SHEEP BREEDING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2048, 20 May 1890, Page 3

SHEEP BREEDING.

Id a letter in the Ashburton Guardian a Mr Herring discourses or, abeep breeding. After detailing his experience in England, ha goes on to say with regard to New Zealand as follows :

During a journey of 6000 miles through New Zealand, and visiting very many large sheep farms, I saw nothing in any way appronchiDg the art as practised at Home. This is a graad sheep country, wonderfully healthy, and in every respect suitable for producing mutton and wool for export, a trade which in my opinion ia still in its infancy.

In an ordinary season turnips can be grown successfully, especially when one to two cwt of superphosphute is used. With this crop, and a supply of oaten chaff and bran, the situation is complete for a man who will throw his heart into the work, [t is essentia), however, that he should study the nervous animal he essays to feed, and understand the principles of feeding, to come out with a profit on hia outlay and labor.

As we cannot afford to top, tail, pit, and cut up turnips on large farms here, I run a mob of lamba on an advance " break " which have also a supply of 4 zof oaten duff daily, with rock salt to lick. The iwo-tootbs follow when the tops are off and the turnips just barked, and receive a dai'y allowance of oaten chaff equal to 6 or Boza of oats and 2oz bran, well mixed in properly constructed feeders. It is advisable that the allowance should bo given daily, otherwise individual sheep will gorge themselves to death. Merino wethers are the worst in this respect, and also the s'owest feeders. Rock salt should be freely distributed in boxes or in the trough of the feeders, As the Bheep become fat the allowance of chaff may be increased to the larger figure mentioned, but it is not advisable to exceed that quantity.

I have spoken only of winter feeding, bat even on good grass and clover puddocks it is not enough to drive sheep in at the gateway and close the gate—if there be one. "The eye of the master fattens the ox " ia a saying equally applicab'e to the sheep.

A man may understand the feeding of sheep, the difference between fatformers and flesh formers, he may have turnips galore and chaff or grain ad lib, but if he harass ths sheep with elogs, overdrive, or use hurshnees, that man's labor is vain.

Nothing stirs up rny Viking blood more than to see a so-called shepherd harassing a mob of sheep with those horrid dogs. 1 believe that tbe colony would gain thousands a year in increased quality of wool and quantity of mutton if a goosl round tax on dogs were imposed and enforced. Hitherto the collecting of the small dog tax rivals the colonial credit-system. Those pay who will and those who wont don't. My advice to those who intend to persne the business

of sheep farming would be tolernte no shepherd who is rough and has a following of more than two dogs—more than plenty if not controllable. Neither myseif nor my more experiecced neighbours at Home to'ernh .] such an animal as u sheep "dog. Dogs are a necessity here, yet if Btich a thoroughly practical sheep furmer as Mr McMillan, of Mesopotamia, can euccesfully muster and manage huge flocks of wild sheep in Buch a rough country with two doge, what in the name of reason can a shepherd on the Plains want with three or more % La6t year the shepherd of a neighboring sfcatioo brought five or six dogs to assist (?) him to drive Ibrs than a ecore quiet rams. Whilst we were making tbo selection io the shed the junior naeonbers of the pack were torluriDg ft mob of Bheep outside. Now comes the crucial question—Does it pay % Well, when I 6rst enterei upon the work here I found a very heavy loss entailed on working the place. There was not enough mutton to supply the commisariat, and yet there were good crops of turnips And grain grown. By increasing the area under roots, decreasing that under wheat, and quitting the useless men and dogs, I have found the profits keep pace with the increased production of mutton. Roughly speaking the mutton paj's all expesnse of working—including a taxation of upwards of £SOO a year—and leaves ua the wool as profit. JSot reckoning the fat sheep sold in Addington and Dunedin, our annual export amounts to 3000 carcases of 601 b each and 101 b of fat each sheep, half the number being first and second-cross twotooth's. With the exception of a few purchases of lambs in autumn, all are bred on the place, and consequently "know the voice of the shepherd.'"