Merino sheep in Australia – the research of H.B. Carter

By Dr Clive Dalton.

The story starts at Leeds
This bit of Australian agricultural history has turned out to be a fascinating tale - and it's necessary to tell it backwards! This is because it developed from my lecturing years at Leeds University Department of Agriculture, when some funny looking sheep arrived at the University farm around 1967 which we learned were ‘Merinos’, along with a Mr H.B. Carter who was given an office in the Textile Department, and not with us. We had no contact with the textile department staff, as we in Agriculture had no interest in wool and synthetic fibres. This attitude was similar to our association with the University Leather Department (one of the few in the world) - we just never met.

None of us on the Agriculture staff knew anything about either Carter or his Merinos, other than they had arrived from the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (ABRO) in Edinburgh, where it was rumoured that Carter (an Australian) and his sheep had departed, but not by choice.

It wasn't easy in 2010 to find people who remembered what went on at Leeds after I left in 1968, but I was fortunate through one of the few ‘agriculturists’ who was there after me, (Tim Johnson), to find Professor Richard Carter in the Institute of Immunology and Infections Research, at the School of Biological Sciences in the University of Edinburgh. Richard is H.B. Carter's second son and fortunately had documented his father’s papers after his death in 2005, intending to deposit them in a Sydney museum which specialised in the history of sheep and wool.

More on my part of the story is blogged here: http://woolshed1.blogspot.com/2010/05/merino-sheep-hb-carters-book-on-sheep.html

H.B. Carter scientific archive
On H.B. Carter's death in February 2005, Richard Carter assembled and listed his father's papers and equipment at Yeo Bank, Congresbury Somerset, UK, 6th May 2010. It's a fascinating list and is indicative of a man passionate about his work.

One of many H.B. Carter's photos in his archive, of Merino sheep in
typical Australian grazing conditions where he did his research.
H.B. Carter is standing nearest the car.

Contents of archive
1. About a dozen rolls, 1 to 3 feet in length comprising data maps of Australia and NSW (e.g. numbers and distribution of Merino sheep, pedigree flocks) and including a package of rolls of plans by H.B.Carter for the C.S.I.R. Sheep Biology laboratories at Prospect.

2. Metal cabinet ( 9" x 19" x 38") containing approx 10,000 glass slides of tissue sections (sheep skin) fixed, stained and mounted under glass (6 to 8 per slide) in 5 shelves or tiers, each containing 14 drawers of slides (all with identification numbers)

3. Three portfolio-sized folders with research data, charts etc.

4. One box (20" x 20" x 26") containing HBC's saddle, harness and other "bush" equipment

5. Forty one boxes (11" x 18" x 18") containing HBC's books, documents and original paper records, correspondence etc. identified as follows:

• Box (l) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (2) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (3) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (4) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (5) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (6a) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (6b) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (6c) - HBC, records, scientific etc. (Australia)
• Box (7) - HBC, sheep & wool ( National statistics)
• Box (8) - HBC, Edinburgh & after, 1954- 1970s scientific records & correspondence.
• Box (9) - HBC, Leeds, 1963 ? - 1970 ; correspondence 1948 – 1969.
• Box (10) - HBC, Massy "Australian Merino"; other bound material, 1929 – 1988.
• Box (11) - HBC. papers, mainly correspondence - 1948 – 1998.
• Box (12) - HBC, papers, Yeo Bank years,1970 - correspondence.
• Box (13) - HBC, scientific research data pre 1953.
• Box (14) - HBC, scientific research data - Australia - pre 1953.
• Box (15) - HBC, papers & correspondence Edinburgh & later.
• Box (l6) - Approx. 400 fleece samples annotated (each 1/2 x 2 X 18 inch) in 7 x card boxes; samples are from cross-bred sheep grown at the Animal Breeding Research Organization (ABRO), Edinburgh, Scotland; dating from between 1954 and 1963. H.B.Carter personal skin biopsy punch kit. Photograph album of fleece collecting in action. Envelope of H.B.Carter’s pen and ink drawings of Merino sheep.
• Box (17) - 560 well annotated slides of fixed and stained skin sections from Merino sheep mounted under glass in 7 boxes and 1 package. Documents from Russia.
• Box (l8) -2 black file boxes containi11g:- 1 x envelope 4 x 6 inch containing 18" and early 19th century fibre specimens (presumably sheep, unknown breed); 54 sheep skin biopsy specimens preserved in wax (Bradford) (3 x packages); 144 sheep skill biopsy specimens preserved in wax (1966/67) (18 X packages); 93 tubes with label slips inside them (no biological material evident); 1 cardboard box approx l cubic foot containing 58 sheep fleece specimens (unknown date and place of origin, possibly from around 1990). 2 A4 envelopes with Merino wool samples (Edinburgh 1956).
• Box (19) - Approx. 100 slides of Soay (Scotland) sheep skin sections, fixed, stained and nlounted under glass; Approx. 100 slides of skin sections of cross-bred sheep - e.g. Merino X Border Leicester - fixed, stained and mounted under glass; Approx. 100 slides of skin sections of Scottish rodent species (most likely including Microtos sp., Apodemus sp. or Mus musculus , fixed, stained and mounted under glass (4 packages); Approx. 400 slides of skin sections of Scottish deer (most likely Red Deer, Cervus elaphus or Roe Deer, Capreolus capreolus, fixed, stained and mounted under glass (4 packages); Approx. 200 slides of skin sections of Merino sheep, fixed, stained and mounted under glass (2 packages).
• Box (20) - Approx. 1000 coarse wool fibre samples from Scotland (likely Blackface Sheep, or other such breed) (second half of 20th century); 3 jars with early Australian wools (presumably early Merino); 5 jars fleece samples from Afghanistan (presumably some breed of Afghan sheep); Blue card box containing:- 55 tubes with labeled slips inside (no biological material evident); Brown card box containing 45 tubes with labeled slips inside (no biological material evident); Small brown box containing 24 tubes with labeled slips inside (no biological material evident); 8 wooden racks containing:- 192 tubes with labeled slips inside (no biological material evident).
• Box (21) HBC, sheep follicle drawings, photos, film and sundry.
• Box (22) HBC, papers UK post 1954.
• Box (23) HBC, papers UK post 1954.
• Box (24) HBC, papers UK post 1954.
• Box (25) HBC, papers UK post 1954; incl photos ?pre 1954.
• Box (26) HBC, (fleece samples) papers UK post 1954.
• Box (27) HBC, papers UK post 1954.
• Box (28a) HBC, papers UK post 1954.
• Box (28b) HBC, papers UK post 1954.
• Box (29) HBC, literature reprints A – C.
• Box (30) HBC, literature reprints D – G.
• Box (31) HBC. literature reprints H - I.
• Box (32) HBC, literature reprints M – P.
• Box (33) HBC, literature reprints R – T.
• Box (34) HBC, literature reprints U - Y + lit card files + "books" from Leeds (1960's).
• Box (35) HBC, personal publication reprints & other published material.
• Box (36) HBC, other published materials.
• Box (37) HBC, other published materials, pre 1945.
• Box (38) HBC, other published materials.
• Box (39) - 1 plastic bag with 18 labeled fleece (sheep unknown breed) samples (1 x 1 x 4 inch); 1 plastic bag with 8 labeled fleece (sheep unknown breed) samples 1 x 1 x 4 inch); 1 plastic bag with 26 labeled fleece (sheep unknown breed) samples (1 x 1 x 4 inch); 1 plastic bag with 12 labeled fleece (sheep unknown breed) samples (1x1x4 inch); 1 plastic bag with fleece (sheep unknown breed) samples (9 x 9 x 9 inch); 1 envelope (The Rodd 29th May 1973) containing 10 envelopes (3 x 4 inch) with fleece samples (sheep unknown breed);5 plastic sleeves (2 x 4 x 4 inches) with fleece samples (sheep unknown breed); 1 envelope (Ulundri/Castle Hill/NSW) with 20 plastic sleeves with fleece samples (Merino) (presumed pre-19541; Folders of data records, documents and plans with reference to Sheep Biology Laboratories, C.S.I.R. at Prospect, N.S.W.; Metal syringe (function unknown).
  

The HB Carter ‘Memoir’
Among H.B. Carter's documents, Richard found what his father called his ‘Memoir’, which Richard kindly let me read. I felt it was of such significance, not only in Australia but around the sheep world, that I suggested it should be made available for future agricultural researchers and historians via my blog.

The memoir made me realise that all the things we at Leeds had thought and inferred about Carter and his sheep, were in total ignorance of the calibre of the man, and his contribution to sheep and wool science, as well as to the textile industry in Australia and around the world.

The 'Memoir' knol
Richard Carter and I have worked on getting the memoir from HBC’s version (typed on his portable Remington with very few typing errors) through as a Google Knol (see http://knol.google.com/k/clive-dalton/h-b-carter-personal-memoir-of/2txpuk4gtju3n/18)
with the kind permission of the Carter family. To HB Carter's original words we have only added subheadings and some of his original photos from his archive to break up the text for easier reading.

Richard has written some personal notes to put the Memoir into perspective, in both time and location.

Notes by Professor Richard Carter – January 2011
A story about a sheep flock
When my father, Harold Burnell Carter, was in his late forties, he began to write a story about a flock of sheep that had been gathered together at the behest of a King who would go mad, and about the man who served him as their shepherd.

The flock of sheep was a very special one for it was descended from the sheep from whose backs came the Golden Fleece - that treasure of ancient legend sought by the Greek hero, Jason, the Captain of the ‘Argonaughts’. For, true to its name, whoever possessed the Golden Fleece held in his hands the wealth of a nation.

His Majesty's flock
And to this end also, the king who would go mad sent out his servants to find and bring him descendants of the miraculous sheep. My father called his story ‘His Majesty’s Spanish Flock’. The sheep of the Spanish Flock were Merinos, coveted throughout Europe for the extreme fineness of their wool and upon which the looms of England depended for their lucrative industry.

The king was King George III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; his “shepherd” was Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society of England. In 1788, the small beginnings of the flock of Merinos, smuggled from their native pastures on the plains of Spain, was secretly assembled at Windsor Castle on the banks of the River Thames.

Intended as the seed stock for a revitalised wool industry in the United Kingdom – in the words of the King “a most national object” – the little flock, gathered in twos and threes by Spanish “contrabandistas” and smuggled through Portugal for shipment to England, was, indeed, destined to found the fortunes of a nation. For about 100 years, from perhaps the 1830’s to the 1930’s, the wealth of that nation would be built upon “the sheep’s back” – upon the back of the Australian Merino.

Founding the wealth of Australia
My father’s story - the story of the Spanish sheep that would found the wealth of the Australian nation - was the product of a personal quest, a quest that grew from his own instinct, common to his generation, to work for the prosperity of his country, the Commonwealth of Australia.

The means he found were through the scientific study of the Merino in Australia. And he began, in the early 1930’s, at the age of 23, by working for an organization called the “Australian Estates and Mortgage Company Limited” as a veterinarian for Merino studs on sheep stations in New South Wales.

As his second of three sons, growing up in the late 1940’s, early 1950’s, on a small farm on the edge of the Australian bush, 20 miles from the centre of Sydney, the line of the Blue Mountains marking the western horizon, I knew my father to be a “sheep scientist”.

Off to work in the 'lab’
My father went to work in Sydney most days to the 'lab', which puzzled me for a long time as I understood this to be the “lav”. When he wasn’t at the 'lab' he would be working on the farm making fences or ploughing or doing things with sheep.

This might be making them walk through, and be ‘drenched’ with, a very green liquid, and occasionally tying them onto a bench and shaving the wool off a square patch of skin followed by a short sharp dig in the sides with a metal object that neatly removed a small circle of skin.

Bare-foot in the dust

A photo by H.B. Carter of his gear for fleece sampling on farms

While this was going on, I and my brothers would be running around bare foot in the dust taking it all in and occasionally being chatted to by my father’s mates “Wol” Clarke, Daly and Ken Ferguson, of whom Ken always seemed more smartly dressed than Wol, Daly or my Dad. Once or twice there arrived at our farm, along with Wol and Daly, an impressive looking vehicle called the “Battle Buggy”, and an even more impressive one called the “Chev”, which had a canvas back.

Run! – here comes ‘Butty’
The sheep themselves also had quite a lot of character. There was one ram in particular called Butty. He was ‘unherdable’! In fact the only way he could be brought into the yard was, apparently, for someone, Bill in my recollection, to walk out into the back paddock, attract Butty’s attention, an easy task, and then run like the blazes with Butty in full pursuit, having calculated in advance the distance that could be covered and still reach the fence before Butty caught up with him.

Meanwhile someone else, probably my Dad, stood by to do some deft gate work, which with luck, would divert Butty into entrapment in the holding yard. Unconnected with any of the above was a Sydney Funnel Web spider which the same Bill captured by placing a glass coffee jar over the spider’s hole. I can still recall, as I imagine, the thwack as the spider hit the bottom (now the top) of the jar. Brave man was Bill.

Names and more names
Away from the yard and the paddock, in addition to those already mentioned, names such as Bull, Hedley Marston, Gill, Peggy Hardy, Noeline Schwann, Des Dowling, Dunlop, Tom Austin and Bunny Austin are ones that come readily to mind from recollections of conversions between our parents. All our table place mats had what I now realise were mites and parasitic worms and such like embroidered on them.

Factors and fleeces
There was also much talk of 'factors' and the 'fleece'. Once in a while the family would be treated to slide shows projected onto the wall of our “sitting room” in the tumble down shack that was, at the time, our home. These were thrilling occasions. The images were uninterpretable but very exciting.

There were whirls and coloured, somewhat circular, shapes within shapes, odd dots and what not. Slide after slide was projected, each quite as transfixing as the previous one, until it was all over and we were sent, more reluctantly than on most nights, to bed.

From time to time my father was absent altogether for days on end. This had something to do with places with names like 'Wanganella' and involved “Sheep Stations” and “Austin”. Whatever all this was about my parents seemed pretty happy with their lot, and so were we; who wouldn’t be?

Off to Bonny Scotland
And then, all of sudden, we learned that we were leaving Australia and going to Scotland. This was in 1954. And so we did, and came to live near Edinburgh while my father carried on working there as a “sheep scientist”. Unfortunately there were no more paddocks or sheep and horses and chickens, and less unfortunately, no more spiders and snakes, at least not to worry about.

So from here on my father just went to work at the 'lab', until, that is, he began to spend more and more of his time collecting old letters, or rather photographic copies of them, hundreds and, indeed, thousands of them. And sooner or later we learned that he was preparing to write a book, a book about some sheep, the mad king, George III, and Joseph Banks, a name familiar to me then, and to most of any who had heard of him at all, as the “botanist” who had accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage to “discover” Australia.

From Edinburgh to Leeds
Not long after this my father stopped working in Edinburgh and went instead to work in Leeds, still with sheep but now mysteriously associated with the “textile industry” and the names Sir Francis Hill and David Knight crept into the family vocabulary. The family didn't follow him to Leeds.

By now we were heading out and away to wherever our own lives were going to take us, and in 1970 my father, with my mother, now a senior consultant psychiatrist in hospitals and homes in the West Country, retired to live in a house in a country village near Bristol. “Retired” my father may have been but not idle.

By 1988 he had completed and published a definitive biography of Sir Joseph Banks. My father, his work begun with youthful optimism to understand and produce a better sheep, ended by lifting the vale of obscurity from 'the botanist who sailed with Captain Cook' to show him as he truly was - Sir Joseph Banks, inspired Godfather of British science in an 'Age of Wonder', and perhaps more than any other, Father of the Australian nation.

Continuing interest
My father’s interests and correspondences continued until near the time of his death in early 2005. Our mother’s death followed three years later to the day but one, in 2008. Thereupon began the task of dismantling the family home and the safeguarding of, as we now fully realised, our father’s double legacy and archive.

Most clear and obvious was the huge collection of his library and documents related to his historical research, now with the 'Sir Joseph Banks Archive' at the University of Nottingham.

And then there was the archive of material directly concerning his own work as a 'sheep scientist'. From out of this emerged the 'memoir' which is a main feature of this blog and knoll, and which reveals at last what was behind the slide shows, the names and the places, the Chev truck and the strange business of snatching neat round circles of skin from a shaven patch on the side of a sheep. The memoir itself was written to assist Charles Massy in writing his monumental work - 'The Australian Merino'.

Comments by Dr T.S.Ch'ang
'TS' was a young newly-recruited scientist at CSIRO at Prospect soon after it opened, and now retired, his 2011 comments are interesting. HB Carter was seen by these young scientists as a rather shadowy aloof figure around the lab, and there was little communication between them in the very hierarchical structure of CSIRO. This was even expressed in the colour of the overalls worn by the different ranks - scientists with white overalls of course!

'The Carter memoir made interesting reading with many, if not most of the names, places and events known to me, which places me in a category of dinosaurs or its near relatives.

'Helen Newton Turner recruited me to initiate and carry out research in CSIRO on meat sheep genetics and breeding in Australia, which may now appear like an after-thought after reading the Carter draft.

'Without the benefit of knowing what or how much Carter had already done in Merino sheep, e.g. such as sampling the Merino Studs for wool genetic studies etc, I also went to the trouble (in 1968) of writing to Dorset Horn Stud Flock owners, South Australian Merino (Collinsville), and some Corriedale ram breeders.

'This was to assemble my collection of experimental sheep for the definitive meat sheep genetics study on 'Arding' - a field station down the road from 'Chiswick'. I even designed and built an abattoir on 'Chiswick' to do slaughter for the carcass work.

'My years at Prospect - a geneticist rubbing shoulders with the physiologists now appear to be pre-ordained by Carter, and not a convenience move in CSIRO after the merging of Divisions, among other reasons to save money!

'A little history does provide perspective - even retrospectively, to see things which otherwise might be viewed as a linear process in time, but it's really a circular motion coming to its logical conclusion'.

Northumberland sheep husbandry - shelters, stells and keb hooses

By Donald Clegg

2010 blizzard at Emblehope.
Photo by Helen Brown while helping to get the flock to lower ground.
(Helen Brown copyright)

Sheep shelters

All over the moors and fells of the North of England and southern Scotland, there are strange dry-stone structures, now abandoned , moss-covered and ruinous in the most part, which have intrigued visitors to this Border region for decades as they explore its magic landscape.


Some of these structures are simply short runs of dry-stone wall, some straight, some curved or ‘L’ shaped and some more complicated in the form of a cross. Seldom more than 20 yards long in any direction, they would seem to serve no practical purpose, being very often in the ‘middle of nowhere’, and far from human habitation.

Their isolation gives us the first clue to their use. Until fairly recently, before thousands of acres of our Border uplands were given over to forestry, sheep and sheep farming dominated the heathery and grassy slopes of the Cheviots in Northumberland, the Lakeland fells and the Scottish lowlands.

The farm house was usually situated in the lower valley and the shepherds’ cottages in the upper reaches or ’hopes’. Hence names like Whickhope, Hedgehope, Blakhope or Ramshope, etc. The shepherds worked largely unsupervised and in isolation from the boss for weeks at a time and met together only at the seasonal ‘gatherings’ for dipping, clipping, dosing, spaening (weaning) lambs and taking then or draught (aged) yowes to the mart to be sold on.

During winter, on these high exposed fells, heavy snowfalls would force the sheep to seek shelter in any slack or hollow that they could find. As a result, many would become buried – sometimes for days or even weeks, before the shepherd could locate them and dig them out.


This is where these stone wall shelters came in. They were built in specific locations so that in severe weather, they were the preferred rendezvous points for storm-lashed sheep. If they became buried behind their shelter wall, at least the heord (shepherd) knew where to look first.

Most walls were placed to offer shelter from the prevailing Westerly winds but some, in crescent or cross shape, provided shelter from winds and weather coming from almost any direction. Long since sheep were supplanted by conifers, many a weary walker has been grateful for the respite from the elements offered by these long-neglected walls.

Stells

2010 blizzard at Ottercops.
Photo by Helen Brown while helping to get the flock to lower ground.
(Helen Brown copyright)

Stells are almost as common as stone wall shelters. According to Wikipedia, the word ‘stell’ simply means ‘a pen for enclosing animals’, but doesn’t explain where the word comes from. For countless years it has been, and still is in common use throughout the Border regions of Scotland and England, and I suspect it is of Scandinavian or Norse origin, though I haven’t been able to verify this – perhaps you can.



By and large, stells are circular, perhaps 30 feet (10m) in diameter and the walls are 4 feet six inches (1.5m) high, built as dry-stone walls without mortar. Other stells are rectangular, in the, in the same proporitoin and material and soem hve one side of the rectangle extended to provide additional shelter for sheep that don't want to go inside.

All these enclosures, whether round or oblong had a narrow entrance closed by a small wooden gate or wicket, or more often by a simple chestnut hurdle.

The purpose of the stell was to provide the shepherd with a place to hold a few sheep at a time when some emergency first aid was needed, treating footrot, removing dags (clarts) from their rear ends, as well as treating them to prevent blowfly maggots (maaks) eating them alive when summer came. Doing these jobs out on the hill saved the time-consuming job of having to drive sheep needing treatment, maybe a couple of miles or more, down to the pens at the farm for treatment.

Although many stell are found on the higher slopes of the fells, most of them are built near a burn, partly because it's useful to have ready access to water for mixing medicines and potions, but also a burnside location is likely to be less exposed than higher up on the hill.

In winter, the stell could be used as a convenient store for a few day's supply of hay, avoiding the daily journeys of carrying hay from the farm for the sheep out on the hill. In the days before motor bikes, hay had to be carried on the shepherd's back, pony or sledge.

So stells were multi-purpose structures - providing shelter, administering first aid, holding sick sheep till they recovered to list just a few. In this day and age we can add emergency shelter for lost hill walkers where they can be easily found.

Keb Hoose

Keb hoose with 'the Beacon' hill in the background


I have been unable to discover the origin of the word ‘keb’ but it is a commonly used word in a Border shepherd’s vocabulary even today.

A ewe which has had a still-born lamb is said to have ‘kebbed’, and the dead lamb is referred to as a ‘keb’. You used to hear the term ' a kebbit yowe'. It follows then, that the keb hoose was mainly concerned with dealing with these occasions of lamb mortality out in the field (literally) or, more likely, up on the hill and so the keb hoose’s principal function was to act as an emergency first aid station.

A ewe that has kebbed naturally has lots of milk but has no lamb; whereas there could be ewe with two or more lambs and only enough milk for one. Solution – let the kebbed ewe ‘adopt’ one of the twins or perhaps an orphan lamb that has lost its mother.

Keb Hoose up the Lewis burn

This was often easier said than done as a ewe recognises its own by its scent and will not readily accept a strange lamb and will even butt it repeatedly to prevent it from suckling. To get over this problem the heord would skin the dead lamb, and fit the skin over the orphan to trick the ewe into thinking this it was her own lamb.

Another ploy was to smother the strange lamb with a mixture of oatmeal and milk so that, by the time the ewe had licked it all off she’d convinced herself that this was indeed her own. These tricks usually worked quite readily but, in awkward cases, could take days of patience, interjected with a few well chosen expletives and dire threats to the yowe's life!

The old shepherd's even used to try whisky, but soon realised that it was a terrible waste and it did them more good than the mothering on process.

In more modern times a whole list of fancy deodorants became available to rub on the lamb and up the ewe's nostrils. They worked on ewes that had good mothering instincts, driven by having plenty of milk.

Keb hoose (left) and Shepherd's hut on Hareshaw common

The keb hoose was, and still is, a sturdy, rectangular stone ‘house’, complete with door, small window and either slate or ‘tin’ (corrugated iron) roof. It would measure roughly 12ft x 9ft (3.5m x 2.8m) and was built with mortar between the stones to make it weather proof.

Inside it may have an earth floor or be flagged or cobbled with stones from the nearby burn. In one corner there is often a small fire place and a chimney through the roof – useful for heating up the tar pot for marking a sheep or water to wash a wound or make the herd’s tea.

There would be at least one shelf and even a rough cupboard. Thus the keb hoose was fully equipped to administer first aid to the flock as required, to provide a welcome shelter for the herd in rough weather (and a fire in winter), and act as a useful store place for a wide assortment of shepherding equipment. Quite often it would have so many accumulated ‘essentials’ that there was hardly enough room for the herd!

Among the variety of things stored within its cosy walls you would be likely to find anything from an empty tin of Cooper’s dip to an old clay pipe, from a pair of rusty shears to a milking stool. This list comes from a keb hoose near Saughtree, just over the Scottish Border from Kielder.

It contained several empty buckets, holed and handle- less; a heap of mouldy sacking; a tangle of binder twine; assorted walking sticks, with or without the regulation crook; a tar pot and a collection of stirring sticks; a selection of brands for horn burning; two pairs of rusty shears; a short length of cow chain; a small pile of damp logs, a pail of wet coal, a paraffin tin (empty) and a poker.

Old coats and jackets full of rips and holes, but may yet turn a bit of hill drizzle; a row of bottles on the shelf containing who knows what selection of magic cures, drenches and tonics; a tin of Hilston’s foot rot ointment; an old paring knife that trimmed its last sheep’s foot twenty years ago; a pair of wellies, missing one left boot; a draining spade minus its shank; assorted empty beer bottles; one oilskin legging, ripped, and above the fireplace, a battered tin kettle, a mouldy teacup and a very cracked and tannin encrusted teapot.

The cracked and uneven concrete floor was layered with generations of mud from countless booted feet and drifts of bracken and grass blown under the ill-fitting door, adorned of course with the inevitable horse shoe. The whole place had a wonderful nostalgic whiff of Cooper's dip, disinfectant (Jey's fluid), wet wool, wet dogs, soot and wood smoke that brought back memories of long days of sheep gatherings, of days clipping and dipping, warm ones and wintry ones but most of all happy ones.

General purpose hut at High Green that could be used as a keb hoose

Wool - has it a future? Prince Charles to the rescue!

By Dr Clive Dalton

‘Farmer Prince Charles’ and ‘Farmer King George III’
Prince Charles was once reported as saying that King George III (‘Farmer George’) was a favourite ancestor and he had done a lot of research on him. George III was famous for promoting English textile prosperity by bringing in superfine Spanish Merinos (by fair means and foul), from where he spread them to Australia and North America.

See H.B. Carter (http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5563327546075276103&postID=6172011363920526286).

So we should not be surprised to see that Prince Charles is determined to help the struggling British wool industry. ‘Good on him’ is our Kiwi response.

A canny lad
For those of us living in the far reaches of the former British Empire, and who still recognise the Queen as our Head of State (for how much longer we're not sure), and who are very concerned about the future of sheep and wool, we currently think that Prince Charles is a ‘good joker’ because he's trying to do something about promoting British wool! His favourite ancestor would have been proud of him.

In Northumbrian terms he’s a ‘canny lad’, and although he’s had his ups and doons in recent years, his actions over trying to save British wool has been well noted in New Zealand – and we are all behind his actions.

He and I share the same birthday (Nov 14), which is also the day the tups are set away to the hill in the North Tyne. And his other great quality (in Northumbrian eyes) is that he’s the patron of the Border Stick Dressers’ Association, and was instrumental in getting the daft EU regulation to incinerate all rams’ horns and heeds (because of BSE) hoyed oot.

His concern for wool
The Prince’s concern for British wool drove our NZ Minister of Agriculture (Mr David Carter) to call in for a cup of tea and a bit crack with him at Balmoral in Scotland on a recent trip to `Europe. They talked about the UK's 'Campaign for Wool' of which the Prince is patron.

The press release said:
'The Prince of Wales is a champion of the efforts of Commonwealth farmers to grow wool and restore profitability to the sector, and this was a significant opportunity to discuss increasing the demand for wool, recognising its qualities as a naturally renewable and sustainable product' Mr Carter said.

He also said that the Prince's campaign mirrors the New Zealand government's efforts to get our strong wool industry back on track. His Royal Highness is a passionate advocate for wool and was keen to hear of NZ efforts to ensure consumers understand the benefits of this wonderful and sustainable fibre'.

NZ Minister of Agriculture (David Carter) and the
Prince of Walesat Balmoral 2010
(Both wearing wool!)

If the Prince can do anything to help the noble fibre keep a foothold in the world’s textile industry, then he deserves to be made King straight away and he’d be welcome to come and live in New Zealand and commute from here to do the rest of his Commonwealth shepherding.

Killed by synthetic fibres
The death of wool as a textile fibre started the day a chemist drew a strand out from a chemical brew in a test tube in the late 1940s - 1950s, and nylon was born. The rest is history, and their massive research and development by international companies like Dupont and ICI has never stopped, first mimicking the unique qualities of wool, and then improving on them.

Wool never had a chance, and many believe it’s a waste of time trying to compete with the massive multinationals in the synthetic fibre business. Wool currently only occupies 1.5% of the textile fibre market.

But thankfully, there are believers like Prince Charles, supported by wool growers in Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Africa to name just a few.

It’s all about price, and clothing, carpets and furnishings made from synthetic fibres will always be cheaper, especially when mass-produced in countries where labour costs are low. Sheep farmers have to find customers who will pay for the benefits (real or perceived) of wearing and walking on ‘natural fibres’; sadly there are not a lot left in the world.

Wool and fashion
Sheep farmers and wool enthusiasts live in hope that in the weird world of ‘fashion’, among the outrageous rags that appear on walking skeletons wobbling their way down catwalks, some designer will feature the magic of wool! It happens now and again, but like everything in the fashion world, it's always short lived.

We all used to hope that another ‘oil shock’ would increase the price of synthetic fibres, which are all born as fossil fuels, and allow natural fibres a comeback. It never happened; it just made the chemists and manufacturers smarter and more efficient.

The carpet industry is the main end-user of the world’s coarse wools (fibre diameter above 30 microns), such as those grown in New Zealand from our Romney sheep. These are in direct contrast to the fine wools from Merino sheep and their crosses which are used for high quality clothing (fibre diameter around 20 microns).

Before the advent of synthetic fibres, the best thing that could happen to wool was to have a war in a cold climate. We Northumbrian Daft Laddies on farms in the 1950s well remember wearing the WWII ex-army tunics, trousers and especially the greatcoats, which were certainly warm but weighed a ton. Modern armies wear synthetic fibres regardless of the climate they work in.

The Korean war was the last such event when wool was King again, and it's said that Australian wool growers were buying Rolls Royce cars as farm vehicles to use up the money. The ‘Rollers’ were very reliable and there was plenty of room in the back for the dogs and a few sick sheep. You got a pound Sterling for a pound of wool in New Zealand at that time.

Wool marketing shambles

The start of wool's journey - newly-shorn coarse wool
Border Leicester ram fleece.

History has shown some awful examples of bad marketing, resulting in stockpiles of wool around the world, and especially in Australia and New Zealand where governments bought the wool at auction to keep the price up. They then had to hold it for years, releasing it on to the market in dribs and drabs to get their money back. They will never do this again. Farmers will have to meet the market.

The overseas buyers knew where all the wool was, so they only bought what they wanted, and didn’t have the cost of buying forward and storing it, as happens when prices are volatile and in short supply. Wool is a bulky product so needs space and cost to store.

Countries pulled out of international marketing organisations like the International Wool Secretariat (IWS) with the “Woolmark” as it’s famous world-recognised logo. For a while nothing bad happened, but now the years without promotion of wool have come to account. Wool has no international image any more.

The best example of this is the recent campaign by New Zealand farmers to inform American architects (by bringing them here to show them wool being grown and harvested), and that it’s ideal for carpeting high-rise buildings. Wool doesn't burn like synthetic fibres and this basic fact had been missing from their building codes. Hopefully they have now got the message.

Costs from sheep to shop

Costs of production have killed wool and they seem set to continue. Here are a few reasons:

• Wool varies enormously over the sheep’s body, so has to be sorted by hand, and the easiest place to do this is when it first comes off the sheep on the shearing board.
• A wool fibre varies along its diameter with the feeding level of the sheep. This can cause 'tenderness' or 'wool break' and in the worst cases (and see in primitive breeds), the woll breaks and is shed.
• The finest of all wool fibres are described as 'hunger-fine' wools, grown when sheep were suffering starvation. These wools can be around 10 microns in diameter and individual fibres are hard to see with the naked eye.
• The skill of ‘wool handling’ (along with shearing) has improved out of sight in recent decades, as a result of local and international competitions around the world.
• The return from the wool harvested in most countries over the last few years, has hardly covered the costs of shearing and handling.

Research continues to take the human effort out of shearing.
Robotics and chemical defleecing are still being worked on.
(Ian McMillan in veterens' demonstration shearing)

• As wool grows on the sheep in the wide-open spaces of the world, all sorts of things can get mixed up in the fleece, which in processing stage have to be removed. Plant material and weed seeds are the best examples.

Plant material in belly wool - costly to remove

• Classic examples are the New Zealand ‘Bidibid’ (Acaena inermis) and the Australian Bathurst Bur (Xanthimum spinosum) and the Scottish heather (Caluna vulgaris). New Zealand Bidibid travelled with wool to the mills in southern Scotland, then down the Tweed into the North Sea on to the Farne Islands where it is a hazard to young fledgling seabirds.
• Wool is a bulky product and there’s a limit on how it can be compressed for transport around the world. Cheap transport moves slowly and there has been talk recently of using wind power to move ships carrying wool – back to the old ‘Clipper’ days to avoid the cost and carbon footprint of power by fossil fuels.

Wool pressed into bales in the woolshed after being trucked to the merchant.
For export these are 'double dumped' - two pressed into the space taken up by one bale

• Weight and bulk can be reduced by scouring (washing) in the country of origin, and this also has the advantage of leaving the pollution behind.
• Farmers are also directed not to dip sheep for at least 60 days before shearing to avoid pollution during scouring.
• The wool handling chain is better now that 30 years ago but it’s still full of fragmentation with too many people competing and ‘clipping tickets’ as the wool moves from farm to processor. Wool goes from the farm to a merchant who may sort it further (more than in the woolshed), and then it’s shipped to mills across the world.
• Then there’s all the handling at the processor’s end to get it to the clothing or carpet manufacturer. It’s just goes on and on with more ticket clipping on the way.

NZ Wool merchant sorting wool purchased direct from farmers.
This is labour intensive and costly. From here it is baled and shipped to
processors around the world.

Old direct marketing
It’s amazing now to remember the days when the North Tyne fells were alive with sheep before the forests banished them.

(See http://woolshed1.blogspot.com/2008/10/daft-laddies-lost-farms-of-tyne-rede.html).

The late Willie Robson told of when their family were at Willow Bog, they sent their wool direct to Otterburn Mill to be made into tweed to cloth the family. What a wonderful example of direct marketing! Small offcuts were even used to ‘breek the hoggs’ – washing them after every season so nowt was wasted.

Ignorance & complacency
Tar branding
For generations, the marking of sheep to record their farm of origin was done with tar. It was totally weatherproof and had a very long life on the wool. The trouble was it couldn’t be scoured out and small specks of it could do enormous damage to textile machinery. It took the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) around half a century to get farmers to appreciate this and take action.

I remember going to Henry Bell’s wool store in Hexham while a student at Kings College in the 1950s and getting 'the tar message' from the wool classer who was sorting wool from farms that had just been packed into bales with no preparation done on the farm,other than rolling the fleece. Tar branding had a long slow death and it was the financial penalty that drove it.

Bloom dipping
When I was a Daft Laddie on North Tyne farms in the 1950s, we ‘larned’ the art of ‘blooming sheep’ for sale and show, and the practice must have gone on for many decades before that. In the early days farmers used the natural earths and peat before modern’ pigments were available, heavily promoted by ‘the dip man’ or the Northern Farmers rep when he called to get the yearly order.

I remember as students at Kings College going to the famous Border Leicester stud at Rock in the north of Northumberland and seeing tups being prepared for the Kelso sale. They varied in hue from bright orange through yellow to pink. I felt sorry for the tups – they themselves must have felt stupid entering the sale ring. There was never any logic in the practice, but fashion is fashion and defies logic.

I used to joke about what a yowe on heat must have thought when she looked around to see a bright yellow or orange creature creeping up on her from behind!

Helen Brown’s Tarset blog ( "http://blog.tarset.co.uk/" http://blog.tarset.co.uk/) gives a very clear explanation of the reasons for blooming sheep in UK.

I cannot believe that it still goes on, and that the buyers of sheep are so daft as to see value in it. Sheep farmers wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t financial benefit. Apparently it's all about making sheep look 'even' and 'healthy'.

Sheep at a local show illustrating the modern range of fashionable colours
(Photo by kind permission of Helen Brown).

The poor yellow sheep in this pen looks embarrassed! The bloomed ones will probably think the white one is odd! Apparently brown is the most popular choice at present.

Blooming sheep has been on the hit list of the BWMB for decades but from what Helen Brown says – it’s had little effect. Farmers clearly don’t understand that the dying of wool fibres should be decided by the textile manufacturer, and not by the shepherd! You can’t make contaminated wool lighter – you can only make it darker.

Herdwick sheep - their natural colour. Popular for home crafts.

Bloom dipping reached New Zealand and was used sporadically till the 1950s. But it died a rapid death when price penalties made farmers appreciate the costs it was adding to marketing and processing. Financial penalties are they way to fix things, and clearly price differentials have never had any effect in UK.

First job for Prince Charles
So there’s the first job for Prince Charles – to banish bloom dipping. We sheep and wool enthusiasts in New Zealand wish him well as it looks an uphill battle.

It's easy to ask when wool is worth so little, why bother trying to prepare it better for the manufacturer? The answer to that is that if you want to sell it at all, rather than putting it into landfill, good preparation is more important than ever.

Old 'Daft Laddie' keeps his hand in
Sixty years after my first battle with a sheep to part it from its fleece, I remove the wool from a Border Leicester ram using the 'North Tyne' 'clipping' (shearing) method, where the sheep is held on its side for most of the action - especially effective for large rams. This way of clipping provides plenty of opportunity to stop and chat to fellow clippers and 'hangers on' that the event always seemed to attract - many of them with an eagle eye looking for skin cuts!

The author versus Border Leicester ram 'William'

NZ Sheep Husbandry - Managing ewes with multiple lambs

By Dr Clive Dalton



Pregnancy scanning
Pregnancy scanning (at around NZ50c/ewe in New Zealand) has been a great innovation to help farmers improve the management of pregnant ewes. Scanners are now doing more small flocks if the opportunity arises between large flocks, more as a service than a money maker.

The good thing is that after scanning, at least you know which ewes are carrying multiples (twins and triplets) and will need the best feed and special care. And you don’t waste feed and time on ewes with singles and empty ewes which you can get rid of immediately.

Before scanning - old shepherd's tricks
Before scanning was developed, we had to guess if a ewe was carrying multiples by the size of her belly. Some old shepherds would palpate the ewe's belly and try to feel how many lambs were there.

Another trick was to drive the flock slowly for a distance along a race, and then cut off the ewes at the back of the mob that walked the slowest as being ‘heavy laden’ with lambs, as the most likely to have multiples. These were not very accurate techniques but it was all that we had.

Foetal demands
The demands of the growing foetus are not a great burden on the ewe in the early stages of pregnancy, but in the last three weeks the lambs really start to grow, drawing heavily on the ewe’s body reserves, and increasing the strain on her body.

Triplets are clearly the biggest drain, as they (and twins too) start to take up space inside the ewe’s abdomen, which clearly has limits to how far it can stretch. This is the reason usually given for the ewe’s drop in appetite in the last weeks before birth, but it’s also believed to be hormonal which seems highly likely.

The general rule is that in the six weeks before lambing, twin-bearing ewes need 25% more feed and triplet-bearers need 44% more than ewes carrying singles. So multiple-bearing ewes should be fully fed and not lose any body condition in the last five weeks of pregnancy.

Even yarding such ewes for 2.5-3 hours in the last weeks can cause a build up of ketones and risk metabolic problems. It is said to depress lambs' vigour and drive to suck when born.


Hazards to health

A lucky triplet, its mother waiting for it to get what its twin mates have left.
As lambs get bigger, competition for the two teats gets more aggressive

• Feed intake check. A sudden cold snap can cut the feed supply and cause added stress, so the ewe has to draw even faster on her body fat reserves. She ends up with metabolic problems involving excess ketones in the blood causing ketosis or pregnancy toxaemia – sometimes called twin-lamb disease, as it only happens with multiples. Ewes can die very quickly and require instant injections of glucose. Ewes can also have sudden shortages of calcium causing milk fever or of magnesium causing grass staggers.
• Bearings. Here the vagina, and worse still the uterus is pushed out or everted. This is a really nasty prospect to deal with, and it needs urgent veterinary attention, as the risks of infection are high. The pressure inside the ewe from the growing lambs is blamed, along with pressure from a full rumen if the ewe has just eaten fresh green feed.
• Getting cast. Ewes with large expanding bellies can often get on their backs and cannot get back on to their feet again. This often happens if they lie and rest in a hollow or start rubbing because of lice. They can very quickly die of bloat in this position as they cannot belch.
  

Lamb mortality
It’s important not to assume that the scanning percentage (number lambs scanned/100 ewes joined with the ram) will be your ‘lambing percentage’ (measured as number lambs born/100 ewes joined).

We now know that there can be a 15-20% loss between scanning and birth. In the early days of scanning, ‘scanner error’ was blamed for this late foetal loss, as most loss of embryos always occurs in the first weeks after conception when implantation if taking place.

In recent years, we have had to accept this figure of scanning-to-lambing loss as today’s operators are highly accurate and cannot be blamed. The sheep has an ability to absorb foetal lambs right up to lambing, with the very late ones seen as mummified lambs.

Few farmers count dead lambs at birth as it’s too depressing, but they always have an accurate count at docking. So if you compare scanning percentage with docking percentage (number docked/100 ewes joined), you find the figure is frightening and can be as high as 40% - made up of 20% before birth and 20% after (as ‘perinatal mortality’ in the first 3 days after birth).

It seems to be nature’s way of keeping populations under control and ensuring ‘survival of the fittest’. Buy it’s very frustrating for the shepherd and costly for the nation.

The battle to save lambs
At the Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station, in the 1970s to 1980s, we researched the causes of lamb mortality (D C Dalton, T W Knight, D L Johnson. 1980. NZ J. Agric. Res. 23: 167-173) looking for causes and solutions, and others have repeated this work since – all with the same outcome.

We know what lambs die of (starvation/exposure and dystocia or difficult births), but in the last 20 years have not come up with practical solutions to prevent lambs dying around birth, other than to provide shelter and lamb on flat paddocks. Shepherds have known this for hundreds of years!

Why do lambs die?

Dead twins - note one is bigger than the other. The bigger one shows
signs of dystocia by its swollen neck

When you post-mortem lambs in the first three days of birth, here are a few basic signs to provide some clues to the cause of death. Them more of these you can see, singly or in combination, then the more accurate the conclusion. The most common single signs are:

• A lamb under 3.5kg, especially it’s a twin or triplet, will have died of exposure/hypothermia.
• A lamb over 5.5kg, will most likely have died of dystocia.
• If the head is large and swollen, the neck swollen neck, and a blue swollen tongue protrudes from its mouth, then dystocia is certain.
• No milk in stomach – it clearly had not suckled so assume starvation probably through mismothering.
• Pads still on feet –it hasn’t stood up and walked, so assume mismothered.
• Membrane over nose would be suffocation.
• Some birth membrane still on body, most likely it has been licked so assume mismothered.
• Lungs not inflated – it has not breathed. Check if lungs will float in water then it has breathed.
• Kidney fat brown – fat not mobilised so died soon after birth.
• Kidney fat white – fat has been mobilised so probably lived for few days.
• Malformation (e.g. no rectum) may be cause of death a few days after birth.
  

‘Starvation/Exposure’ was always lumped together in our early research, but now researchers are using the term ‘Starvation/Mismothering/Exposure complex’ (SME). These terms illustrate how little we know, and how much guessing still has to go on to predict what lambs die of at birth.

Birth weight is critical

Dead lamb - born a multiple under 3.5kg

The main finding was that birth weight was critical for survival, and subsequent research has come to same conclusion. The best birth weight was around 4kg, but of course it was controlled by how many litter mates the lamb had as this caused the wide range found.

As mentioned above, if a lamb is under 3.5kg at birth (which is very common in triplets), then survival chances are low due to starvation/exposure, and similarly above 5.5kg (most often singles) risks are high due to dystocia. But then multiples can die of dystocia too if more than one lamb gets stuck in the birth canal.

An exhausted ewe after lambing triplets, probably a week early. The two larger lambs (weighing 2.2kg and 2.8kg) have got to their feet and found the teat. The tiny triplet (weighing 1.2kg) is struggling to stand and has not had a feed. It's going to be left behind with poor chances of survival.

Controlling birth weight
This is the problem – we don’t know how to control birth weight of the lamb.
Feeding the ewe during pregnancy is the obvious way to do this – in theory, but research over the years has shown that it to be a very hit and miss affair. Some trials showed positive responses but others failed to do so.

In the past with less fertile NZ Romney sheep when a good lambing percentage was 100% docked, we had to reduce feed intake in the last three weeks of pregnancy to avoid dystocia in the many single lambs born, but it’s not a wise move now with today’s highly productive sheep, as it may trigger major health problems. Today’s advice is to keep ewes on a level plane of nutrition right through pregnancy.

The ability to stand up

This triplet has just stood up 4 hours after birth and is very weak and
wobbly on its feet.Its chances of survival are low.

How quick a lamb is able to get up on it's feet is vital to survival, as it will then start teat-seeking and hopefully get a feed of colostrum. Research has shown that if you can reduce the time a lamb gets up from 45 mins down to 15 mins, there's a 49% greater chance of it being alive at weaning. This ability to 'get up and go' is very much related to the lamb's fat stores at birth.

Easy-care sheep
With the low profits from sheep over the last 30 years, intensive shepherding of ewes at lambing was not economically viable, so breeders solved the problem by selecting for ‘easy-care’ traits where ewes with lambing problems were culled.

Shepherds kept away from ewes at lambing and any ewe with problems died. This had bad animal welfare implications so the policy was changed to inspection of ewes at lambing, and marking for culling any ewe that had to be assisted at lambing. Her ewe lambs were marked for culling too. It’s been very successful.

This approach coincided with an massive increase in fertility of the New Zealand ewe flock through selection and importation of fertile breeds such as the Finn and East Friesian, so ewes were selected that could lamb multiple with ease, bond and mother them, and then rear them to weaning.

Triplet problems

Will this triplet patiently waiting be given a chance for a
drink before the ewe moves on?

As the average fertility of the national flock has increased, the number of triplets has increased, and these are causing challenges under out outdoor low-labour and easy-care lambing systems. Some ewe flocks now have 30% of ewes having triplets and 15% of hoggets lambing with triplets too.

Now that we have more lambs been born because of the triplets, it has increased the number of lambs weaned, but the mortality rate has not changed. So from a national viewpoint, it’s hard to ignore a 40% overall lamb loss between scanning and weaning, realising the export value of these lambs. It’s an awful waste still waiting for an answer.

Intensive shepherding for small high fertility flocks
In small flocks it’s worth providing all the help you can. Here are some suggestions:

• Get all the lambing gear sorted a month before the first lambs are due. Pay special attention to medications for metabolic diseases like pregnancy toxaemia (low glucose), grass staggers (low magnesium) and milk fever (low calcium). You can get all three preventatives in the one bottle or sachet complete with needle. Talk to your vet.
• Make sure you know how to use the gear, especially how to put a feeding tube down a lamb’s gullet without filling it’s lungs with milk and drowning it.
• Treat the ewes quietly before lambing, but some gently exercise is good for them. Do this by shifting them between paddocks.
• If you have a dog, it must be under full control at all times, and the ewes are used to seeing in with you. All other dogs should be kept away from the flock.
  
• It’s always better to leave newly-lambed ewes on their birth site till they are fully bonded with their lambs, but with triplets, weak twins or a ewe that’s not mothering all her lambs, it’s more important to get them under cover for their first night.
• Get them into shelter as soon as they’ve licked their lambs and the lambs have stood up and started teat seeking. Keep them in this shelter, certainly for their first night after birth.
• The best idea is to make some simple ‘lambing pens’ in the paddock from hay bales or small gates with a cover over half the top.
• Learn a few tricks to get the ewe to follow one or two lamb while you keep moving towards the pen carrying the others. The last thing the ewe wants at this stage is more stress.
• The ewe will want to rush back to her birth site where the smells of her burst waters are very attractive, so keep the lambs close in front of her as you move backwards, bleating like a lamb to attract her to the lambs.
  
• Once the ewe is into a pen, then it’s easier to check her udder and milk supply, and it saves the trauma of catching her in the paddock.
• If she's too heavy to turn over, then you can block her up against the side of the pen and milk her from the side like a cow.
• This will clear the wax seal in the end of the teat, which a weak lamb takes too long to suck out.
• By squirting some colostrum from a teat down each lamb’s throat immediately after birth, you know all three have had that first vital feed.
  
• It’s no good just standing, watching triplets teat-seeking in the paddock with the mother fussing around them, especially if she hasn’t seen lambs before – and assuming they’ll all get a feed. On a wet night, the shock from 29C inside the ewe to 5-6C in driving rain will kill them with hypothermia in less than half a hour.
• In a mothering/teat seeking mixup, nobody gets a decent drink in the first couple of hours, which can be fatal for one or more of them. The biggest lamb will find the teat and the weaker ones will not.
• Triplets are not always the same birth weight which is critical in survival. Also there may be a delay between the first and third arriving, so the first lamb if big and strong has got on to its feet, found the teat and emptied it. The mother may give it all the attention so the late born triplet has little chance.
• At birth, use different raddle marks on each triplet set, so if you see lost lambs in the paddock blaring for their mums, then you know where they belong.
• The best way to catch and hold triplets in the paddock e.g for inspection or tagging, is by using a fishing landing net. After you've caught them, they can stand with the ewe being able to see and smell them.
  
• Watch out for ‘burglar ewes’ that will bond with newly-born lambs from other ewes, before they have lambed themselves. They can cause great havoc among twins and triplets.
  
• Keep a close eye on the most popular lambing spots in a paddock, as you’ll find it hard to sort out which are a ewe’s own lambs when they have lambed together. It’s a good reason to spread ewes out before lambing.
• Popular lambing spots can get very dirty too, so it’s often wise to fence them off half way through lambing. Applying iodine to fresh navels is very important.
• Learn to recognise when a lamb is full. Press upwards on its tummy in front of its back legs and it should feel like a drum. If it’s not inflated, then the lamb has not fed and you need to ‘tube it’ with some good quality lamb colostrum replacer.
• For starved lambs, take them inside, give them a feed of colostrum and wrap them in an electric blanket to maintain a constant heat. Dunking them in a bath of warm water used to be the trick, but the water soon cools. If you do try this, dry them and wrap them in the blanket.
• As the ewe’s milk supply starts to build up, watch out for lambs getting blocked up with yellow faeces. This happens often in windy drying weather.
  

Decisions – to remove or leave triplets on the ewe
There’s no doubt that today’s high performance ewes have enough milk to feed triplets, but there are other points and decisions to be made. Here they are:

• When do you want to market your lambs? Triplets will rarely have reached a market weight by Christmas in New Zealand’s North Island. So they’ll end up as store lambs, and they’ll be on the farm right through the dry summer period needing money spent on them, worms, lice, blowfly treatment and maybe more. You may not get rid of them till autumn or early winter.
• So if you want to have the bulk of work over by Christmas, you’ll need to remove a triplet. Then you have to decide what to do with the it. You can:
• Euthanase it if it’s very small and weak.
• Mother it on to a ewe with a single – accepting the work involved.
• Rear it yourself on milk powder at financial loss if you include labour.
• Give it away as a pet lamb to have it returned when the kids are sick of it.
• If you leave triplets on their dams, best practice is to run them with twins as a stray has a greater chance of sneaking a feed from a confused ewe than if they are mixed with singles – where ewes know their lambs and defend them at all costs.
  

You also need to be alert to lambs appearing to have lost their mothers in the paddock, at about day10-13 after birth. Farmers who have noticed this say that it seems that by this time, two lambs have established a strong sucking order each with their own sides, and will not let the third lamb in. After the two have sucked the ewe moves on to prevent further sucking, and the third lamb misses out – again. Eventually the ewe seems to decide that two lambs are enough, and stops worrying about her third one, being happy to leave it behind.

Sheep yards: Design and Construction details

By Dr Clive Dalton

Set of sheep yards to handle 1500 sheep built at the Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station by Farm Manager Joe McLean in 1980s.
They were based on the MAF Bulletin 353

Sheep are smart animals
If you try to keep sheep and you don't have decent handling facilities (pens or yards), then you will soon start to hate them and declare that they are stupid animals. Nothing could be further from the truth - as it's YOU that has the problem and not the sheep.

Sheep in modern times
In today's world, most countries where sheep contribute to the national economy are finding that 'labour' is a major problem. Young folk don't want to work with livestock on farms, and the existing population of sheep farmers is rapidly aging and are not capable of the physical work traditionally associated with sheep - most of it involving bending over animals or lifting and dragging them.

Sheep farmers are notorious for back and knee injuries from sheep handling and shearing, and this is a major cost to the nation.

Sheep instincts
Sheep have two major instincts which if exploited when designing handling facilities will make life so much easier. These are:

1. Sheep are a 'flocking' species. At any sign of panic they flock together for safety rather than run away in all directions for self preservation.
2. They are also a 'follower' species. A sheep loves to follow another sheep, and lambs from the day they are born follow their mothers and stay with them, unlike goat kids, calves and fawns where their mothers hide them in a creche. They are a 'lying out' species.

Things to avoid
So the two above features of sheep behaviour are the core of good sheep yard design, to avoid the physical effort of pushing, catching, holding and turning sheep over as this is where human backs are damaged.

Large and small flocks
The size of flock doesn't have much influence on basic sheep behaviour. Obviously as flocks get large, it's harder for an individual animal to know where it is in a mob if the scale of the facilities are not increased to cope.

Information sources
The biggest demand of late in New Zealand has come from small 'lifestyle' farmers who need some handling yards for a few sheep.

New Zealand Reference book
The classic NZ publication is called 'Design and Construction of Sheep-drafting Yards' published by the NZ Ministry of Agriculture as Bulletin 353 in 1951, and revised in 1956 and 1962. The author was J.E. Duncan, Chief Advisory Officer (Wool), Department of Agriculture, Wellington.

The price was one shilling and six pence!

I have created a free PDF version of this treasured archive of sheep farming information which you can download by clicking on this link to online publisher Scribd and following the instructions: http://www.scribd.com/doc/71774584/Design-and-Construction-of-Sheep-Drafting-Yards

Design and Construction of Sheep Drafting Yards

Here's what J.E. Duncan wrote in his 1951 introduction:

'Over a period of years the volume of inquiries for plans and specifications of sheepyards and their accessories has shown that there is always a demand for this information. Some inquiries are from young men just starting on their own and others are from established farmers adding to or rebuilding their existing yards, but whatever the reason the demand seems to be increasing. This bulletin aims to supply basic information covering most of the questions usually raised'.

A marvellous book that has served generations of farmers, and is still serving farmers from all around the world in the 21st century.

Sheep breeds in New Zealand

By Dr Clive Dalton

Early arrivals in NZ
On 22 May 1773, Captain James Cook dropped off a couple of Merino sheep in Sheep's Cove in the Marlborough Sounds. He had picked them up during his stopover at the Cape of Good Hope, and had great hopes for them in their new home. But they didn't last 24 hours and probably died of eating tutu.

It was Samuel Marsden who really got the New Zealand sheep industry going by introducing Merinos from Australia, to his mission station at Waimate North in 1814. The first Merinos arrived in Australia (13 of them) in 1797 from the flock of King George III ('Farmer George').

Governor Hobson brought in another importation from Australia in 1838.

The Merino has the most amazing history of any sheep in the world.
These Merino hoggets are on Havelah Station in NSW, Australia

Mana island
The first major shipment of Merinos were landed on Mana Island in 1834 and later transferred to the Wairarapa. Importations increased from Australia as more land was taken up for grazing after 1840. Farmers soon found that Merinos were ideally a dry-country sheep thriving better in the South Island high country whereas the wetter North Island hills caused wool faults, footrot, internal parasites and dags.

Later British immigrants brought sheep with them, and for a number of years just about every British breed of sheep came to New Zealand, many of them like the Scottish Blackface failing to survive for a variety of reasons.

Dual purpose breeds – meat & wool
Later in the 19th Century demand for meat increased, first locally but with refrigeration after 1882, meat became a major export to Britain. So ‘dual-purpose’ (meat and wool) breeds became popular, and the Merino retreated into the role of a specialist fine-wood breed for the drier South Island high country.

The Romney Marsh from Kent in UK was imported in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a classical dual-purpose breed, and adapted well to become New Zealand’s most important sheep breed, making an enormous contribution to the nation’s wealth.

Meat breeds
As part of this development, specialist meat breeds from Britain became more popular, originally called ‘Down breeds’ in UK as they were developed on the Downs of Southern England. These breeds, (the Southdown is the classical example), became the basis of the export ‘New Zealand or Canterbury lamb’ that is world recognised for ‘quality’ to this day.

The were used and still are to cross on to other breeds and crosses and all their progeny go for meat. For this reason, they are called ‘terminal sires’ where they are the last to be used in a breeding programme.

Breeds 'made in NZ'
New Zealand farmers started to demand other traits in their sheep, especially more lean meat and fertility, and this led to the development of ‘new’ breeds, produced from crossbreeding. Examples are the Corriedale, Coopworth, Perendale, Borderdale, Dorset Down and South Suffolk.

Then in the 1980s and 1990s, new breeds were introduced from Europe to improve fertility (Finnish Landrace) and meat (Texel), as well as milk production (East Friesian), and these were crossed on to existing breeds to produce what were called ‘composites’. This is the way commercial sheep farmers can quickly respond to changing market demands. Other breeds from the Middle East were also imported in the 1990s to research their potential for the live sheep trade.

Rare breeds - Heritage breeds
These are sheep that have been recovered from remote areas or New Zealand offshore islands where they have been placed to provide meat for shipwrecked sailors, or were farmed before it got too arduous for the people who left them behind. Some are derived from sheep that missed the muster so have been feral for many decades.

The preservation of these sheep breeds, and other breeds of livestock, is managed by 'The Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz).

WOOL BREEDS
MERINO

Superfine Merino ram at Omarama Field Day

Mature body weight (ewes): 35-45kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 3.5-5kg
  
• Staple length: 65-100mm
• Fibre diameter: 19-24 microns

Fertility: 70-100%
Administration: NZ Merino Stud Breeders. (www.merino.co.nz). Booroola Sheep Society of New Zealand.

The Merino in New Zealand is now mainly farmed in the South Island high country where, despite low overall demand for wool, Merino breeders through efficient marketing, have retained a premium demand for their superfine wool used in men's suiting and outdoor and fashion clothing.

Merinos have low-medium body weight, are 'light boned', have pink skin around the face and ears and pure white wool. Wrinkles unfortunately were introduced by American breeders who wrongly believed they would increase surface area and hence fleece weight.

Although skin wrinkles have been greatly reduced, they still cause welfare problems when mulesing is used to remove britch wrinkles to avoid dags and blowfly attacks. New Zealand Merinos are less wrinkly than Australian strains, and although mulesing is not illegal, it's not advised.

Merinos are late maturing, so surplus lambs grow slowly to light weights, and cast-for-age ewes are of low meat value. High country farmers who eat their own 'Merino mutton' from wethers up to 7-year-old, claim that it has great flavour but needs plenty of time in the oven.

Fertility in the high country is low as is lamb survival, and on difficult farms, lambing is often delayed until ewes are three years of age.

Merinos farmed on more fertile green pastures are prone to footrot, their toes grow long and they need drenching for internal parasites which under present costs makes then uneconomic to farm.

BOOROOLA MERINO
The introduction of the Booroola strain of Merino from Australia in the 1970s greatly increased fertility, but multiple births were often a disadvantage in difficult environments. Irrigation has allowed the low ground on some high country farms to grow improved pasture which has been used to finish lambs bred from Merino ewes (especially the Booroola) by meat sires.


DRYSDALE

Drysdale rams

Mature body weight (ewe): 50-70kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 5-7 kg
  
• Staple length: 200-300mm
• Fibre diameter: 40 microns plus
  

Fertility: 90-120%
Administration:

Dr F.W. Dry of Massey College in the 1930s - 1940s discovered a gene in Romneys that produced a strong coarse hairy (medullated) fleece, large curved horns in rams and small horns in ewes. He named it the 'N' gene (after the Neilson farm of discovery), and the breed was named the Drysdale after Dry. Under strict control of a carpet company, the breed multiplied into commercial numbers in the 1970s to supply their mills. It has now almost disappeared due to the demise of the woolen carpet trade.

Dr F.W. Dry taking wool samples from a Drysdale ram during a stay
at Whatawhata Research Station in the 1970s.

The breed has all the other growth and carcass traits of the Romney, but must be shorn twice a year as full fleece wool is too long for processing. Its freedom from pigmented fibres allows it to be dyed a full range of colours.

Other coarse-woolled breeds
The success of the Drysdale for carpet wools, removing the need to import Scottish Blackface wool which was bad for pigmented fibres, encouraged farmers to look for other 'hairy' genes. From this came the Tukidale and the Carpetmaster. Remnants of these breeds are now very hard to locate.

BLACK & COLOURED

Black and coloured sheep - from a mainly Romney base

Coloured sheep have always been found in small numbers in all breeds, but it wasn't until there was an interest in natural coloured fibres in New Zealand in the 1970s that an organisation was formed to research their genetics and market their wool. Search my blog for details of the genetics of coloured sheep.

This is now done through the Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders' Association. (www.colouredsheep.org.nz)

The wool from all breeds is available, and the feral sheep of Merino origin from offshore islands are an important part of the mix. So there are many dual purpose breeds represented in the range of black and coloured sheep. The wool is used mainly for home spinning and weaving.


DUAL PURPOSE BREEDS ( Meat & wool)
ROMNEY

Romney two-tooth rams - 2010 model

Mature body weight (ewe): 50-80kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 4.5-6kg
  
• Staple length: 125-175mm
• Fibre diameter: 33-37 microns

Fertility: 100-140%
Administration: Romney New Zealand. New Zealand Romney Sheep Breeders' Association Inc.
(www.romneysheep.org.nz)

The original sheep from Romney Marsh in Kent have been through many changes in their time in New Zealand. They came as large open-faced sheep, with bare points and then were changed into small blockey animals in response to demand for meat conformation. They were then covered all over in wool on their legs and heads to the extent that they were 'wool blind' and could not see. This was in response to high wool prices where breeders believed (wrongly) that the total fleece weight would be increased by this change. It only increased work in crutching, dagging and wigging (removing wool from the face).

Today's 'New Zealand Romney' is more like a vastly improved model of the original 1860s Kent sheep, and is the best example of a modern dual-purpose breed farmed over a wide range of environments from fertile lowland to hard hill country in both islands. It has been bred for 'easy care' management to meet the needs of today's sheep farmers.

Ewes have increased greatly in size, weight and fertility, and purebred Romney lambs grow rapidly with good meat conformation. Romney wool is used widely in the carpet and furnishing trade. Shearers are now complaining that today's Romneys, along with some other breeds are getting too heavy to handle.

Romney composites
The Finn is the most popular breed to have been mixed with the Romney to increase fertility, followed by the East Friesian to add more milk production to feed the extra lambs.

The Texel has also been added so composites are available with varying proportions of these breeds. Some farmers are marketing them under the name of Romex.

Romney composites - 3/4 Romney and 1/4 Finn

COOPWORTH

Coopworth two-tooth ewes

Mature body weight (ewe): 50-80kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 4.5-6kg
  
• Staple length: 125-175mm
• Fibre diameter: 35-39 microns

Fertility: 110-140%
Administration: Coopworth Sheep Society of New Zealand. (www.coopworth.org.nz)

The Coopworth was developed at Lincoln College in Canterbury from research work by Professor Ian Coop and Mr Vern Clarke in the 1970s. The aim was to get more fertility into the Romney by crossing with the Border Leicester, and the Coopworth was the result of interbreeding and selection for performance within the first cross or F1, with great emphasis on fertility.

Modern Coopworths are large sheep with high fertility and they do best on good lowland or fertile hill country. Lambs mature early and have a good carcass conformation. Hogget mating is common. Wool is typical 'crossbred' and has similar end uses to Romney.

Many Coopworth flocks, especially with an infusion of Finn now produce up to 30% triplets, and at this level, there can be around 5% of ewes having quads. Triplets are left on the ewe but quads are definitely not wanted as at least one lamb has be to removed and often euthanased.

Coopworth with triplets

Coopworth with quads - low birth weight and high mortality are major
problems with quads.

Coopworth composites
It is getting harder to find straight-bred Coopworths, as many have been used as a base to breed composites with the Finn and East Friesian breeds.

The breed of these ewes are from a Border Leicester X Romney base
with some Finn mixed in. They could be loosely called Coopworth composites.

PERENDALE

Perendale mixed-age ewes

Mature body weight (ewe): 50-70kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 4-6kg
  
• Staple length: 125-175mm
• Fibre diameter: 35-39 microns

Fertility: 110-160%
Administration: Perendale Sheep Society of New Zealand. (perendalenz.com)

The Perendale was developed at Massey College by Professor Peren in the 197os to produce a sheep that would be more productive on hill country than the Romney of the day. Cheviot rams were crossed on to Romney ewes and the crossbreds were interbred with selection for performance, especially easy-care lambing.

Perendale two-tooth rams.
Their Cheviot ancestors are still obvious.

Perendales are the ideal sheep for steep hill country, as they move well and are easy to shepherd - by experienced staff. They are not idea for small lifestyle blocks as they are too active. Their lambs grow well and have good meat conformation. Their wool is valuable for its 'bulk' or 'spring' in the staple which is used in carpets and garments.


Perendale composites

ROMDALE
When some Perendale breeders wanted to put more wool, body size and carcass on their sheep, they used the Romney and interbred the cross bred and called it a Romdale.

Romdale hoggets

The Perendale has not been used much to make up composites.


CORRIEDALE

Corriedale rams in full wool

Mature body weight (ewe): 60-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 4.5-6.5kg
  
• Staple length: 75-125mm
• Fibre diameter: 28-33 microns

Fertility: 90-130%
Administration: New Zealand Sheep Breeders' Association.

The Corriedale could be described as the first New Zealand breed to be developed from crossing the Merino with English Longwool breeds (Lincoln and English Leicester). It was bred to produce meat and wool from the drier, easier South Island hill country and was officially recognised as a breed in 1911. It has been widely exported to South and North America, the Falklands and Australia.

Lambs grow well for meat and the medium-micron wool is used for medium-weight garments, worsteds and knitting yarns.


NEW ZEALAND HALFBRED

Mature body weight (ewe): 60-75kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 4- 5kg
  
• Staple length: 75-110mm
• Fibre diameter: 25-31+ microns

Fertility: 100-120%
Administration:

Developed like the Corriedale from crossing and interbreeding the English Leicester and the Lincoln on the Merino. It has more Merino traits than the Corriedale. Their performance is similar to the Corriedale.


BORDER LEICESTER

Two Border Leicester rams

Mature body weight (ewe): 60-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 4.5-6kg
  
• Staple length: 150-200mm
• Fibre diameter: 37-40 microns

Fertility: 110-170%
Administration: New Zealand Sheep Breeders' Association.

The Border Leicester was bred from the English Leicester in the Scottish Borders, and there is little doubt (from its dominant Roman nose) that the Cheviot played a part in its development.
It is not farmed as a dual purpose breed as such, but is used mainly as a 'crossing sire' to add fertility, good frame and carcass to crossbred progeny. It was an early import to New Zealand in 1859.

In New Zealand, it has made major contributions to forming the Coopworth (BL x Romney) and Borderdale (BL x Corriedale). Wool is typical crossbred and is used in carpets and furnishings.


ENGLISH LEICESTER

English Leicester
Photo from NZ Sheep Breeders' Association website
www.nzsheep.co.nz

Mature body weight (ewe): 60-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 5-6kg
  
• Staple length: 150-200mm
• Fibre diameter: 37-40 microns

Fertility: 110-150%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

English Leicesters were developed from the Leicester Longwool in UK and came to New Zealand in 1843 where they were named the English Leicester to avoid confusion with the Border Leicester. They are now few in number and classed as heritage breeds. They made a major contribution in the past to increase both wool and meat production by crossing on to other breeds such as the Merino to produce the Corriedale.


LINCOLN

Mature body weight (ewe): 60-75kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 7- 12kg
  
• Staple length: 175-250mm
• Fibre diameter: 37-41+ microns

Fertility: 100-120%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Lincoln is one of the oldest breeds of long wool sheep and was recognised in UK in 1749.
It was brought to New Zealand in 1862 and was the main breed before the turn of the century, used to produce heavy fleeces and large carcasses. Through crossbreeding, these traits were incorporated in other breeds such as the Corriedale and the Polwarth.

The strong lustrous and low-crimp wool was used for carpets. In full fleece a sheep would be wool blind due to the amount of wool on the face and head. It is very similar in looks to the English Leicester. It is now classed as a heritage breed.


CHEVIOT

Cheviot mixed-age ewes at Whatawhata Research Station 1980
The shearers hated these sheep and the feelings were mutual!

Mature body weight (ewe): 55-70kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2-3kg
  
• Staple length: 75-120mm
• Fibre diameter: 28-33 microns

Fertility: 90-120%
Administration: Cheviot Sheep Society of New Zealand.

The Cheviot was one of the first UK breeds of sheep to be introduced into New Zealand (1845). Further importations arrived in 1857, 1890 and 1937.

It was an ideal 'pioneering' sheep to break in new country after the bush had been cleared and burned. It is not farmed any more in commercial flocks as a dual purpose breed, but is found more in small studs where rams are sold for use as meat sires. Its main contribution to New Zealand has been to produce the Perendale.

It's the most active of all sheep, and needs skilled shepherding with very restricted use of the huntaway dog. It's best handled with heading dogs and the Border Collie evolved in the same Scottish Border Cheviot hills as the Cheviot sheep.

Fleece weights are low and the wool has traditionally been used for knitwear. Its helical crimp is important in adding bulk and resilience to carpets.

Cheviot ewes on their native heath in winter coming for their feed.
Photo by shepherd Helen Brown at Chatto in the Cheviot Hills.
By kind permission - Helen Brown.

POLWARTH

Mature body weight (ewe): 50-65kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 5.5- 6.0kg
  
• Staple length: 75-110mm
• Fibre diameter: 23-25 microns

Fertility: 100-120%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Polwarth was produced in Australia by crossing the Lincoln on to the Merino with the aim of producing a dual purpose sheep with major emphasis on mid-micron wool. The breed was brought to New Zealand in the early 1900s to be farmed mainly in the south island drier hill country. The end use of Polwarth wool is in the worsted trade and for fine knitwear.


FINNSHEEP

Finnsheep
Photo from NZ Sheep Breeders' Ass0ciation website
www.nzsheep.co.nz

Mature body weight (ewe): 50-70kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2.5- 4kg
  
• Staple length: 75-125mm
• Fibre diameter: 25-27 microns

Fertility: 175-250%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Finnish Landrace (now called Finnsheep) was imported into New Zealand in the 1980s by the government to boost fertility in the national flock. It was classed as a dual purpose breed and its wool was predicted to extend the range of the NZ clip,by its white lustrous fibre used in furnishings. Its main contribution now is in putting fertility into composites where one quarter is the most popular proportion. It is claimed to be resistant to Facial Eczema.

Sheep in restricted quarantine at Hophopu Research Station in the 1980s after release from maximum quarantine. The Finns are obvious by their short tails.

EAST FRIESIAN

Some of the original East Friesian imports.
Photo by kind permission of Dr Jock Allison

Mature body weight (ewe): 80-95kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 4-5kg
  
• Staple length: 120-160mm
• Fibre diameter: 35-37 microns

Fertility: 250- 280%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The East Friesian was imported into New Zealand in 1992 and released from quarantine for commercial sale in 1996. It was imported to add milk production genes and fertility to the national flock, and has been used mainly at add these traits to composites with the Romney and Coopworth.

The end use for wool is the carpet trade. Milk production averages 500-600 litres in 210-230 day lactations.


DOHNE MERINO

Dohne Merino Photo from Rare Breeds website
www.rarebreeds.co.nz

Mature body weight (ewe): 55-75kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2-3kg
  
• Staple length: 75-1oomm
• Fibre diameter: 27-32 microns

Fertility: 110-130%
Administration:

The Dohne was developed in South Africa from crossing two strains of Merino - the Australian Peppin and the German Mutton Merino in 1939. The breed society was formed in 1966 and the breed was introduced into New Zealand in 1988. The breed is free from wrinkles and has a good meat conformation along with fine wool.

MEAT BREEDS
SOUTHDOWN

Mature body weight (ewe): 50-70kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2-3kg
  
• Staple length: 75-1oomm
• Fibre diameter: 27-32 microns

Fertility: 110-130%
Administration: Southdown Sheep Society of New Zealand Inc.
Email: (southdown@slingshot.co.nz)

The Southdown has been the foundation of 'New Zealand lamb' or 'Canterbury lamb' since the start of refrigeration 1882. It has been the classical 'terminal sire' where all offspring mature early, grow fast and go for slaughter.

The breed has seen many changes in 'type' over the years when responding to changing meat markets. From the original imports from Britain, it was greatly reduced in size to meet the demand for small joints. Now the breed has changed back to larger sheep, again to meet a market where consumers buy oven-ready products and not joints any more.

Apart from being a specialist meat breed on its own, Southdowns have been important in contributing their meat qualities to other breeds through crossing and interbreeding to form new breeds.

Examples

• South Dorset (Southdown x Dorset)
• South Dorset Down (Southdown x Dorset Down)
• South Suffolk (Southdown x Suffolk)
• South Hampshire (Southdown x Hampshire)

Southdown wool is short stapled and bulky and was traditionally used in knitwear blends.


SUFFOLK

Sufflock ewe and lambs. Lambs are born black but start
to turn white after a few weeks old.

Mature body weight (ewe): 60-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2.5- 3kg
  
• Staple length: 75-1oomm
• Fibre diameter: 30-35 microns

Fertility: 110-150%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Suffolk has been the most popular terminal meat sire breed in New Zealand, but is now losing this place to a large extent to the Polled Dorset.

The Suffolk is specialist heavy-weight prime lamb breed and the lambs are early maturing and grow fast to obtain early market premiums.

Mature mixed-age Sufflok ewes like these would now all be over 80kg

The wool was traditionally used for hand-knitting yarns, flannel and tweeds. At one time the black fibres in Suffolk wool were considered a problem when they got on to the carcass as they could be easily seen.

The Suffolk has been used to improve the size and meat potential of the Southdown in forming the South Suffolk.


SOUTH SUFFOLK

Mature body weight (ewe): 65-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2- 3kg
  
• Staple length: 50-75mm
• Fibre diameter: 27-33 microns

Fertility: 120-160%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association


The breed was developed in the 1930s to meet the demand for more lean meat and was registered in 1955. The bare head features of the Suffolk in the cross have removed a lot of the face wool from the Southdown, but the breed exhibits a good average of their parent breeds. The wool is typical 'down type, described as 'chalky' with no crimp and is used in knitwear.


POLL DORSET & DORSET HORN

Poll Dorset rams - these are now massive sheep with rams
weighing up near 100kg. Shearers are starting to complain!

Mature body weight (ewe): 70-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2- 3kg
  
• Staple length: 75-100mm
• Fibre diameter: 27-32 microns

Fertility: 120-160%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Poll Dorset has become a very popular terminal sire for all dual purpose breeds and crosses, as over recent years, there has been intense selection by stud breeders to increase size, early lamb growth and lean carcasses.

The breed is also noted for early oestrus and out-of-season lambing, and ewes are also a popular choice for sheep milking enterprises.

The horns of the Poll Dorset in New Zealand were removed by crossing the Dorset Horn with the Corriedale and Ryeland, and then backcrossing to fix the breed type. It is also stated that the polling of the Dorset took place in Australia.

Whereas the Poll Dorset is increasing in popularity as a terminal meat sire, the Dorset Horn is now moving into Heritage status.

Wool from these breeds is typical 'down' type used for hosiery, flannels and fine tweeds. Skins have been used in linings for boots.

DORSET DOWN

Mature body weight (ewe): 65-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2- 3kg
  
• Staple length: 50-75mm
• Fibre diameter: 26-29 microns

Fertility: 110-140%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The breed was developed in UK from crosses with the Southdown, Hampshire and local Dorset breeds and was established as a breed in New Zealand in 1947. It was imported as a meat breed with similar qualities for early maturing export lamb as the Poll Dorset and Suffolk.

The typical down type wool is used for felting and blending with other types for hosiery and fine knitting yarns.

HAMPSHIRE DOWN

Hampshire ram
Photo from NZ Sheep Breeders' Ass0ciation website
www.nzsheep.co.nz

Mature body weight (ewe): 65-80kg

Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2- 3kg
  
• Staple length: 50-75mm
• Fibre diameter: 27-33 microns

Fertility: 120-160%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Hampshire was bred in England from crosses of Southdown, Wiltshire horn and local Hampshire breeds and imported into New Zealand in 1861, with later importations from Australia.

It is another example of the classical down breeds with good early lamb growth and good meat conformation.

TEXEL

Texel ram

Mature body weight (ewe): 65-80kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 2- 3kg
  
• Staple length: 75-110mm
• Fibre diameter: 28-33 microns

Fertility: 110-130%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Texel was developed on the Dutch island of Texel where it is a dual-purpose breed. Cheviot genes were mixed into the local sheep in its early development and these are still apparent in its physical looks. It was imported into New Zealand in 1990 to boost meat conformation and yield. It has been used in producing composite breeds to boost meat traits. The wool is typical bulky Cheviot type with similar end uses.


WILTSHIRE HORN

Horned Wiltshire ram (Photo compliments of breeder Lyle Millar)

Polled Wiltshire horn ewes showing shedding gene.

Fertility: 110-130%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

There are both horned and polled Wiltshires. In the horned flocks, rams have heavy horns and ewes have small horns. In some of the polled flocks ewe lambs develop small horns which can be removed.


OXFORD DOWN

Mature body weight (ewe): 65-80kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 3.5- 5kg
  
• Staple length: 100-150mm
• Fibre diameter: 33-37 microns

Fertility: 90-120%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Oxford is the largest meat breed in UK and first came to New Zealand in 1906 but seemed to disappear. A new importation by MAF took place in 1980 and sheep were released from quarantine in 1990 for commercial use. They were imported this time to respond to a demand for large lean carcasses.

The wool is typical 'down' type with similar end uses as the other down breeds.


RYELAND

Mature body weight (ewe): 55-70kg
Wool:

• Fleece weight: 3- 4kg
  
• Staple length: 75-100mm
• Fibre diameter: 28-33 microns

Fertility: 110-130%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association

The Ryeland evolved in UK as a dual purpose breed and was used as such when it came to New Zealand in 1901 and 1907. It then developed more as a meat breed and has been used as a terminal sire. It is now classed as a rare or heritage breed as numbers are very low. It was used to poll the Dorset Horn to produce the Poll Dorset.

The typical down wool is suitable for textiles, tweeds and hosiery.


DORPER

Photo from NZ Sheep Breeders' Ass0ciation website
www.nzsheep.co.nz

Mature body weight (ewe): 65-80kg
Fertility: 110-130%
Administration: New Zealand Sheepbreeders' Association


The Dorper was produced in South Africa in the 1930s by crossing and interbreeding the Dorset Horn and the Black Headed Persian, so sheep can be either all white or have a black head. They were bred as a meat sheep and shedding their wool for warm climates. They were introduced into New Zealand in the 1980s as a terminal sire meat breed for large carcasses.


OTHER BREEDS
AWASSI

Awassi ram.
Photo by kind permission of Kalev & Kathy Crossland
(email: xland@ihug.co.nz)

Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

The Awassi is a fat tailed sheep imported using embryos into New Zealand from Israel in 1991 and released from quarantine in 1995. The breed has potential for the live sheep export trade to the Middle East.


KARAKUL

Karakul ewe.
Photo by kind permission of Michael Willis

Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

This is another Middle Eastern fat tailed breed where the fat spreads over the rump. It was imported into New Zealand and released from quarantine in 1994. The pelts of Karakul lambs produce the classical curly 'Persian lamb' used for hats and coat trimmings.

DAMARA
This breed originated in Namibia and has been imported into New Zealand with potential for export to the Middle East.

Awassi ram.
Photo by kind permission of Kalev & Kathy Crossland
(email: xland@ihug.co.nz)

GOTLAND PELT
This breed was imported to New Zealand by MAF in the 1980s from Scandinavia for research into the possibility of an export pelt trade.

Information: New Zealand Sheep Breeders' Association

HOKONUI
These are Merino type sheep that were found in the Hokonui hills in Southland, New Zealand. They can be white or coloured, the rams have large horns and the ewes are rarely horned.
Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)


CHATHAM ISLAND
These clearly carry Merino genes and got themselves isolated on a corner of the main Island of the Chathams. They have been feral since the early 1900s. They are mostly white with long fleeces which suggests other breeds than the Merino. The rams have horns as have half of the ewes.


PITT ISLAND

Pitt Island ewes

These are coloured Merino type sheep that were released on Pitt Island in the Chatham Island group in New Zealand in the early 1900s by European settlers. Some of the sheep were removed in 1981 before the island was cleared of animals and are now kept as heritage sheep. They are all coloured and are self shedding.
Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

CAMPBELL ISLAND
Sheep were first put on to Campbell Island in 1895 with more arrivals in the early 1900s with the intention of farming them. The island was abandoned in 1931 with 4000 sheep left to run wild. From these feral sheep, ten were brought to New Zealand as heritage sheep in the late 1980s before the island was cleared of livestock. They are the only ferals known to hae mainly Merino blood.
Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

STEWART ISLAND
Sheep farming started on Stewart Island in 1874 and continued until the 1990s. These sheep were ferals that missed regular musters, and the remnants are now classed as heritage sheep.
They are of Merino origin, are coloured and have horns.
Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

ARAPAWA
These are also coloured Merino type sheep that have bred on Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds from sheep taken there in 1867 by early settlers. The sheep are of Merino types originating from Australia. Today's heritage sheep were derived from escapees on the island. They have a fine fleece which sheds if the feed levels are challenging.
Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

RAGLAN
These are a Romney that went feral on a peninsula in Raglan harbour. Twelve ewes and two rams were collected in 1976 by MAF scientists at Whatawhata Research Station. The small flock was sold in 2005 and the remnants are now kept as heritage sheep.
Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

OTHERS
Information: Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand. (www.rarebreeds.co.nz)

The trust lists a number of other types of sheep which have been mainly escapees from farmed sheep.

• Clarence River sheep: From the Clarence river reserve in the Marlborough Sounds.
• Digger Hill sheep: From western Southland.
• Herbert sheep: From the Herbert and Hampden areas of north Otago.
• Mohaka sheep: From the Mohaka river area in Hawkes Bay.
• Woodstock sheep: From Woodstock station near Oxford in south Canterbury.