FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 262, 11 December 1909, Page 2

FARM AND DAIRY.

ENCOURAGING ROMNIiV SHEEP. SPECIAL PRIZE OF £IOO. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Palmerston North, Friday. A special prize of £IOO has been' offered by the Manawatu A. and P. Association for the spring show of 1910 bv Mr. E. Short, Waituna West, for the best-shaped Roniney ram, either two or three years old, under the following .proposed conditions:—Ram to be bred in New Zealand; to be judged on wool; maximum points, 25 points for wool and 25 points for character of head and type; to be shorn afterwards in the absence of the judges, and. if time that day, all rams to be again placed in the ring, judges for best-shaped ram allowing a maximum of 50 points for th? ram securing most points. First pn/,.£SO, second £3O, and third prize £ls; a prize of £5 to be awarded to the shearer doing the best work. The judges to be selected from persons not breeders, two judges from the South Island, two from tile North Island, and an umpire appointed by the New Zealand Roniney Sheep Breeders' Association. Mr. Short will not compete, but will show on exhibition only.

New Zealand this season will probably export irom half to three-quar-ters of a million lambs more than was the case last season. The increase :n Australia will probably be slight. In A r gO|)tina the period of drv weather which so iijiset that country's dairying that butter had to be imported, will no doubt liave affected 4 die sheep and lambs, causing a rapid supply for a period, followed, perhaps, by a reduced outp'u. ,\s far as can bo made out, however, the current expectation is a net ii' ■ in Hie world s total supply of lamb (his year, and this, conpte'd wi h the poorer inquiry, means smaller pnee*. Nominally, North Island lambs are II ' V worth about lis each, but it is uiulHud that very few have been, or are being, bought at that price. It < estinuied that the two Wellington companies have exported no more fh.ri •boir :t'U!|]|) h m i )s ~t the winter rale of freight. Some predict that, at Christmas time, the prices of North Island lambs will range from 7s (Id to Bs, and for those of 'Canterbury from Os_to 10s. This estimate is made in spite of the increasing values of ti'.e skins . If this forecast should prove even approximately right, it is certainly " that the prices of wool are satisfactory. It is anticipated that much larger numbers of old ewes than usual will be sent to the works .his season. —Dominion.