STOCK NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5489, 14 February 1896, Page 1

STOCK NOTES.

[BT TUSSOCK IN " CANTBBBUBT TIMES."] There can be no doubt that influences are at work with the object of reducing the price of sheep and <• lambs for freezing. The unexpected activity of two or three export buyers at Addington last week deferred the evil day, but with the dry weather and scarcity of grass, the freezing works fully engaged, large numbers of fat sheep offering in the country, and a fall in London prices, it appears inevitable that prices here must weaken in the near future. Whether they will fall to an unwarrantedly low level remains to be seen. :• . In Otago the opening of the freezing works was expected to improve the prices of sheep and lambs, but instead has been followed by asharp drop,; and prices there are, certainly not above ,the parity of Gan.terbury;;-..,:', ■■..■■' •■ ■ • ' '. ■'"• -,'• • The Royal Agricultural Society of New . South. [Wales" has issued : a very, attractive prize-Ust'f or its" iJaster- show this year. /An offer thatehould teinpt . sovde of our sheepbreeders is that of 4J20, JJIO and .£5 for first, secdnd and third prizes respectively for pens of twenty-five fat sheep suitable for export — the sheep to be sold by auction on the ground during the show, The show ground at Moore Park has, during the last twelve months, undergone solid and substantial improvement. Judging will be done on Wednesday, April 1 ; the official opening will take place on April 2, followed by a banquet and a demonstration of a federal character ; and on the night of April 7 the carnival will be wound up with a grand ball in the Centennial Hall. The Sheep-breeders' Show at Sydney will be held in June, and preparations are being made for several improvements on last year's arrangements. A sale of exhibits will take place oh the closing day of the show. ■■;. Mr R. M J Millan; v <jf-^e Stock aud Station Journal, has ■succeeded Mr Clarence M'lvor as secretary. ' The Sydney Stock and Station Journal almanac )for 1896 contains excellent portraits of /^the members of the Sydney Pat Stock Salesmen's Association. '-••The Mararoa on her last trip to Sydney took one hundred Lincoln rams from the Nem Zealand and Australian Land Company; 5 Totara, to 'Messrs Pitt, Son and Badgery, Sydney, for the Walhallow Station, Liverpool Plains. They were landed without loss and in good order. I have to thank "The Globe Trotter" for an edition de luxe of his "Australian Gossip and Story," from the reading of which I, and I am sure many others, have derived much pleasure. " Bruni " has the following very interests ing note :— '-" For many years past a change in sheep husbandry has been gradually taking place- in "Victoria and Southern Riverina. Over considerable areas the pastures have became so ■'-'heavy that they are, unfitted for raising healthy merino sheep, and the raising of cross-breds has come into practice. In some districts of Victoria the raising of cross-breds is no longer profitable, owing to the losses of young sheep from worms, &c. Of late many pastoralists have found that it pays them better to purchase firstclass stores for fattening than to breed their own stock. This change in the system of sheep husbandry in the heavilygrassed districts is leading to a corresponding change in the system of sheep-breeding in those districts where the pastures are more scanty, but on which large-framed sheep of sound constitution can be raised. In such country it now pays the sheepfarmers better to raise first-class stores to sell at four-tooth than to keep them a year or so longer and sell as fats. There is a prospect of a new factor coming into operation in this industry, and that is a change in the character and description ■of the sheep raised. Until lately the sheep of Australia were nearly all merinoes. The other breeds raised have been almost exclusively Lincolns and Leicesters. A few Cotswolds and Downs have been bred, but their numbers have been very limited. The reason for this is not far to seek. Hitherto the great profit derived from the sheep has been the fleece, and the Merino-Lincoln and MerinoLeicester fleece has been certainly the most profitable the sheep-farmer could grow. For some years past, however, the wool of the Down breeds has been steadily improving. The Shropshire sheep is as well covered as a merino, the fleece is often heavier, and it is almost as valuable per pound. .. Mr M'Culloch's Hampshire Down wool on one occasion realised a higher price than his Lincoln wool, but the fleeces were lighter. The light £uzzy wool of the Southdowns has disappeared, and in place thereof is a robust wool as long in staple, as merino combing w001.. . In New Zealand the Downs are largely used by sheepbreeders, and they find the grades most valuable as freezers. If we are to keep up our export business^-and the loss of it would be a serious thing for sheepbreeders— the; Down grades will, I believe, be found as^ profitable as any sheep that can be raised. Apart from the export business the supplying of the home market with high-cl-ss mutton is a matter worthy of consideration." The Australians have a distinct advantage over the majority of New Zealand sheepfarmers in being able to use the Down breeds direct .on the merino ewes. Down-merino crosses are by no means unknown in New Zealand, and some large lines of Shropshire-merino lambs and twotooths have been exported and commanded top London prices. Still the first-cross with Leicester or Lincoln and the second cross with the Shropshire or Southdown on the first-cross ewe is the general course of breeding for mutton, especially as by this method wool also is obtained. The Australians have the advantage of immense numbers of big-framed, well-shaped, merino ewes, of which whole flocks are as even as peas, and in good seasons they can produce from these lambs as good as the majority of New Zealand produce. According to " Bruni " the Down-merino cross produces a more valuable fleece in Australia than has been generally found to be the case in New Zealand: All of which points to the importance of keeping up the quality of New Zealand mutton and lamb.