FLY-RESISTANT RAM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 433, 18 January 1933, Page 2

FLY-RESISTANT RAM

A question of national importance is being decided by ProfessOr Goddard, at the Animal Health' Station, near Brisbane, where a pure merino rarni, claimed to be fly-proof, is being put. to' s'evere tests. So far the ram has resisted the blowfly completely for two months, although housed for a time with an affected ewe. A more severe test, that of infecting the fleece with water rot, to give the blowfly eVery assistance, is to come; then the progeny of the ram are to be tested, to see whether1 they, too, are immune. The ram' was bred by Mrs. Anhaeusser, of Cannamulla, who presented it to the Department of Agriculture arid Stock as ihe last df the first generation of flyproof rams she had bred. It is 11 years old, very free from wrinkles, and has fine open wool,1 'which' is all to its advanthge if attacke'd by hlowflies. Experts wh'o have seen the animal say there is a sheep or two in every flock immune to the blowfly, j.ust as some human beings are, through some natural mystery, immune to certain contagious diseases, hut if this ram and his progeny prove to he a successfully bred flyproof line the sire's value to the wool industry will he too great to estimate.