PROPER MANAGEMENT OF A STUD CCRRIEDALE FLOCK

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1040, 2 August 1930, Page 27

PROPER MANAGEMENT OF A STUD CCRRIEDALE FLOCK

An Eminent Breeder’s Opinions OWNER of one of the most widely-known stud farms in the Dominion, and a breeder who has done as much as anyone else toward shaping the reputation of the Corricdale, Mr J. A. Johnstone, cf Bushey Park, in North Otaj-o, is particularly well qualified to speak on the successful management of the dual-purpose breed, and his remarks on this subject, given in a talk over the wireless recently, will be of especial interest to Corrieda'e men Mr Johnstone has been breeding Corricdales for many years, and the flock at Bushey Park is a iiving testimony to tin, j»and -methods he has followed.

As an exhibitor at stock sho\f iisl record of successes is an enviabi. fie I Tangible evidence of this is provide in the drawing-room of his homestead, where the walls are hung with plaques he lias won at the Royal and other important fixtures. Canterbury* breeders have every reason to remember him at the last Christchurch Metropolitan Show, from which he took away more awards th°n any other exhibitor. Tncse were confined not only to his Corriedales, hut to the Shorthorns, for which he is equally well known. In fret, his herd of Shorthorns was described by an eminent British judge of cattle as among the finest in New Zealand, some of them beasts, that would hold their ow% at any of the British shows. >.-»ishey Park itself is a model stud farm, equipped with all the facilities that the modern breeder would desire. 1 Feeding the Flock.

In his opening remarks, Mr Johnstone said that of ’.ate years the Corriedalc had rightly ccme into considerable favour, largely because it was a dual purpose breed of sheep, producing both a large quantity of valuable wool and a I shapely mill / n carcase. “If one is the fortunate owner of an established Corricdale stud flock,” he continued, “the most important point in the management of this flock is to provide an abundance of suitable feed during the entire year. Good results cannot be obtained where food supplies are irregularly maintained nor on farms where overstocking is allowed to occur. Good lands produce good crops if intelligently cultivated, and superior stock, whether sheep or cattle, will be produced if grazed on pastures rich in feeding value. Everyone cannot have first-class land where abundance of good pasture can he provided for only a small Outlay in the way of labour and manures; consequently the lower the* natural fertility of tlie particular area of land you are farming the greater will be the need for careful and thorough cultivation and for the application of suitable fertilisers in order to produce plentiful crops in the required rotation for feod'ng your flock at all periods of the year. “Artificial Existence.” “Stud sheep and cattle on agricultural areas are now living an artificial and more or less unnatural existence, wrought about by man’s ability to make the earth produce fodder for all seasons of the year, and by so doing, encouraging early maturity. The day is now long past for the bullock to be six years %-ld before being fit for the butcher, or the wether three years old before being ready for mutton. Improved methods of agriculture,. hand in hani with careful selection of foundation stock, have brought aboi i heavier milk yields, earlier maturity in beef breeds of cattle, better quality mutton and pork, and fat

lambs at an earlier age, as well as an improved quality and increased weight .if wool per sheep. Grain and other 5 feeding crops have also been produced fn greater quantities as a result of the use of up-to-date implements and the intelligent application of artificial manures. These remarks will help to show how important agriculture is in the provision of ample feed supplies for the successful maintenance and development of a Corricdale flock. “In the management of Corricdale sheep, the same rules apply as with any other breed of paddock sheep, namely, daily attention, frequent shifts to fresh pastures, an adequate supply of clean water, attention to crutching and lagging, and at least once a year have all the shefeps’ feet trimmed to keep cfow zr overgrown hoof, thereby preventing footrot. “In my experience, the Corricdale sheep, on ordinary ridge or terrace

land, is no more subject to fo;-* troubled than any other breed. “It is inly a small amount of labour that is required to turn up each sheep and cut hack any overgrown hoof, and this is well repaid by the greatly reduced risk of footrot becoming established’ in one’s flock. No matter what the breed, all flocks must be culled regularly, and preferably by one man, over a period of years, in order to establish type and uniformity. After annually culling out the undesirab! • ■or r number of years, a noticeable improvement will become apparent in the

young stock, and as tin-„s goes on the number of culls will grow less and a greater family resemblance will he noted over the who»e flock. The object aimed at by every stud breeder is to have hi* whole flock as alike as peas in a pod so thaT an outsider has difficulty ii picking one sheep from another. “Patience, persistence, and a lovinf regard for the welfare and progress ol tlic flock must be deeply implanted in the character of the man who will lift his flock to a leading position in the stud stock world, and althougli*he will not fully attain to the degree of perfection he desires, yet nevertheless i

efforts in the study of the breed will he of permanent benefit to those who follow after and aim at the improvement of the breed. “Next to culling ancl almost equally important in flock management is the selection and mating of stud rams. 1 place mating second to culling because np matter how careful a stud inaste- , may be in selecting, both for blood lines and general conformation, with the object of eliminating faults and passing on only the good features of the par- | cuts, yet many disappointments will be ; found among the progeny of these | animals. These then must ho ruthlessly cast out from the flock and only those possessing the desired qualities retained. “In the selection of stud sires it is most important that line breeding should be practised, and that an ovitcross should he introduced into the flock only after being carefully tried out. so that should any undesirable characteristics manifest themselves, the use of that particular line can be discontinued before the faults have got too widely distributed through the flock. The use of line-bred sires will be found to have wonderful results. In a stud flock where the mule and female blood i lines are closely allied one gets greater fixity of that type aimed at by the stud master, and when line-bred sires are used with ewes unrelated to the stud, , their prepotency and ability to impress , their character has a most marked j effect on the progeny. Nature’s laws arc not and probably never will be fully understqpd, and therefore the stud master must be content to progress slowly and to have patience, all Hie time watching for blood lines that nick, and ever ready to recognise and cast out combinations that fail to come up to the standard at which one is aiming. “As the Corricdale is a dual purpose sheep, it really requires more careful attention and con [deration than do cither the straight*’out mutton or wool breeds In the case of the mutton breeds, quality cf meat is the first consideration, vool b ng only a secondary qualifica--1 tion, \ :ile with the merino, carcase ' counts for little provided it is hip » enough to carry a fair weight of good p wool.

Improvement in Breed. i “Corricdale w r ool is now the most - valuable wool on the New Zealand mar- | ket, and, in addition to this many of » the best fat lambs for export are either » straight out Corricdales or else bred j from Corricdale ewes. Here again you * will see the need for drastic culling. It 1 is difficult enough to preserve the good r wool qualities in a breed of sheep, but . when one has also to produce the shapely mutton carcase now demanded 2 by the meat export trade, I think you : will agree that the stud Corricdale t br tier has a difficult task in front of i him when he sets out to breed a sheer i with a heavy yielding fleece of superb - wool as well as a shapely carcase oi 1 good quality mutton. t “But this hard task is being accomS plislicd by quite a number of Corriedale flock masters, and each year nov \secms to br* forth a slight but never-

theless not /.e improvement in thi: very valuable urccd of sheep. This im provement is easily apparent when on surveys the splendid pens of sheep ol the bre il brought forward at sucl shows as l.’.e Canterbury Metropolitai or the recent Royal Show at Invercai gill. There one can see the result ol intelligent breeding an i farming, and one is encouraged to g< on striving to produce an animal just r little belter than its predecessors. \ se cultivation of one’s land, drastic cill ig, and careful breeding are, as you rill see frorr these remarks,, the chief rules for the successful management of a stud Corrie. i [dale flock.”