SHEEP-LAMBING.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 55, 17 July 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

SHEEP-LAMBING.

A great many squatters may be frequently heard talking about their wool, and enlarging upon its merits as regards weight and qualit}-, while they praise up their runs as capital “wool-growing country,” and are quite delightedif, on comparing notes with friends from other districts, (hey find that their clip has attained a higher price "by a penny or two-pence per lb. Cmleris parihas, they certainly have cause for congratulation, but it is not always that a station that produces a high priced clip, possesses equal advantages in other respects. The phrase “a good wool-growing country” applied to a run, merely means that that is all that can be said in its favor', that it won’t fatten, but that it consists of perhaps sandy and rather barren ridges where the fleeces will "not contract much mud or dust. As a general rule not much is heard from the owners of such runs about their lambings. Of course, on old-established stations, in firstclass country, which are fully stocked, and from which large numbers of ewes have to bo culled and sold periodically, and on which great attention has been paid to breeding, a heavy and high priced clip will be combined with a good constitution, size, and good annual increase. In such eases the extra value of the fleece forms a very handsome adjunct to the profits of the concern," and is not to be despised ; but in too many instances I fancy the wool is treated as a primary consideration, instead of a secondary one. I maintain that it is the increase that tolls, and it is to this that a young beginner especially must pay attention. Ilis wool will pay expenses and a certain amount of interest, but it is to bis lambiugs that ho must look for profit. The differences between fifty and eighty, per cent, will make a wonderful alteration in his agent’s estimation of him, and be will find that after two or three years, if ho wants to sell, numbers will pay him far better than quality. Following out the same line of argument, I consider that lambing is a far more important operation than shearing, and needs the watchful eye of the owner or superintendent much more : but how often is not the revsrse plan followed ? How frequently the lambing is left to the overseer, while the master gives his whole attention to the woolshed ! To lay down certain rules for lambing would be impossible, as so much depends on the site elected, the quantity of feed, &c.; while, too, almost every man has his own pet way of working out the details. All I can do is to express an opinion that the grand secret of success lies in two conditions—one of immense importance, the other of lesser, but still of great importance. The first is that the ewes should have as much green uutricious food as possible, and the other that the ewes that lamb each day should bo kept by themselves as long as possible—each day’s lambing by itself for four or five days. To secure the first desideratum —plenty of young feed —it is scarcely necessory for mo to point out that the lambing must be arranged to take place at such a season of the year (varying according to the district,) that there is usually a growth of young grass. When this is not done, but the lambing is made subservient to the shearing, and arranged so as not to interfere with it, the annual increase will generally bo found to be below the proper average. I have scon myself on two neighbouring runs, one of which was much inferior to the other, a better increase obtained on the worst run, raerety because this adaptation of the lambing to the season was attended to there, and was neglected on the adjoining but in all respects, superior station. If the two requisites above-mentioned arc obtained, and there is no careless mixing of the different mobs I cannot see bow that with the most ordinary men much loss than 80 per cent can be obtained. The result of my experience is, that in good seasons on a good run, and with a sufficient number of hands, the management of a lambing is a delightful because successful task. Unt widely different are the feelings of the “ supper ” if the season is a very dry one ; the then most anxious care, the hardest work, the best men, are of no avail. I think the greatest enemy of the snnatting interest would cease his opposition for ever, were he to see, as I have done, a hundred dead lambs thrown out of the yards of a morning at a lambing station. I know of nothing more discouraging or disheartening than such a sight; for to the immense personal loss is added commiseration for the poor victims of atrophy. The owner sees too, that nothing can be done, and that ho is perfectly helpless ; it is of no use shifting the sheep, because there is no better pasture anywhere. And it does not raise his spirits when some one proposes to him to save the extra expenses of the lambing, and knock the lambs on the bead as they are born. You so-called “ Liberals,” I wish you would be more liberal and charitable in your

ideas of others. One such season as that I have mentioned is sufficient to take the gilt off half a dozen prosperous years. For information I would mention, that sheep are lambed in Hocks of from 1000 to 3000 each and from three to four men are employed to each flock during the few weeks the lambing lasts. These men are usually allotted as follows! One" man takes the part of the flock that has not yet lambed ; another the ewes with the oldest lambs say those over the age of four or five days, technically termed the “strong mob a third, if there are four men employed, the ewes with lambs three and four years old ; while the fourth, who usually in a measure directs the whole, takes what is termed “the hurdles,” that is, he attends to, and keeps from mixing the ewes with the or neo two day old lambs. Of course separate yards and pens have been provided for these different mobs ; and it would be bettor, and there would bo less danger of mixing, if those for the older lambs were situated three or four hundred yards from the rest. If there are, and while there are, more than 1500 ewes that have not lambed, it would be advisable to send a second man with them to help to bring home the lambs born throughout the day. And it would be always advisable to remove the “strong mob” to another part of the run for fresh feed, and to lessen the danger of mixing, as soon as its number amounts to six or seven hundred ewes. As I said before, if the ewes with lambs born each day are kept apart till the lambs are four or five clays old, and the mothers get plenty of fresh feed, there need be no anxiety about the lambing but I repeat that if there is little or no feed, no amount of care, science, or labour, will make up the deficiency. —Sydney Morning Herald.