Big Early Lamb Drafts Off Light Land

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31113, 16 July 1966, Page 8

Big Early Lamb Drafts Off Light Land

On improved light land north of the Waimakariri river and adjacent to the Eyrewell forest in the Swannanoa district, Mr M. Spencer Bower has been able to get one lamb away to the works before Christmas in recent years for every ewe mated to a Southdown ram that goes through his tailing yards.

Actually in the last three seasons draftings have ranged from close to 96 to 108 per cent fat off the mothers, with the performance being better than 100 per cent in two of the three seasons.

I Mr Spencer Bower says that this is by no means an exceptional performance in his area and his neighbours are doing just as well. His flock consists of halfbred ewes. As well he has a small flock of Merino ewes i and these are mated with : English Leicester rams to produce first cross half-bred rams and a few ewes, and he places particular value on this introduction of first cross blood into the flock with the I extra vigour that he is sure it i imparts. He also has a mob i of selected ewes that he mates i with selected half bred rams Ito breed halfbred rams for I his own use and for sale. I But returning to lamb production. About half of the halfbred ewes go to the loc-ally-bought Southdown rams in the first week in March. These are the older ewes and earlier included off sort types , from which it was not desired to breed replacements. With ithe improvement of the flock, however, there is no longer an adequate supply of these latter sorts and better ewes have now also to be mated with the Southdowns.

At tailing Mr Spencer Bower likes to put as many ewes and lambs on a paddock as it will carry and set stock them as far as possible. These ewes and lambs are

on mainly subterranean clover and ryegrass pastures with cocksfoot now much more in evidence.

Drafting begins about the beginning of November when the lambs are about three months old. In 1963 when there was a premium on early lamb more than 1500 lambs were drafted in the first week of that month and 2550 had gone off by early in December. From 2356 ewes mated to Southdown rams which went through the tailing yards—this was equivalent to 108 per cent off the mothers. That season 3186 lambs were tailed from these ewes—l3s per cent in relation to the ewes going through the tailing yards.

In that season lambs were mainly on the light side—Mr Spencer Bower thinks that they were too light. The average dressed weights of drafts ranged from 29.591 b to 31.541 b. Among them there were 53 seconds. In 1964 by Christmas 2346 lambs had been drafted. This was towards the end of a year of drought and under conditions of severe feed shortage. Here weights of drafts ranged from 29.081 b to 32.121 b and there were 45 seconds. With 2448 ewes mated to Down rams having gone through the tailing yards this represented almost 96 per cent fat off the mothers. Actually 3319 lambs were tailed from these ewes—better than 135 per cent as at tailing. Last season it will be re-

membered that the drought broke early in the year and there was a fantastic flush of feed. Mr Spencer Bower recalls that they had done more topdressing than in the past and the whole place was a carpet of subterranean clover. But he says that they had one of their worst lambings. They had had more deaths and more dry ewes than in any other four seasons put together. This he felt was due to the excess of feed and had brought home to him the desirability of having a few bare paddocks—a land of plenty is certainly not the whole answer. They had run into foot abscess in ewes, and in winter and at lambing time, they had lost a lot of ewes and ewes with foot abscess had lost a lot of lambs. However the lambs still did well enough and by Christmas 2335 had been drafted; which represented 106 per cent off the 2201 ewes mated to Southdown rams which went through ,the tailing yards, and at tailing these

ewes had 2911 lambs or 132 per cent. On this occasion by design weights of drafts were very much higher. They varied from 31.231 b to 37.691 b and several drafts were about the 33 to 341 b mark. Seconds totalled only 19. Mr Spencer Bower says from a study of drafting figures on his Claxby property he believes that where the feed is available the most valuable lambs are those between about 321 b and 401 b and therefore the need is for careful drafting to eliminate lambs that are unduly light and also seconds. There were a few over-fat lambs among the heavier lambs drafted in the most recent season but the numbers of these were small in

relation to the numbers drafted. In this respect Mr Spencer Bower has noted when old rams have been slaughtered for dog feed the very considerable variation there is in them as far as lean and fat is concerned, and he believes that some instrument that could assess these animals for fat and lean covering while they were still alive could perform a most valuable service to the breeder and farmer.

Mr Spencer Bower feels that the good results that he has had with the ewes mated with the Down rams tends to bear out the statement made not long ago by the chairman of the Meat Board, Sir John Ormond, that farmers should not contemplate making any radical change away from the

Down cross type of lamb. When these figures were being considered Mr Spencer Bower said much of the credit for what had been achieved must be given to “a wonderfully fine team of men” who were working with him at Claxby and Woodstock and had been with him for years. In charge of the shepherding at Claxby was Mr R. Mackay, a real Scotsman. He had a great memory for sheep and for tallies and if he (Mr Spencer Bower) had a name for each sheep he was sure that Mr Mackay would be able to remember it With him was a Rangiora boy who was also a keen sheep man, and tractor drivers, a mechanic and bulldozer driver and a good man who was cooking for the single men all played a most important part.