FAT LAMB TRADE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1938, Page 3

FAT LAMB TRADE

RYELAND RAMS POPULAR. USE OF CHEVIOT CROSS EWES. The publicity officer of the Tasmanian branch of the Australian Society of Breeders of British Sheep, Mr J. S. Millen, has something to say about the increasing popularity of the Ryelands in that country. “British breeds of sheep are playing an increasingly important part in Australian sheep husbandry since the export of mutton and lamb has advanced so remarkably. The annually expanding export of lambs has added materially to the wealth of Australia, and it is probable that the trade will increase,” stated Mr Millen. “Encouragement has been offered to lamb raisers by the Australian Meat Board and the Australian Society of Breeders of British Sheep, which conjointly have instituted an all-Austra-lian export lamb competition for this season. “Quite a number of fat lamb raisers in Tasmania have entered the competition, and a large number of the competitors have used Ryeland rams,’ he concluded. An English authority on fat lamb raising for the early market is reported as saying that, in Hertfordshire, he had tried the halfbred (Chev-iot-Border Leicester cross) ewes, the Scotch Blackface, the Cheviot, Kerry Hill and Kent (Romney Marsh). Of these, the ewe to leave the most profit, in spite of her higher original cost, was undoubtedly the Scotch halfbred. “Without doubt,’’ he said, “the halfbred is more suited for the raising of lambs on grass than any other breed. They have excellent constitution, are long-lived, easily wintered, and will do without roots, and they are more prolific than any of the breeds mentioned.”

With the steady rise to primary importance of the fat lamb raising industry in this Dominion, it is probable that specialised ewes for this phase of farming will ultimately have to be developed. A trial of ewes of this cross with Southdown or Rydland rams, or with those found most profitable in England—the Suffolk and Hampshire—might well be made on an experimental scale.