BRITISH SHEEP

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 252, 14 January 1928, Page 23

BRITISH SHEEP

OVERSEAS DEMAND INFLUENCE ON WOOL Recent high prices realised in this country, states an English paper, for rams for export to some of the chief overseas wool-producing countries of the world have served to call attention to the acknowledged dominant influence of British sheep in maintaining foreign and Dominion flocks, and more particularly in establishing the character of crossbred wool production abroad. The British sheep's pre-emi-nence in the latter connection was mentioned by Mr. Harold Kenningham in a recent lecture before the Bradford Textile Society. Referring to degrees of cross, Mr. Kenningham said that, assuming the ram is the dominant factor in breeding. and the ewe the recessive, there is at once a line on which to mark the degree of fineness or coarseness expected. The number of Lincoln rams used In the Argentine is an explanation why so large a proportion of bright, long, strong wools are produced in that country. Conversely, it was obvious that if a Merino ewe were mated with a Lincoln or Leicester ram, the resultant cross was likely to be a bold, medium crossbred, while if a Merino ram were crossed with a Lincoln or Leicester ewe, a softer, rather finer, and less bright medium crossbred would be the result. Similarly, if the Southdown or Shropshire were crossed with the Merino, they could expect fine crossbred of varying fineness. It was by such crossing that the evolution of the world’s best crossbred wools had been obtained. From the earlier foundations types and subtypes, peculiar to certain districts, had been created, and these needed little or no infusion of the original strains, as they were maintained by careful selection and judicious culling.