Sheep breeding and management.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sheep breeding and management. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/106 (page 3)
    In the lowlands the focus Tes shifted from the southern and eastern counties to the midlands and the west. The following figures illustrate the extent of the shift. Total cattle and sheep (000’s) 1895 1955 Cattle Sheep Cattle Sheep Norfolk 125 521 203 60 Hereford 89 319 151 510 Merioneth 38 377 41 495 _ In studying the statistics of what may be called the national flock, it is necessary, of course, to bear in mind the fact that practically all wethers today are sold before they are one year old, hence comparisons of total sheep do less than justice to the size of the present flock. There have indeed been fluctuations. The succession of wet years which culminated in 1879 took a heavy toll; losses in the blizzards and floods of 1947 were appalling. In both of the world wars we were compelled to sacrifice sheep for the sake of corn and milk. Even so, our ewes today are as numerous as in 1870. Yet problems of management remain; in particular, the rules governing optimum ratios of cattle and sheep — a matter of supreme importance in marginal areas — and the integration of sheep with intensive grass produc- tion, have yet to be worked out. Like all gregarious animals, sheep are subject to the ravages of epidemic diseases. Fortunately they are good subjects for prophylactic measures, and progress in all branches of epidem- iology has been rapid during the past two decades; but the health of the flock cannot be left to nature. It must be actively pursued. Science has not satisfactorily explained the role of the flock as a fertility-builder; still less has it solved the problem of canine delinquency or devised effective methods to keep away unseemly visitors which “creep and intrude and climb into the fold”. By a strange dispensation of Providence, the shepherd derives from the dog family his chief ally and one of his most formidable adversaries. On the one hand, he is dependent upon them for control of his flock — manage- ment of any flock is difficult without trained dogs; management of hill flocks would be quite impossible. The potential skill which has been bred into them is one of the richest fruits of domestication; — at the other end of the scale, straying dogs virtually rule out sheep-keeping on some farms.