ON THE LAND

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 1 April 1915, Page 2

ON THE LAND

TYPES OF SHEEP

Heavy Wooled Breeds are Good Grazers—Long Wooled Not so ' Hardy—Medium Wooled Types , Give Good Mutton and Fair v Weight of Fleece There are three distinct types of , sheep; each type embraces two or .», more different breeds. Each type is suited to a certain environment under which it has been developed. Each . has its place under our economic conditions to-day, and one of the first things the sheep breeder has to do is to choose the type and breed that he -wishes to spend his time upon, and having chosen witb care, the thing to do is to stick to that breed. i The heavy wcoled type hatMßfeen 4 . reared under conditions of spar™ and •■ hilly pastures and hence stand grazing well. The fine wooled sheep are , of a different form than are the.. „ mutton or medium wools. The typical fine wool form is of the. same ,' tri-wedge conformation that is so' '' valuable an asset to the dairy animal. v ; t It may have other defects of tody , ; such as the ewe neck, and the • animals are often " pot-bellied," and ' liable to have cat-hams. * Because of the fact that the value ' of these sheep lies in their staple, of .f", wool and not so much in their carcases, we can condone certain peculiarities of form which would 'be condeni9d in the strictly mutton sheep' ,V The general class of fine woojed sheep is the Merino and of this tjfoe -' we have the American and tie ', Eambouillet. Increase the surface for wool growing and the possible „• weight of fleece has been increased^ > In the case of the fine wooled sheep, the surface for wool production hits been increased by breeding fqr < ,'< large folds of skin on the nec V!* These may be five or more in number on the American Merinos, and are f, called the "apron." The Eam4 '• bouilletts possess less folds of skin \ and a form more comparable, to the \ mutton type. ) Mutton Breeds j There is another type of sheep, r which has been reared under the! ■' heavy lowland pasture conditions of! the fertile regions of Great Britain. \ These sheep are much , heavier, their ''• ; wool is not so dense, though longer,' and they are well suited foT our >' lowland pastures. Despite the fact ' l that these sheep have a longer fibre they cannot stand the rigors of a severe winter so well as the finewools because their fleeces are not so dense ; i.c , there are not so many fibre growing to the square inch. ' The wool hangs in ringlets and parts so that the skin of the sheep is exposed to the blasts of winter and the rains may beat upon an unprotected , spot. Exposure,. to this class of , , sheep, means losa. Breeds of this \ type are the Lincoln, Costwold and 1» Leicester. The ideal body conformation is "cylindrical " with well joined neck and shoulders, brortd, long loins, with well developed hind quarters. The medium wool; types of sheep contain such well-known breeds as (, the Shropshire, Hampshire, Oxford, H Southdown and Dorset S" Under "* average conditions there is a la^e^ demand for sheep that will shear a ** good weight of fleece, and still giv« a good mutton carcass. Such conditions are met by the medium wooled breeds. The breeding of a ' superior medium wooled sheep is a much moro painstaking job than to breed either the fine or long wools. In breeding stock it is a fairly easy ■ thing to perpetuate one character such as colour, the tri-wedge con- ■ formation, or the absence of horns but when it comes to fixing two of these characters in one individual, ~* the problem becomes more complex. bo m breeding the medium wools, it is difficult to get the ideal mutton type well covered with a good quality -' ot wool and perpetuate this through many generations without getting too f£ ov*r °ne way or the other.— "' Kural New Yorker."