America Wants To Buy Many N.Z. Sheep

Chronicle (Levin), 18 August 1949, Page 5

America Wants To Buy Many N.Z. Sheep

AUCKLAND, Aug. 18. America is seeking to increase her sheep population by 20,000,000 and wants to buy thousands of New Zealand sheep for breeding, but the huge sea freight makes the cost prohibitive. . r "If onlywe could overcome this barrier and make sbme arrangement. You would' get an awful lot of dollars," ' * said Professor Eugene Bertone, the American wool specialist, when he arrived, at Auckland today in- the Matson freighter Sierra Berton. He has been commissioned , to buyi 2Q00 Corriedale sheep in New Zealand, "if the price is right," fbr the Hartsel Ranch in Colorado. He" is attached to the Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical Arts College experimental station and is bound for Sydney to study woo: and sheep, methods of production, marke.ing -and grading"I am breaking my trip to visit 1 Christchurch 'and see the^sheepfarming first in this country," he said. "I hope to- be able to get the sheep here that we want for breeding back home, but it will depend a lot on tne price and particularly the freight charges. Tne same app-ies to Australia. One ram we recentfy bought in Aus.ralia cost over 150 dollars for freight." A crated sheep from New Zealand to America costs 75 doPars and uncrated 38 dollars. The United States sheep population had dropped from the normal 50,000,000 to about 30,000,000. New Zealand crossbreds were the ideal type for American ranges.