SUMMER LAMBS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1512, 7 August 1912, Page 10

SUMMER LAMBS.

A VEXED QUESTION. Attempts have been made in the pn*t to set up nn age limit dividing lambs, legs, niid sheep, but they have not met with much succe-.-. The whole matter concerns the vexed question: What is a teg? When does a lamb cease to be a lamb and so on. Inquiries in this connection were recently made at Sniithfield market bv the London correspondent ot the "I'astoralists' Koviow" with the following result:— (a) "A 'summer lamb' isjot. a lamb at nil—it is a teg. It is too old to be a lamb, it is a misnomer to call it a lamb. A teg is anything from six months up to and including tlio first shearing." (b) "A New Zealand lamb is from three to six months. A teg is from six to. ten months. A summer lamb from about ten to twelve months. Sheep after twelve months. Sotno of these 'summer' lambs are tegs and some sheep.. There are 110 objections to thorn here, so long as they aro sold as 'summer lambs.' We know them here, and they are sold from }d. to jd. lower than ordinary new season lambs. There is a decent trade in summer lambs —about 50,000 to 60,000 during the season." (c) "A summer lamb is a lamb late in lambing, and has not matured at the time they are taking the genersrl run of lambs off. At the first go off in bringing them from Australia these were sold ns lambs, but there was a large percentage of them between lambs and sheep, jnd most of them being of the merino type they Were in the nature-of small sheep, [f they had been of the crossbred type, they would have retained more of their couthfulness. Many claims were made igainst the sellers, and these were supported by the awards, which said the mimals were small sheep. So now, in c.i.f. ales, they take the precaution to describe th l em as 'summer' lambs, and they ira sold without guarantee. A percentile of them would, of "course, be small ihcep. Nothing successful can be done n summer lambs from Australia—it is inly in'cases of scarcity that the trade entertains them at all. They are really ;irinll sheep, and we want them here as imail sheep, and at.small sheep prices, jut not 'as lambs. We have had some iiimmor lambs from Victoria this year. ,Vhat would be a summer lamb would 36 a nice It to 501b. carcass, which would nake a good substitute for English or Scotch small sheep when these are icarce."