N.Z. Corriedales Improving Chinese Breeds Of Sheep

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 98, 15 February 1950, Page 3

N.Z. Corriedales Improving Chinese Breeds Of Sheep

The New Zealand Corriedale sheep which were sent to the industrial co-operative school conducted at Sandan, China, by the New Zealander, Mr Rewi Alley, are reported in the latest bulletin of the New Zealand Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas to have produced five lambs. These are the sheep sent to China about two years ago for breeding with the goat-like native sheep in an endeavour to improve the wool production. This lambing is not the first since the sheep left New Zealand, but it is the first unaffected by the sheeps’ travelling from the southern to the northern hemisphere. Most of the previous lambs died. The latest reports are that the new lambs are doing well. x - The local farming customs are blamed by New Zealanders who have worked at the school for heavy losses of lambs in the past: The Chinese way is to leave new-born lambs in the fold and take the ewes away from them all day to graze. This kind of treatment has been stopped by a New Zealand shepherd whom Corso sent to Sandan. He has also given advice on modern methods of breeding. Hitherto there has been little control over breeding, little culling being done and rams and ewes being allowed to run together continually. The sheep are pastured on part of the Gobi Desert which is farmed in conjunction with the school, and they have to withstand perils that are bizarre compared with any troubles sheep in New Zealand have. Not only are the winters extremely cold, but the sheep are in danger of attack by wolves. Antiwolf measures are the erection of walls 10ft high, the use of mastiff dogs as guards, and the arming of the schoolboy shepherds with spears.