proved economical when given to avoid checks in growth, but not as a means of allowing more sheep to be’kept. SIZE OF THE RAM. Another point established is that when fat lamb is the farmer’s object and he aims at getting a high proportion of twins—which is essential for cheap production—rams of small type are the best to use in order to obtain maximum production and really high condition. But for lambs to be brought on as stores for conversion into mutton a ram of larger type is to be preferred. The fat lamb market has been the usual destiny of singles in the past, for which good type singles are readily prepared, while twins have more commonly been brought on as store lambs. But with the ever-increasingly demand for young meat, and the widening difference in the prices for lamb and mutton, more farmers are concentrating on the fat lamb market. The value of flushing the ewes at mating time is very strongly emphasised in the results of the trials.