CERTIFICATION OF SHEEP

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 118, 4 June 1937, Page 9

CERTIFICATION OF SHEEP

' Telesrraph— ' Pr»>«8 Assoeiation.)

Important Problem For Industry

MASSEY DEBATE

(Bs

PALMERSTON N., This Day.

Can a seheme of certification be satisfactorily adopted in the stud sheep industry! This question was debated at the confereace of sheepfarmers at Massey College yesterday, the subject being introduced in an address by the director of agriculture, Mr A. H. Cockayne. Mr Cockayne dealt firatly with plant certification and compared -some of the principles with those that should underlie animal certification. He then dealt with the question as -to whether some type of sheep certification might be of advantage to the New Zealand sheep ^fa^ner.,, Pacetiously he added that whether it would be of advantage to the sheep "breeder" was another point j (Smiles). Mr Cockayne suggested that, : the object in certifying potatoes, ±'or instance, was to declare a true variety and eliminate disease. This had been accomplished and because of the elimination of virus .diseases achieved, the potato crops had been doubled. Much the same results had been secured in respect of the certifidates of ryes and white clovers. j As far as animal certification was concerned, the farmer required an animal that would improve other' animals. *" In the case of certified seeds, • the buyer got the seller's best, but witkj 'atock at present it was very different. Invariably the buyer bought the seller's worst rather than the best. The vory ibest the seller kept for himself, or if 'he didn't, the animals offered were beyond the range of the average pur- ' chaser. Then, again, the. animal bought might not even effect the improvements desired; it might even have an opposite effect. However, there were stock improvement schemes, the basis of which lay in the prohibition of the sale of male animals which did not xeach some standard of excellenco. Personally he was not at all in favour of such a system, as it represented only personal opinion or judging of Btock and he viewed certification and judging as being poles apart. Certainly he was in favour of certification for some characteristics that could be definitely measured and such certification must ■be of value. So far it had been impossible to get this class of certification with animals, due entirely to some owners knowing full well that some oi their animals of value to them from a monetary point /of view would not pass the test. The most outstanding example of this was in the hereditary unsoundness o£ stallions, a thing talked about for 50 yeaTS and still talked about. One o£ the great weaknesses of a scheme that depended on, personal opinion was that the. judge had to take too many characteristics into considera- j tion, bnt whether those characteristics would be transmitted was not definitely known. There had been considerable progress made in the direction of herdtesting in New Zealand, bnt still there j was no definite information that the j butter-fat backing of the sire or dam would be transmitted to the offspring. In. other words, animal certification had to be connected with the genetic makeup of an animal, thns making animal certification a thing of immense difiiculty. Coming to sheep . certification, Mr ! Cockayne recalled that a system of 'voluntary certification based on personal judgment was brought in a season or so ago and lasted for one season only. Such a system was never likely to be particularly popular' nor particularly successful froin the point of view that too often would be quoted the certified animal that was said to have given far infe'rior results to an uncertified ono and particularly tho objection that as such certification was based on personal opinion anjl that opinion was likely to vary, that certain prejudices would appear in the rejection of stock for certification. A third feature that made judgment certification liable to great criticism was the contention that certain flocks were far inferior to other fiocks so far as the ability of the animals to withstand conditions different from those obtaining wbere they had been bred was concern- 1 ed. However, Mr Cockayne said he j must emphasisc one point, namely, that nearly all objections to judgment cer- 1 tification were really connected with 1 the objection the breeder had to being 1 told which of his culls he should not sell. Certification on characteristics, even. if it be only one oi them, was sound' provided such characteristie was definitely one transmitted to the offspring and was reasonably transmitted even where uhe animal luated with had the objectionable characteristics. In that particular, the question of hair appeared of considerable mportance,' and-hair offered no difiiculty in being bred oul but, as one breeder had said, the wooi itself was no indication that either the animal or the wool was satisfactory. However, the hair was a measurable characteristie, and in any scheme of certification, measurements should form the basis of certification. Question Time fCan you give us a measuring system," asked Mr J. E. Hewitt. Mr Cockayne: No, I am in the happy • position of not being able to. (Laughter.) But with plant certification a measuring system has been successfully adopted. Mr Tennent stated that in Austraiia a body measurement system had been adopted for the seLection of Merinos. Mr Elphick. diverted attention to the success of the herd-testing scheme, in producing cows with better eonstitution as well as better butter-fat production and hc tliought the same might be done for sheep. C Ml Cockayne poinle.d fiut Lkft

unfortunate part was that by the time the good transmitting qualities of a bull were discovered, that sire had passed his period of usefulness. Mr Cockayne stated also that while an improvement in the fleece was desired, of greater significance was the production . of a suitable ewe which, when cTOssed with another breed, would turn out an extra superfme lamb. In New Zealand farmers had not quite given the attention necessary in respect of the relationship of the crossbred ewe to fat lamb production. It was a tremendously important subject, and Ncw Zealand had everything to fear from Austraiia uulcss lambs were lmproved. The fact that farmers uscd Southdown rams was no criterion that a Jarge percentage of lambs would rneasiire up to the super standard. Mr J. E. Hewitt considered that the timo . had come when the Government should take steps to establish research stations. Then all these worrying problems could be tackled. Mr R. Waters was of opinion that a great deal could be done and eventually a concurrence of opinion arrivcd at.^