8 Oct. ,1907-] FiftJi Convention, Chamber of Agriculture. 625 



FIFTH CONVENTION OF THE VICTORIAN CHAMBER 

 OF AGRICULTURE, JUNE, 1907. 



{Continued from page 57/.) 



VII.— BREEDS OF SHEEP INFLUENCING LAMB-RAISING. 



H. TF. Ham, Sheep Expert. 

 The reports on Australian export himb of last season were on the whole 

 favorable to Victorian shipments. Complaints were made that there were 

 sent a good few quite second-rate carcasses, sheep-like, with too much 

 merino type in them ; some lambs, too, were under normal standard. 

 It has also been recently stated that Australian lamb does not look as 

 well frozen as that of other countries. There are certain shapes and 

 breeds of lamb that never can be made to look well, no matter how fed, 

 and this trouble can be remedied more by the flock-owners than by the 

 people who handle the carcasses. In view of these reports we have 

 to take into consideration the various breeds chiefly concerned, com- 

 mencing with the merino. 



Merinoes. 



With the exception in some districts of the pure-bred flocks of 

 English breeds, the merino is the chosen sheep of Australia, and his 

 influence is seen for better or worse in all our crosses of sheep. Merinoes 

 are valued chiefly for wool producing, and mutton is secondary. There 

 are a few breeders who pay strict attention to the shape of their sheep, 

 and this point, as will be shown later on, has the chief bearing on our 

 bemg able to raise export lamb of the shape and qualitv to compete 

 successfully with other countries. The merinoes are seen to best ad- 

 vantage in districts with a fairly light rainfall, and when care is shown 

 in keeping an eye to depth and width of girth, they are found to hold 

 out in droughts, and to travel well to water and to railways and markets. 

 When experience and care are exercised in breeding them for wool, thev 

 are the most profitable sheep for making the best use of areas of country 

 distant from railways and markets, wool being light in carriage and 

 valuable in small space as compared with other produce. 



It is as well to see how the late controversies on " plain versus 

 wrinkly " merinoes affect us, for as before stated, the merino is our 

 foundation stock, and must be considered. There are breeders who 

 favour merinoes of the foldv type, and you will notice that the breeders 

 who are most successful with this type of sheep are wide awake to the 

 fact that width of frame is to them of great importance. To come 

 to technical points, it is fullness of girth and a level and even shoulder 

 that are watched for in individual sheep ; this really means constitution, 

 but there are two classes of constitutional shape, and we will consider 

 later which class has the best influence from an export point of view. 

 The second class of constitution is found in the wide and deep chested, 

 high-withered section; he is usually more leggy, is not made prime so 

 quickly, but can stand any amount of long-distance travelling, privation 

 and hardship. It will be seen that, if merino breeders overlook this full- 

 ness of girth and level shoulder, and produce the narrow, sharp-shouldered 

 class, our efforts to turn out fleshv lambs from ewes bred from crosses 

 from these sheep are greatly affected. 



Now it is not because a sheep is foldy that he is bad, for if he has 

 all the recognised qualities of fleece and is above all a thriver, then 



