590 



SHEEP 



size and give weights of 200 to 225 pounds to the ram in breed- 

 ing condition, with 150 to 175 pounds to the ewe; while Coffey 

 states that mature rams weigh approximately 275 pounds and 

 ewes 180 to 200 pounds. According to Henry and Morrison the 

 average weight of 23 yearling fat Dorset wethers at the Smithfield 

 Show, six hundred and seventy-nine days old, was 261 pounds, 

 while 49 lambs at three hundred and thirty-one days of age 

 averaged 200 pounds. The present-day demand for Dorset 



Horns is for the larger 

 type of ram and ewe, 

 but even under most 

 favorable conditions 

 these are not likely to 

 surpass 250 and 180 

 pounds respectively. 



The Dorset Horn as 

 a mutton producer can- 

 not be placed in the first 

 class, ranking about 

 medium. The meat 

 of the wether is of fair 

 quality when not over- 

 fat, while fat lambs 

 rank very well indeed. 

 In the dressed carcass 

 the Dorset does not 

 reach the best standard. 

 In the Iowa Station breed tests, in the first trial with fattening 

 wether lambs, the Dorset made an average daily gain of .48 pound 

 and dressed 52.6 per cent carcass, being valued at ^3.75 per 

 hundred — the poorest record made by ten breeds; while in 

 the second trial they made a daily gain of .43 pound and dressed 

 54.11 per cent (being surpassed only by the 'Southdown), the car- 

 cass selling at ^5.50 a hundred compared with ^5.75 for the South- 

 down and ^5.60 for the Shropshire. The average daily gain for 

 the 23 yearling wethers shown at the Smithfield Show between 

 1895 and 1912, as given by Henry and Morrison, was .38 pound, 

 while 49 lambs made an average daily gain of .60 pound. In 



Fig. 276. A pair of Dorset Horn rams in Dorset- 

 shire, England. From a photograph by the late 

 J. E. Wing, by courtesy of Mrs. Wing 



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