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.

    13/106 (page 5)
    More mutton and lamb is eaten per head of population in Britain than in any other country in the northern hemisphere. During the second world war, and in the years immediately following, the amount of meat consumed in Britain was determined by the availability of supplies and not by consumer demand. It would seem, however, that we have not lost our taste for meat in general, nor our partiality for mutton and lamb in particular. TABLE 2 Consumption and Source of Supply of Mutton and Lamb in the U.K. Consumption Percentage per head lb home-produced Pre-war (a) 25-2 37 1951 15°4 38 1952 ; 214 34 1953 | 24°2 30 1954 | 21-6 41 1955 (provisional) 24°4 30 (a) Average 1934-38 Total consumption of carcass meat and bacon and ham in 1955 was less than pre-war by some 4:7 lb per head of the population. Consumption of mutton and lamb was only o-8 lb down on pre-war, whereas beef was 8-7 lb less and bacon and ham, 3:0 lb; on the other hand, consumption of pork increased by 7-8 lb per head. The amount of sheep meat eaten in 1955 has been restored almost to pre- war level, but beef was still only five-sixths of pre-war. The British farmer has a very big market for mutton and lamb on his doorstep, so big that if the size of the national sheep flock and the output of sheep meat were doubled we should still be producing only two-thirds of the national requirement at the present rate of consumption and this might well be capable of being increased. Any increase in home production of sheep must come from two main directions — through improved techniques of production, e.g., by control of disease, by breeding better sheep, by improved grass production and use, or, by the substitution of sheep for other enterprises in the planning of land use on the farm; in either case, success will depend upon the quality of the product and its price. OVALLEY IN MULION ANDCLAMB The British sheep farmer is faced with the difficult problem of marketing all his fat sheep — good, bad and indifferent — in competition with selected carcasses from overseas and it is necessary, therefore, to aim at high-quality production and to seek out and adopt those techniques which will help to achieve it. The housewife may not know how to distinguish between the knuckle end of a leg of lamb and the fillet, nor be able to recognize in the butcher’s shop the subtle but highly significant differences between similar joints from