DOWN RAMS IN WAIKATO.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4364, 10 March 1893, Page 3

DOWN RAMS IN WAIKATO.

It is evident from the keen demand manifested and and relatively high prices obtained, at the last sheepfairs for rams of tho Down breeds, says tho Waikato Times, that sheep breeders are at length realising, that if they iutend to obtain the full ad vantages arising from the frozen mutton trade, they must pay more attention to the requirements of those who are catering for it. If breeders are not, by this time, thoroughly awaro as to what typos of sheep are most attractive, both to the exporter at this end and the British consumer at the other, then it must certainly be their own fault. Time and again Homo agents, freezing companies and shippers, have urged this as a necessity at all events for their trade, and f as wo have said it appears as if breeders were responding to it. Not, at the same time, but what other classes of sheep, when intended for different purposes, may bo equally as profitable as Downs; but that is not the question at present, A valuable export trade has sprung up, and it is abundantly clear that if sheep, taken as a whole, are to maintain there present enhanced valuos, every possible care must be taken, to.retain the advantages the outlet thus provided, has already givon. Wn believe thoso who are go- • ing in for Sown rams for tho purpose of raising early lambs for the export '' trade will have no reason to regret it. But we may add this: —Breeding, though an important factor, is not everything, and to give the Downs justice, the lambs must be kept going from tho very start until the day they aro required for the freezing chamber. ' Unless this is done—and it can only be bo by providing ample supplies of suitable food-the Down breeds will, wo fear, bo found to be less profitable than those of the slower maturing but steadier-growing, larger-framed kinds.