A Warning to Sheep Farmers.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 202, 25 February 1895, Page 2

A Warning to Sheep Farmers.

.*. At a meeting of the Wellington Agricultural and Pastoral Association recently Mr Millward raised the point of sheep suffering from " grown " or adhesive lung. He would take the opportunity of pointing out to sheep-owners how serious a matter it was to them, and one which might vitally effect the frozen meat trade of the Colony. Owing to the demand for lambs for freezing, farmers had been anxious to get off as many as they could, and in drafting out their iiocks the " tops," or best of those picked out for freezing were generally ewe lambs, as the ewe lambs matured earliest. The consequence was that those left were more or less stunted and inferior lambs, and deterioration of the flock naturally followed. This appeared to be borne out by the fact which he had noticed that the old ewes which came into the Company's hands for boiling down were getting gradually lighter and of smaller frames. If New Zealand was to maintain its hold of the frozen meat trade it was absolutely necessary to keep up the standard of the flocks by breeding from the very best of the ewes. In fact they could not get good lambs unless they had ewes of good frame and quality. Several of the members present expressed their sense of the importance of Mr Millward's statement, and thought it very valuable, and one that sheep-farm-ers generally should take note of.