Agricultural history in New Zealand. No 1. Importing exotic sheep breeds

Introduction to Blog series

Early sheep imports to New Zealand

Renewed interest in 'exotic' sheep breeds 

Disease concerns

Recent imports

Why the need for new sheep breeds?

Where are the official records? 

The national archives

By Dr Clive Dalton

Introduction to Blog series
This is the first of a series of blog posts on the importation of exotic sheep breeds to New Zealand in the 1970s and 1980s. The stimulus for the blogs was to record what I consider to be an important bit of New Zealand agricultural history - which I have grave doubts will ever be prized out of official government files, if anyone today would even know where to look.

Early sheep arrivals New Zealand

All sheep are ‘exotic’ to New Zealand, but for some reason, the sheep breeds imported in 1972 and 1984 are always referred to as ‘exotic importations’ or 'exotic breeds'.  Over the early history of New Zealand and the arrival of the first Europeans, long before there was any concern about introducing diseases, an amazing array of sheep breeds was brought here from all parts of the world, but for a variety of reasons they didn’t survive. The early flock books of the New Zealand Sheep Breeders’ Association record the importation of 30 different breeds.  There seemed to have been no problems with Scrapie arriving in New Zealand with any of these sheep. Sheep scab was a far greater threat which was eliminated by 1894.

Old references show that between 1893 and 1914 the following breeds were imported:

• Border Leicester
• Leicester
• Cheviot
• Cotswold
• Dartmoor
• Dorset Horn
• English Leicester
• Hampshire
• Lincoln
• Merino
• Oxford Down
• Romney Marsh
• Roscommon
• Ryeland
• Scottish Blackface
• Shropshire
• Shropshire Down
• Southdown
• Suffolk
• Tunis
• Wensleydale

Scottsh Blacface - came to New Zealand in the late 1800s but didn't stay.   The sheep in this photo with mottled brown faces are 'mules' or 'greyfaces' - Border Leicester or Blue faced Hexham Leicester  x SBF.  Photo by Don Clegg.

Renewed interest in 'exotic' sheep breeds

In the 1970s a wave of enthusiasm gained momentum to bring more  breeds to New Zealand that we didn’t have, and a whole range of people and organisations got very animated about the benefits they would bring for the economy. 

I was an interested observer at the time as I had arrived from UK in 1968 to do hill country sheep and beef  research, and because of my involvement with Sheeplan (see my blogs), I started trying to remember bits and pieces about the ‘exotic sheep importation saga’.

More questions than answers

I seemed to dredge up more questions than answers, so I had to dig out some of my old MAF mates, (for some sadly it was too late) who were closely involved at the time, and it was interesting trolling through their memories.  Some scored well and some badly – but they all could tell me who they thought would probably still remember – if they were still above ground! 

So I’ve had a big catchup with many old Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) former colleagues, and they have all been supportive of my attempts to find out as much as possible of events, as there’s no doubt that in years to come, after all of us have been collected in the final straggle muster, somebody will want to bring more sheep to New Zealand, and they’ll want answers to three obvious questions:

1. When was the last sheep importation to NZ?
2. What happened?
3. Where is the information and will Mr Google be able to find it

This is not some hypothetical dream for the distant future.  New Zealand could get Foot and Mouth disease tomorrow, and if livestock in large areas of the country had to be slaughtered to contain the disease, importation would be a logical option.

So that’s why I’ve blogged what I’ve been able to find about what happened with the exotic sheep imports.  Clearly there’s a high risk of error as the human memory has its limits, especially for events that happened three decades ago.  So I’d be very grateful for any corrections of the blogged material that I have missed, and especially for new material.

The big worry - where is the official record? 

Dr Neil Clarke

When I visited my former MAF Ruakura colleague Dr Neil Clarke, he had pulled out a couple of the many cardboard boxes he took away with him when he retired from MAFTech Ruakura Genetics.  If he'd left them, without doubt they would be in the dump as the Genetics section wound down to near extinction.

Thankfully Neil kept copies of all the material he wrote to go up through the system, but as we concluded - that's where our knowledge ends. Those boxes are a treasure trove - with no known destination after Neil's office finally closes.

We both agreed that none of our offspring would want our 'stuff', and in any case they would have no room to store it in their own homes. They have enough stuff of their own!

And no museum or library wants it, as they claim they have not space either.  And who would digitalise it?

 Question 3 is the big worry, as where would the official files of events be found now? Nobody I have talked to who worked for MAF at that time has any idea where the information went; they all have to conclude that it would go into the big black hole we used to call ‘Head Office’.

Dr Leyden Baker

Other MAF Genetics staff on retirement thankfully took copies of their bits of the story with them, and some like Dr Leyden Baker  told me he'd had a big clean out and his stuff had just gone to the dump. 

The problem is that there have been so many changes from MAF to MAFTech then to AgResearch, with short-term ‘managers’ with no institutional memory or knowledge or appreciation of history.

The old colleagues I've managed to find all assure me that their original reports and copies of data etc were all send up through the MAFTech pipeline, which they assumed ended up in MAF Head Office in Wellington.  So goodness knows where it all is now that MAF has  recently morphed into the Ministry of Primary Industry (MPI) with the Minister about 13th on the caucus pecking order.  You can predict from this that New Zealand's agricultural history would not figure highly in the scheme of things.

The national archive 

MAF used to have an in-house archivist in the Wellington Head Office, and I have been told that all MAF/MPI archival material is now in the National Archive.  So let’s hope the exotic sheep import story is nicely filed and readily accessible in there.  

Prospects do not look good though, as when my former MAF Information Services Director, Geoff Moss recently spent a morning at the National Archive in Wellington to find me a photo of Dr Sam Jamieson (see later blogs), he described the experience as - 'bureaucratic and complicated'! 

A concern now is what’s going to happen to the files of these old retired MAF retainers after their final muster.  Most of them agree that their families won’t want their ‘stuff’, as they’ll have no room to store it - so it will add to landfill and global warming.  Important agricultural history is going down the offal hole I’m afraid, but nobody seems to be able to stop it.

Any historians interested?

I once tried to make contact with the newly appointed head of the History Department at Waikato University, as the University had been built on land which was once a Ruakura dairy unit – so I presumed (wrongly ) that it may have had a bit of empathy for the cause. 
   
Also the University is a major partner of the massive National Fieldays ( photo left) proving their great support for the industry in a major farming area. But making contact was impossible. I have not tried again.

Recent sheep importations 

The importation of sheep into New Zealand from all countries except Australia was banned in 1952 after a case of Scrapie was found (see other blogs), so in the 1970s when interest grew to import a range of different European and UK breeds which were deemed to have desirable traits for New Zealand, plenty of pressure was put on the then Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) to view the request with great caution.

The main reason for the importation was to see how some new breeds, which had shown to have potential in UK and Europe could improve mainly fertility and meat production, as wool was not a priority.

Why the need for new sheep? 

Without doubt, the driving force behind the importation was the Ruakura genetics team of Drs Alan Carter, Neil Clarke (and later Drs Leyden Baker, Howard Meyer and Andrew Parrat).  The Genetics Section was also well staffed with technicians to supervise all stock work and data collection from an importation, which clearly everyone involved saw as no small challenge. 

Finding new ‘genetic resources’ was a fruitful area for research, as national meat and lamb performance in the 1950-60s certainly needed a boost, and researchers knew that their work would attract big farmer interest.  Regular progress reports would be in demand and help fill conference halls for many years ahead.  Then the resulting published papers would help scientists’ reputations and promotion, as well as adding to the great reservoir of scientific knowledge.  It all looked very exciting.

Photo: Dr Alan Carter.  Photo  taken by MAF Ruakura's long-serving photographer, the late Don 'whiskers' McQueen who worked with equal skill  in both laboratory and field. Don was a legend! Photo AgResearch archives.

New Zealand agricultural history. No 17. Importing exotic sheep breeds

The name ‘Sheepac’
Bruce Koller’s role
Malcolm Cameron's role 
Cameron’s conundrum 
Sheepac board and directors 
Sheepac Funding 
The Sheepac brand 

By Dr Clive Dalton

The name ‘Sheepac’

Robin Hilson

Sheepac was the name given to the company set up to market the exotic sheep purebreds and their various crosses, after they had completed their quarantine at Hopuhopu.

They’re a few versions of where the name came from. MAFTech geneticist Dr Neil Clarke remembers names being suggested during a meeting at Ruakura, with the late Bruce Binnie (MAFTech Gene Product Manager) and a group of sheep breeders including Cambridge Coopworth breeder Edward Dinger and Hawke's Bay Perendale breeder Robin Hilson.

Robin Hilson suggested a prize being given for the best name, and he remembers (after much head scratching and ideas for names ending in 'pac') sending his one of 'Sheepac' to Bruce Binnie to put into the pot. Sheepac won the day but Robin reckons he never got his prize!

Robin Hilson's also remembers a pivotal car journey he had with Dr Andrew Parrat of Ruakura Genetics, when Andrew made it clear to Robin that MAFTech were really bereft of commercial skills to market the sheep, and coming up with the right company name was an important step. 

Robin then claims that the name was  finally cemented in for official use at a marketing meeting at Flock House (see below).

Bruce Koller’s role

Bruce Koller

Bruce Koller  had been a MAF Farm Advisory Officer in various regions of New Zealand, spending many years at Rotorua and ended up in Nelson from where he was head hunted by the Director General of Agriculture, Malcolm Cameron.   

Bruce was asked to move to MAF head office in Wellington as the first National Business Manager for MAFTec in 1987, where his term lasted till 1991 covering the early years of MAF’s new commercial role.

Bruce described his role in 1987 as ‘to put a commercial focus for the first time to get the new genetics into the industry by employing people from the private sector with appropriate management and marketing skills, and manage the tensions and politics within a radically changing MAF’.  He described this as almost a mission impossible’!

Malcolm Cameron's role

Photo Malcolm Cameron -sans pipe!

Malcolm Cameron had been a Farm Advisory Officer and then Chief Advisory Officer in MAF Head Office before rising to the rank of Director General It fell to his watch to bring about the massive changes decreed by government to commercialise MAF’s previously free services.  

 From those of us who knew Cameron and his background, we always thought he was not the sort of person to willingly grab such a massive change with both hands, but he identified Bruce Koller as someone who could be the ideal person to take charge of the leg work.  This was backed up by recent comments by former Sheepac chairman David Wallace .

Cameron’s conundrum

Bruce Koller says that Cameron was keen to see the expensive quarantine and research investment in the imported sheep utilized to the maximum advantage of the NZ sheep industry and the technology transferred widely.  That would be right – as Bruce clearly got landed with the business and political end of the exercise.

Many others in the industry viewed this differently, and saw Cameron’s main problem as protecting his rear end from the Minister, as it was well known that he (Cameron) was against the importation from the start.  Indeed, one private importer of exotic sheep breeds described dealing with Cameron as him being ‘very obstructive’. 

Cameron’s problems would most likely have stemmed from the fact that Dr John Hutton who headed MAF’s Research Division drove the importation, along with Chief Veterinary Officer George Adlam. They were powerful allies in MAF.

Cameron may have been DG, but he was clearly outgunned both technically and intellectually by Hutton and Adlam, so would have had to accept the importation and all its associated costs and problems - which then became his problems.  You have got to have a bit of sympathy for him!

A former MAF Genetics colleague remembers Hutton finding out the game Cameron was playing with the importation proposal.  It was the old public service trick  of when a file came to the top of the in-tray for action, if it was causing you grief, just put it back to the bottom of the in-tray again.  

There was certainly no love lost between Hutton and Cameron, even to Hutton's hate of Cameron's office permanently filled with pipe smoke!

Photo: Dr John Hutton. Recipient of the McMeekan Memorial Award

 Clearly Cameron got landed with the project, and I can well imagine Hutton and Adlam saying that as far as money went, that was not their problem and they’d be happy to pass the ball to Cameron.  It was well known that Hutton and Cameron were not best mates.

So it’s not difficult to see that Cameron’s had to make sure that in selling the sheep, taxpayer money was not just recouped – but it was seen to be recouped. This could never be done of course, as I have covered in later blogs. The whole exercise of doing a cost/benefit analysis was totally ignored before the circus started. 

 Cameron must have sucked a lot of tobacco through his constantly chewed Sherlock Holmes pipe, before he decided what approach to take.  He needed a good right hand man to manage the sheep sale and Bruce Koller was that man.

Sheepac board and directors

David Wallace

Cambridge dairy farmer David Wallace said he was phoned by Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Peter O’Hara and Bruce Koller to act as independent chairman of a new company set up to market the exotic sheep, with the MAFTech directors of Ken Jury (Director of Ruakura Research Centre) and Bruce Koller.   It was going to be Sheepac.

The farmers asked to represent sheep breeders were  Robin Hilson (Perendale), Bob Turner (Coopworth) and Donald Polson (Romney).  These were all top sheep breeders whose knowledge of sheep and the  business of farming could not be bettered, especially as at that time, as sheep farming profits were at rock bottom.

Sheepac Funding

Bruce Koller says the first job of the Sheepac board and directors was to arrange the funding from MAF to employ Richard Bradley as General Manager. When MAF went commercial, Richard was hired from Massey University to join the staff in the Hamilton office Regional Advisory Officer (Geoff Miller) and from there he moved to the Ruakura campus with the entire Hamilton MAF staff. The theory was that they would not pay rent at Ruakura - which turned out to be somebody's bad dream!

Diana Houtman

Diana Houtman was employed in the Hamilton MAF office for the general Farm Advisory Officers under Geoff Miller and then when MAFTech went commercial, she moved to be PA to Richard Bradley at Ruakura. 

Diana remembers that as Sheepac had little money to start off with, their first business meeting was at the Christiana Ski Lodge on Mt Ruapehu where they worked mornings and evenings and hit the ski slopes after lunch!  

 She said it was good for 'brain storming, developing strategies, sharing information and team building'. Then Diana remembers the Sheepac team meeting at Matapaua Bay in Coromandel. She remembers that  at both these venues, Margaret Cornish (Brian's wife) was in charge of catering and did a great job in primitive circumstances.

Other Sheeplan staff Diana remembers were  Catherine Rapley, Julie McCall, Mark Hamilton and Evelyn Uljee who supervised the records at the Hopuhopu.

 Koller had then organise all the associated budget funding for the expenses associated with setting up ‘secondary quarantine units’ to be run for the next 4 years.

Bruce says the other funding came from 33 breeder shares (43 breeders in total) who put in $5,000 per year for 3 then 4 years, which was a big call for struggling breeders at the time.  In return they were to have first access to the new breeds in a range of packages once released.

The Sheepac brand 

Bruce Koller describes a pivotal two day conference being held at Flock House with all stakeholders present, chaired by David Wallace which effectively established the Sheepac Brand, and ‘demonstrated the potential power and influence of the group’.

Bruce says that the clear consensus from the meeting was to start crossbreeding in a range of secondary quarantine farms, so that a few purebreds at Hopuhopu would multiply to many thousands of three quarters, seven eighths and fifteen sixteenths, and be made widely available to the industry at release, with the emphasis on Texel and Finns.