RUGGING SHEEP

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 75, 21 December 1937, Page 12

RUGGING SHEEP

- Pieas Association.)

Australian Practice Praised

(By Telegraph

WELLINGTON, Last Night. Mr George Davidson, jun., of G. P. H. Davidson and Co., a Wellington woolbroking firm, has just returned from a vi6it to Australia. He was iiripressed by the practice of rugging sheep. For many years stud sheep had been rugged in Australia, he saidt but it was only during the last two years or so that practical experiments hao been made with flock sheep, and these proved very successful. Not only had the wool improved in respect of better growth and freedom rrom vegetable matter, but also these sheep developed a more robust frame. These advantages should alone, he considered, pay the cost of covering the sheep, even under the most advefse wool and meat market conditions, ano therefore the reduced mortality effected by the protection of sheep by rugs from the weather would be clear saving to the farmer. He had imagined there would be many drawbacks to the covering, but found he was wrong. As regards the effect of hot sun on coverect sheep he was told they were protected agaifist the effect of heat. At present the practice had not been carried out to any large extent in Australia, but it appeared to him as fast becoming populai with sheep-owners. "In my opinion New Zealand should follow closely what is being done tn Australia in the matter of rugging sheep," he concluded. "There appear-. ed to be sound economic reasons for it."