SUFFOLK BREED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1939, Page 3

SUFFOLK BREED

HIGH LAMBING FIGURES. EXPERIENCE IN BRITAIN. One of the big advantages claimed for the Suffolk breed of sheep, which has become very popular in Great Britain for the production of fat lambs, is its fecundity. Returns of lambing percentages for England, Scotland and Ireland this year show 131.7 per cent lambs reared, 4.2 per cent lost and 3.21 per cent ewes barren. While the conditions under which sheep farming is caried on at Home and in New Zealand might account for the comparatively low death rate of ewes, and perhaps also for the low percentage of barren ewes, we could not, under any system of management now practised, hope to approach the high percentage of lambs reared, from our Romney-cross ewes. With most breeds of sheep anything over 100 per cent of lambs dropped in New Zealand is looked upon as exceptionally good, and it is probable that the average of lambs reared throughout the Dominion does not exceed 85 per cent. A difference of approximately onethird more lambs reared is a most important factor where these are to be fattened for slaughter as lambs, and this remarkable fecundity of the Suffolk breed is no doubt one of the reasons why Southland farmers have recently shown a great interest in the breed, and have imported animals from England to establish studs. The Suffolk, of which there have been a few studs in the North Island for some years, is credited with being an exceptional mother, and its big supply of milk available to the lamb ensures remarkably' rapid growth and fattening. ’The experimental importations to the South will be watched with considerable interest by fat lamb throughout the Dominion.