Selecting Sheep.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 154, 10 May 1909, Page 4

Selecting Sheep.

It is a somewhat curious fact that a man'may be a sbeepfarmer all bis life, and yet not properly understand the art of picking a number of sheep from a mob. This statement applies more directly to the selection of pens of sheep for show purposes, but it is also true in picking and averaging freezers. It may he admitted that the work of selection is extremely difficult, so difficult indeed that the competent men in the whole of the North Island can be counted upon the fingers of both bands. It seems an easy thing for instance to select two pens of five sheep for show purposes, say from a mob of three hundred, which also have been culled, but the joh will take a good man the better part of a day. Then it often happens that one inferior sheep has been included in tbcfpen.'.which thereby loses its chance of scoring first honours. The main feature of selection in these cajes is uniformity, but any A. and P. show in the country will provide glaring examples of lack of uniformity. The task of selecting freezers is somewhat different, in that the sheep or lambs are picked on the virtue of being fat to a ccrain degree, and they are graded as to weights after they have been hung up in the nbbatoirs. It says something for a meat buying expert,when he examines a cut of say. three hundred taken casually from a mob of 3000. buy on his estimate that the dead weight of each carcase will be 601b., and then find out that he was only Ulb per carcase under his estimate. Yet this often happens. It happened last year in the Hawke's Bay district, when the owner of a mob of 3000 refused a certain price offered by a buyer who gauged the dead weight of the animals at 56lbs. each. Another buyer came along and offered 17s per head on his the dead wheigt of each sheep would be 601b. The abattoir return showed that the average was 61 Jibs. The owner said later to the succssful buyer, "You cut things rather fine." "Yes," was the answer, "but even so fine it runs into 45001b of meat, which the freezing company gets for nothing." Still the owner was naturally satisfied, as he obtained what he considered was a very fair price for the mob. A fat sheep for freezing purposes is nearly always judged by feeling its loins. The tail is also felt at times, but with experts only when the market is sensitive and extra care is required in the work of selection. If one ever sees a reputed meat buyer pick up his sheep, seat it on the ground and feel its brisket or its ribs, it may be deduced that he has still a lot to learn at the game. The practical man sends bis hands over the sheep's loins, and the fingers become so delicate to the touch that the buyer can tell within almost a pound from the contact, what th- dead weight of the live animals will be. It is in this way that a first class meat buyer is worth a mint of money to his company. The average of the weights of such a man is so near to being correct that he never pays for what he does not boy; but at the same time hi * estimates are so close that they win the confidence of tbc farmer.