KEEP A FEW SHEEP

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1688, 19 November 1925, Page 2

KEEP A FEW SHEEP

A WORLD SHORTAGE.

PROFITABLE INVESTMENT

The world is short of 100,000,000 sheep, and the United States alone is short several millions, according to Will C. Barnes-, assistant United States forester in charge of grazing. The United States wool manufacturers are now using about 900,000,000 lbs annually of raw wool, of which only about 225,000,000 pounds are produced in that country. With this enormous shortage, the people demanding clothing made from virgin wool, and the ever-in-creasing demand for lamb and mutton, the most-delicious of meats, the future of the sheep business was never more bright, s>ays an American contemporary.

Land, labour, and farm equipment are the farmer's factory. It has a high market value. In order to get fair market returns from the investment the maximum must be obtained from this factory, by utilising the labour and equipment throughout the year, and converting all the products of the farm into cash. There is no better method of obtaining these results than with a flock of breeding ewes or feeding lambs for market. Sheep are sometimes spoken of as scavengers. While it is true that sheep will eat almost any feed or plant that grows, no class of animal will respond to good feed and care like sheep; no other class of animals will give as great a return for every £1 invested; and' no class of live stock will build up the fertility of the soil as quickly or as efficiently as will sheep. For the last reason alone they have been called " golden-hoofed animals."

A flock of from 50 to 150 breeding ewes should be maintained on practically every farm. These ewes will produce two cash crops yearly—wool and lambs in the early summer—and the returns from the wool will almost pay for their keep.