SHEEP IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XII, Issue 4, 20 April 1916, Page 288

SHEEP IN NEW ZEALAND.

MR. CLIFTON ON THE BREEDS.

In the course of a recent address to the National Woolgrowers’ Association of America Mr. E. Clifton, late New Zealand Commissioner at San Francisco, gave the following sketch of sheep breeds in this country, which will be read with interest by many of our sheep-farmers and others :

There have been introduced into New Zealand sheep of every breed. After trials, those remaining in general use are, —

The Merino, that is the basis of our flocks, but now very much less in numbers than formerly, contributing only 9 per cent, of the sheep of the country. Our Merino sheep are smaller and more active, than your splendid Rambouillets. Yours are much heavier in wool and in grease, ours are plainer in fleece but equally as fine in the wool. Still, we have many types. A favourite is a sheep producing a strong . combing-wool. That wool is in great demand.

The Romney. This is the dominating sheep of New Zealand, the very special reason being that the Romney is of eminent vigour of constitution. The sheep itself is of sturdy form ; the wool is improved in quality and increased in weight. Further, it crosses well with most other breeds, and the ewe is an excellent mother.

The Romney was introduced with the first of the British longwools. The greater part of the original flock was dispersed many years ago, but a part has been continued in the flock of the doyen of the Romney men, Mr. Alfred Mathews. Some of this gentleman's sheep were very successfully presented for competition at the Panama Pacific Exposition.

We believe that the New Zealand Romneys are an improvement on the sheep of their own original home in Kent. There, close to the great meat-market of London as it is, the chief aim was the production of a sheep for the butcher. We claim that owing to this fact sufficient attention was not directed to the wool. It is believed that the New Zealand sheep retain the form and constitution, with a fleece of heavier, evener, and better quality of wool.

We demand that the Romney ram shall exhibit a thoroughly masculine head, a bold eye, a good .carriage, strong neck, level wide back- and loins, well-sprung ribs, and a full quarter. It is possible that all this is looked for in all sheep, but it is certainly these characteristics that we find present in the type of Romneys. that our. flockmasters have succeeded in standardizing in New Zealand.

. It is entirely.accepted that the wool of the Romney exhibits variations. There .are considerable differences in the wool of individuals of a flock ; there is still greater divergence in the flocks of breeders. This is common to all breeds, but is probably accentuated in the Romney.

But this feature is diminishing ; our breeders are working to a single type wool of fine staple, good length, free, fairly dense, and lustrous. The fleece should open freelythat is, there should be no cross-fibres holding the locks together.

A well-bred, carefully selected, well-conditioned flock of ewes and hoggets with a fair proportion of wethers has clipped up to io| lb. of wool. A stud flock is reported of which the ewes clipped 21 lb., hoggets 22 Ib., and the rams 281 b.

As a sheep for the butcher the Romney is also esteemed.

To repeat, it is vigour and constitution that place the Romney foremost among the flocks of New Zealand.

The Lincoln. — The Lincoln was at one time, in the highest favour both as a purebred and for crossing purposes, and still holds prominence. This breed, that of all sheep provides the greatest weight of meat and wool, is firmly established in the estimation of. those breeders whose farms are situated on rich soil. The Lincoln is the sheep of the heaviest and richest districts of New Zealand. It requires better feeding than some other sheep, and it responds generously to liberal treatment.

The Lincoln has been selected by the New Zealand sheep-breeder, with one exception, as the sire the most suitable for development of the Corriedale. . '

The English ' Leicester. —The New Zealand type of English Leicester is a very different type of sheep from the fashionably bred animals that have been lately imported from that country. They are tall sheep ; -in colonial. parlance, they are on the leg.” They are certainly large sheep, but it is extremely doubtful if the wool is as fine, or if it is even of a true Leicester type. To us of New Zealand the modern English Leicester fails to appeal as did those beautifully formed sheep of the older type, Bakewell’s English Leicester, the autocrat of the. British longwools. ■ ■ .

The Border Leicester. sheep is in special favour in the southern part of the South Island, where the farmers are . chiefly of , Scottish origin. It is of great hardiness, and is in favour with the butcher.

The Southdown is used entirely for the production of crossbred lambs for refrigeration. The half-bred Southdown lamb matures early, and at a weight of 32 lb. it is well finished in the condition and at the. weight most desired on the London market.

. The Shropshire is used for the ! same purpose as the Southdown. It is claimed, however,- that the lambs do not fatten quite so. quickly as the Southdown cross, and that when fat they are heavier than is desired for refrigeration. ■ ' . . -

Corriedales. — Of all the breeds of sheep the New Zealand Corriedale and its evolution attract the greatest interest. A sheep was wanted to take the place of the Merino on the more fertile and better-grassed hills and for the heavier soils of the plains—one that would submit to .'the greater restraint than the Merino that throve on the open hills. A flockmaster of our country, Mr. James Little, was seeking , such a sheep. He wanted a wool with the best characteristics, of the Merino with the form of one between an English Leicester and a Down—a sheep for

wool and mutton. He entered on the undertaking, and created the Corriedale. The name of the property—“ Corriedale ” —was that given to the sheep. In 1865 the first cross was made —a Lincoln ram with a Merino ewe. From this progeny selection was made. Not then satisfied, another cross of the same breeds was made, with selection on different lines. This has been continued with marked success.

The system that Mr. Little originated has since been followed by others. There are now twenty-two registered stud flocks of pure Corriedale sheep.

With one exception, where an English Leicester was used, the New Zealand Corriedale is the progeny of a Lincoln sire with a Merino ewe. The breeding of the selected progeny then continues without further crossing. The Corriedale is therefore the result of the, continued and careful selection of the inbred progeny of half-bred or first-cross parents. Most undoubtedly to secure and maintain the desired type the most skilful selection extending over many generations is essential. It may be accepted that those sheep-breeders who have secured the recognition of their flocks have been most justly rewarded for their perseverance, and the New Zealand Corriedale is being appreciated in many lands.

The appreciation may well be merited. The Corriedale was evolved from decidedly divergent parentsfrom those, indeed, of a violent contrast—the active mountain Merino, the inactive Lincoln of the rich level country ; the Merino probably the oldest of the breeds of domesticated sheep, the Lincoln already a cross of the original breed and an English Leicester.

The establishment of the Corriedale is an interesting subject to ’the student of breeding. If there be the intention to further introduce this most desirable sheep into the United States, let it be in sufficient numbers to permit of liberal selection of the progeny; for, however careful and skilful the purchaser,, there will be, as in all breeding, some to discard if the type is to be maintained.

Hakf-breds. There is in New Zealand yet-another most interesting development in sheep-breedingone that' I should be unwilling to mention unless with the support of the record of the New Zealand Flockbook. It is the use of a direct half-bred'ram on half-bred ewes. I may be permitted to read a copy of the record in Volume IV, as follows:

In 1886 a commencement was made in breeding half-bred sheep by Lincoln rams from Merino ewes at Stonyhurst, and the main breeding-flock is now halfbred. The practice throughout has been to mate first-cross Lincoln-Merino rams with half-bred ewes, which are now descended from many generations of halfbred mothers. The stud rams bought have been exclusively Lincolns from the flock of Mr. H. J. Hall, and after its dispersal from that of Mr. J. S. Holmes ; but they are now bred in the Stonyhurst Lincoln flock... These rams have been used with the Stonyhurst stud Merino ewes to produce half-bred rams. _ The result has been to create a very level flock of about ten thousand half-bred breedingewes. The hoggets are culled before' March, and the faulty ones are thrown out to breed fattening-lambs by Shropshire Down rams. It is now found sufficient to take- about 15 per cent. The success attained is attributed to the persistent use of the same types of Lincoln and Merino sheep from the same stud flocks. Experiments have been made in breeding : rams by prize half-bred rams from picked half-bred ewes; but sheep so bred, though generally ; satisfactory, have not displaced the first-crossbred rams for use in the station flock. For supplying these rams a selection of the Merino stud flock is annually drafted to be put to the stud Lincoln rams. . . ’ ■

The flockmaster in question (Sir George Clifford) is one of the foremost sheep-breeders of our country, and lately there are others, among them one of the very shrewdest of our sheep men, breeding these same sheep as described in the record just read to you..

There are claims and counterclaims for the Corriedale and half-bred as to which results in the better or the more even flock. Both are crossbreds— half-bred the more immediate.