MICHIGAN LIVE STOCK IN 1S99 389 



SHEEP BREEDING IN MICHIGAN. 



A. A. WOOD. 



The sheep industry of Michigan has been and is one of the most im- 

 portant branches of agriculture, and anything pertaining to it in a gen- 

 eral way should be of interest to the average farmer. It is, therefore, 

 very fitting that a few words as to its condition at the present time 

 should be embodied in the annual report of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture. We shall not burden the reader with statistics or details, but 

 shall confine ourselves to a few general conditions and tendencies which 

 are important and worthy of consideration by one in any way connected 

 with the sheep industry in this State. 



The sheep of the average farmer in Michigan, today are for the most 

 part of Merino stock, that is, the breeding ewes are high grade Merinos 

 improved more or less by the use of pure bred Merino rams on the native 

 stock. This use of Merino rams was made in past years in order to 

 increase the weight of fleece, and thus increase the farmer's income. 

 Some attention was paid to the size and form of the carcass, but it was 

 a secondary consideration. In the course of time this condition was 

 changed, due to two causes, viz.: the low price of wool, and the develop- 

 ment of a good demand for high-class mutton. These two conditions led 

 the Michigan farmer, who quickly adapts himself to changed conditions, 

 to use rams of the mutton breeds, in order to continue to make his sheep 

 a source of income to him. 



Nearly all of the various mutton breeds have been more or less used, 

 but the Shropshire seems to have proved the best fitted to cross on grade 

 ewes, in order to produce mutton lambs which secure the highest price 

 and the quickest sale. This has led in many cases to the destruction of 

 the Merino flocks^ and where they have been replaced it has been by the 

 cross-bred ewe lambs saved from the market and used as breeders. This, 

 however, is confined to those parts of the State which are near a large 

 market and where the cross has been used for several years. 



The use of mutton rams has necessarily l^d to a change in the quality 

 and quantity of the wool ]»roduced by the Michigan farmer, the medium 

 wool of the cross-breds displacing the fine Merino wool, at the expense of 

 nearly half the weight of fleece. Since the increased demand for fine 

 wool during the last year or more, together with a comparatively higher 

 price than the medium wool, has become a fact, there have been many of 

 the progressive farmers who have sought a mutton Merino ram which 

 has also a good fleece of fine, thick wool. One of the characteristic fea- 

 tures of the present time is this tendency of the general farmer to come 

 back to the Merino type, not the greasy, wrinkly type of twenty-five years 

 ago, but the plain mutton Merino which produces a fine fleece of good 

 weight with a shapely and good sized carcass. This type of rams has 

 been much used during the last year, and promises to continue and 

 increase in popular favor so long as wool is a good price and fine wool is 

 in demand. This demand for mutton ^Merinos has been filled, according 

 to the idea of the individual purchaser, by the Eambouillet, the Delaine, 

 and the large, plain American Merino. Just at present there seems to 

 be, on the whole, the largest demand for the Rambouillet, although both 



