QUITTING SHEEP.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10230, 8 January 1927, Page 3

QUITTING SHEEP.

THE “GET-UP” COUNTS.

DRAFT FROM A SALE PEN

For tHo next two or three months now farmers will consider quitting surplus cull stock before the commencement of winter. Their first aim in so doing is to find the best market.

Few farmers realise how closely associated management is with the value placed on stock in the sale pen. As in the show ring, so in the sale pen, however, the get-up counts. Admittedly most men endeavour to have their stock in the best possible condition before tliej' are placed under the eye of the buyer, but, in the past, Poverty Bay farmers have understood little of the art of drafting and sorting sheep so that they can be exhibited in a manner best suited to minimise faults and shortcomings.

The art of selling stock to advantage in a saleyards rests principally on the elimination of comparisons. To realise this truth is is only necessary to take a. few examples.

A black sheep in a mob at once engages attention and the buyer is subconsciously biased by comparison for he realises that one sheep does not como up to standard, and his opinion of the mob suffers. A fat ewe in a pen of cull 2-tlis at onee allows the dealer opportunity for comparison and the faults of . the mob become more apparent. Without the big sheep lie would only have memory and experience to base value on and he would be more ready to listen to the pleadings of the auctioneers. Instances such as above are of courge exaggerated, but it must be realised that a straight even line of sheep always look better than a mob of varying shapes and sizes in which the value of the better quality sheep invariably suffer by comparison with the stragglers. It is second nature for a dealer to find fault, and the farmer who places an uneven line of sheep in the sale pen is only looking j for trouble in offering comparisons ! to work upon. j At Matawhero during the last year j or two sheep have admittedly been j penned up in a better manner, but still there is room for improvement.-j •In country sale yards however, little | time is given to this question, and where private deals are put through on a farm) it is only the worst of the line that are cut out. Sellers must realise that the buyer values stock only as they appear to him, not as they looked a month ago, or might appear in a month’s time. The onus is on the seller, therefore, to place them before the purchaser in the best possible condition, and, as previously stated, drafted in a manner least suited to afford room for comparison.

NEW ZEALAND COCKSFOOT. APPRECIATED ABROAD. “Sheep and cattle farmers in this country (runs an article in the South African “Friesland, Journal”) will be interested to learn that a farmer in the Ermelo district of the Eastern Transvaal has succeeded in establishing an imported variety of grass which bids fair to alter completely the present conditions of sheep and cattle farming on the High Veld. The grass is known as New Zealand Cooksfoot. It is not affected at all by frost. Last season 1200 sheep were grazen on 35 morgen, and there was enough to spare. At the present time there are 3000 sheep on the farm, and within a month the number will have been increased to 5000. As, for four months in the winter, there is not a mouthful of grass on the High Veld, the importance of this new experiment can be readily appreciated. The lion. A. G. Robertson, formerly Administrator of the, Transvaal, and a recognised sheep breeder, is stated to be greatly impressed. The farmer claims that he alone possess tho secret of establishing the grass permanently, and he has declined a request from the Government to divulge it. He has been experimenting with the grass now for years, and been very successful.”

VALUE OF TOP-DRESSINC

SPLENDID RESULTS AT DYERVILLE.

INCREASE IN MILK YIELD. The treatment of land with manure is a question of interest to every farmer, and its beneficial results are generally conceded, though opinions may differ as to manures and quantities to be applied. Through the courtesy of Mr. Owen, of D'yerville, a Martinborough Star representative was taken over a six-, teen-acre paddock, which for many years past had been noted for its poor pasture, but under mixed treatment is at present showing a splendid result, the crop being even and heavy of . a uniform height of eighteen inches. A previously sour ridge which runs across the paddock has equally benefited and is now bearing a wealth of rye and cowgrass. Not satisfied with the appreciable benefit derived from treatment for a couple of years with basic alone, Mr. Owen consulted Mr. D. P.. Sheppard, chemical agricultural analyst, controlling the produce and seed department for the Wairarapa Faimers’ Association, who analysed the soil and recommended a mixed fertiliser.

The paddock was top-dressed on August 20 last, and well worked on the following day with tine and chain harrows, two cwt of manure being supplied to the acre, with the sowing of 31b per acre of cowgrass. On September 8, 47 cows (milk yield 7001bs) were put in, the milk yield for the four following days—9th, 10th, 11th and 12th—showing 8461 b, 8911 b, 9931 b and 10781 b, being an increase of 3781 b on the fourth day. On September 29, the paddock was 'closed for hay, and despite the intervening windy and unfavorable weather an exceptionally heavy crop of rye freely mixe'd with cowgrass is now being cut. '

This result speaks for itself, and evidences the value. of top-dressing pasture lands. /

It is too soon yet to say what the monetary wool returns per sheep for Australia will’ be this; "season. “The' probability, however, is that ..in New South Wales it will he over 10s; and possibly about 11s to lls 6d. ...That.is assuming lliere us no material alteration. inlth© market. r •’ /.A, T;.vV>-