Modern British Breeds of Sheep

The Shetland is a small sized sheep which is found in the islands whose name it bears. The colours are variable, white, black and rich brown all being common. The animals are very hardy and can subsist on poor fare. The outstanding quality of the breed is its extraordinary fine soft wool which has a very high value. The breed is slow to mature and very thin fleshed.

Other Breeds

of Sheep.—The Merino is the most widely dis tributed sheep in the world. The breed is indigenous to Spain but the modern Merino has been largely developed and improved in Australia and the United States. The breed suits countries with a relatively small rainfall, although it is adapted to a wide variety of climatic conditions. The outstanding product of the Merino is its very fine close wool. The mutton is palatable and nutritious but the carcasses average less plump and fat than those of mutton type sheep such as the Downs and Longwools. While pure Merinos are kept in the poorest and driest districts abroad, on better land the flocks are frequently crossed with Longwools, thereby greatly improving the quality of the carcass without seriously injuring the value of the wool. On still better land Down breeds are bred to the Merino-Longwool crosses and give a very good mutton carcass fit for exportation.

The Merino is white-faced and has a flesh-coloured nose; its wool has no coloured fibres. The illustration shows a modern type of Australian Merino. There are in fact a number of well recog nized types varying from small, thin-fleshed animals with very wrinkled skins and extra fine wool to relatively large, smooth sheep producing barely such fine wool but possessing better mutton qualities.

The Corriedale is a Lincoln-Merino cross which in New Zealand has been fixed as a pure breed. It combines a splendid fleece with a good constitution and a good commercial mutton carcass.

Lowland Sheep-breeding and

Feeding.—A Shropshire flock of about 200 breeding ewes is here taken as a typical example of the numerous systems of managing sheep on a mixed farm of grazing and arable land. The ewes lamb from early in January till the end of February. The lambs have the shelter of a lamb ing shed for a few days. When drafted to an adjoining field they run in front of their mothers and get a little crushed oats and linseed cake meal, the ewes receiving kail (kale) or roots and hay to develop milk, Swedes gradually give place to mangolds, rye and clover before the end of April, when shearing of the ewe flock begins, to be finished early in May. At this time unshorn

lambs are dipped and may be dosed with medicine to destroy internal parasites. The operation is repeated in September. The lambs are weaned towards the end of June and the ewes run on the poorest pasture till August to dry off their milk. In August the ewes are culled and the flock made up to its full numbers by selected shearling ewes. All are assorted and mated to suitable rams. Most of the older ewes take the ram in September, but maiden or yearling ewes are kept back till October. During the rest of the year the ewes run on grass and receive hay when neces sary, with a limited amount of dry artificial food daily, 4 lb. each, gradually rising as they grow heavy in lamb to z lb. per day. Turnips before lambing, if given in liberal quantities, are an un safe food. To increase the number of doubles, ewes are sometimes put on good fresh grass, rape or mustard a week or two before the tups (breeding rams) go out—a ram to 6o ewes is a usual proportion, though with care it is possible to get a stud ram to settle twice that number. With good management 20 ewes of any of the lowland breeds should produce and rear thirty lambs, and the proportion can be increased by breeding from ewes with a prolific tendency. The period of gestation of a ewe is between 21 and 22 weeks, and the period of oestrum 24 hours. If not settled the ewe comes back to the ram in from 13 to 18 (usually 16) days. To indicate the time or times of tupping (breeding) three colours of paint are used. The breast of the ram is rubbed daily for the first fortnight with blue, for a similar period with red, and finally with black.

Fattening tegs (sheep approximately one year old that have never been sheared) usually go on to soft turnips in the end of September or beginning of October, and later on to yellows, green-rounds and swedes and, in spring and early summer, man golds. The roots are cut into fingers and supplemented by an allowance of concentrated food made up of a mixture of ground cakes and meal, lb. rising to about 2 lb. ; and 4 lb. to i lb. of hay per day. The dry substance consumed per zoo lb. live weight in a ration of 2 lb. cake and corn, 12 lb. roots and z lb. hay daily, would be 161 lb. per week, and this gives an increase of nearly 2% live weight or z lb. of live weight increase for 81 lb. of dry food eaten. Sheep finishing at 135 lb. live weight yield about 53% of carcass or over 70 lb. each.