Shropshire

N Z News

Winter Edition July 2013

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DIRECTORY

President Nan McDonald

Secretary Greg Burgess, NZSBA � 03 358 9412

Email nzsheep@clear.net.nz Vice-President Helen McKenzie Breed Committee Nan McDonald � 06 379 9221

Email nan@meldworks.co.nz

Tom Burrows � 03 312 5982

Email eudunda.ram@xtra.co.nz Helen McKenzie � 06 372 7842

Email rosemarkie@wise.net.nz

Keith Wratt � 07 573 8558

Email keith@dextercattle.co.nz

NZSBA Councillor Tom Burrows

Editor Helen McKenzie

Website: www.nzsheep.co.nz

Closing date for next newsletter is December 10th, 2013

Cover: Adrian & Denise Rackley’s 5 ewes and ram (ram on far right) on

display at Burrows – a bit bedraggled with the horrible weather

Shropshire Sheep NZ accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any published opinion or information supplied by individuals or reprinted from other sources. Items may be abridged or edited.

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CONTENTS

02 Directory

03 Contents; Thinking of You

04 President’s Report

05 Noticeboard; From the Editor

06 Shropshire NZ AGM and Flock Tour - report

08 Bit Of History – Papers Past

09 ‘Mamaku’ Stud - Origins

11 ‘Rosemarkie’ Report

12 ‘Glanballyma’ Stud

13 Shropshires In The Olive Grove – ‘Highway Lodge’ Stud

14 UK News #1 Trip to Germany

15 ‘Saddle Hill’ Shropshires

17 Food For Thought; More Of Papers Past

18 UK News #2 – A Royal Flock Begins

19 Shropshire Wool Put To Good Use

THINKING OF YOU

John Green has just returned from a short spell in Auckland Hospital. We wish

him all the best for a speedy recovery.

Sue Kingsford and Nan McDonald; on the recent passing of Sue’s father.

����������

We received a copy of the Agricultural Census the other day. Under ‘what sort

of sheep do we farm’ it gave a choice of Shropshire. I’m sure this is because

Lucy Burrows’ flock is listed on SIL, as Ryelands were not mentioned at all and

there are still a similar number in NZ. Helen

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Dear fellow Shropshire breeders,

On behalf of the members of Shropshire NZ, I welcome new

breeders Jimmie, Sandra & Moira Suttie, ‘Saddle Hill’ Shropshires of Dunedin;

and James Brown, ‘Strathburn Shropshires’ stud from Otautau to our flock.

We also welcome potential new members, Alastair & Alison Needes of Hawkes

Bay, who are so new they haven’t acquired a prefix yet. Alastair actually hails

from Shropshire in the UK. His is familiar with the Longmynd and Cannock

Chase, ancestral homes of the breed.

What a winter! After the worst drought in forty (40) years, winter has been

kind to farmers and stock – so far anyway.

A draft programme and timetable of activities for the sesquicentenary (150

years) of Shropshires in New Zealand will be circulating with Committee

members as you read this newsletter, before going out to travel agents and

accommodation providers for costing.

Do get in touch with me (email is best) if there’s any way in which you’d be

keen to get involved, or with ideas to share.

I trust that all your ewes and pastures are in good order for lambing – and

that you are too!

Regards,

Nan McDonald President

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NOTICEBOARD

For Sale

Eight (8) Registered Shropshire ewe hoggets.

Sire Mamaku 52/10 (Reg #1300). ‘Rangitukia’, R.D 2, Carterton.

Contact: Nan McDonald on 06 379 9221 or 021 717 454 or email

nan@meldworks.co.nz for further information and/or to arrange viewing.

Stud Rams $300 - $400 each, plus GST. Accredited brucellosis free.

Over 30 years of Shropshire breeding.

Contact: Helen or Warwick �06 372 7842 or email rosemarkie@wise.net.nz

�������

Wairarapa A & P Show, Clareville, Carterton 1st – 3rd November, 2013.

Secretary Ray Beale, phone 06 379 8124 for more info & for a schedule..

Sheep will need to be shorn for these classes. They must be shorn sometime

between 24 July and 1st October. (About 7 weeks before show day is the best)

Royal Show, 6th – 8th December at Manfield Park, Feilding

I have emailed the Show Association to ask them to notify me when the sheep

schedules are available so will email everyone once I hear. Tom Burrows may

bring some sheep from the South Island. Be really good to support the

classes too.

FROM THE EDITOR

Hi All

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to supply material for

this issue of Shropshire NZ News. Much appreciated. If it’s not in

this time it will be in the December 2013 issue. We had a great AGM (apart

from the weather), with two new breeders and their families getting involved.

Please note if you belong to Rare Breeds and get their magazine, Rare Breeds

Newz, the photos of Lucy’s ram hoggets and Rackley’s ewes have had their

captions mixed up!

Helen

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SHROPSHIRE NZ ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND FLOCK TOUR

by Helen McKenzie

Members of Shropshire New Zealand met in Canterbury recently for the 2013

Annual General Meeting and flock tour. I flew down on the Saturday afternoon

and Sheepbreeders’ Association general manager, Greg Burgess, picked me

up at 9am on the Sunday ready to begin the day. The first stop was to new

breeders, Matt & Rebecca Stiles.

Matt purchased his ewes from Lorne Kuehn & Lucy Burrows and has the

beginnings of a very good flock. Matt has worked in the high country and has

been a blade shearer in the past although he is now working in Christchurch.

After seeing Matt’s flock we retired inside for a welcome coffee, tasty

homemade cakes and the AGM.

Unfortunately our national president, Nan McDonald was unable to attend

due to a family bereavement, however we still had several members present

including myself; Matt and Rebecca (and their two boys); Denise & Adrian

Rackley, also new breeders; long standing breeders Lorne and Pamela Kuehn,

and Tom and Lucy Burrows.

The Meeting dealt with the usual business items and also discussed plans for

the celebration of 150 years of purebred Shropshire breeding in New Zealand.

It is hoped that as part of that celebration, New Zealand breeders may host

an International Congress towards the end of 2014. The first International

Shropshire Congress was held a number of years ago in the UK with great

success. It is of course more difficult in NZ where there are few breeders

spread over two islands with the resulting logistical impediments that hamper

organisers. There has been some interest shown from overseas breeders so

we will have to see what response there is once the programme is finalised. It

is hoped to include Canterbury Show on the agenda.

At the conclusion of the meeting we farewelled Rebecca and the boys, and

Matt then joined us as we moved on to Lucy Burrow’s ‘Highley’ flock, situated

on her parents, Tom & Fiona’s farm, at Horrellville, near Rangiora. Tom and

Fiona have a long association with the breeding of pedigree animals as they

have studs of Perendales, Corriedales and Shetland ponies as well as son

John’s Dorset Down flock and Lucy’s Shropshires. Until recently Tom was the

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Sheep Marshall for the Canterbury

show, a big job; made more so,

when the Show Association was

hosting the Royal Shows.

Lucy & Tom Burrows - photo by

Rebecca Stiles

Lucy’s flock was founded in 2008 on

6 ewes bred by Warwick and me, and

5 ewes bred by Lorne Kuehn. Tom

and Lucy did the organising for the

meeting and flock tour and along

with Fiona, hosted us for a lovely

lunch of hot soup and sandwiches. The soup was very much appreciated as

the weather was pretty miserable.

Unfortunately, the overcast skies and drizzly rain literally put a ‘damper’ on

things and photos were not as good as I had hoped they would be. The poor

sheep had very wet feet in the yards but all had a good coat of wool and were

no doubt warm underneath it.

This last year our society has lost 2 cornerstone breeders with the retirement

of John Green, initial saviour of the breed in New Zealand, and also the

unexpected death of Ross Fraser, a passionate supporter of rare breeds.

Fortunately we have also gained several new flocks, with a couple more

looking likely to become registered. It is very encouraging to see the breed

slowly increasing in number from a total of 55 registered ewes in John Green’s

and Sidney McDonnell’s flocks plus 50 odd once-registered ewes of Wratt’s

(later accepted back in after re-grading with registered sires) when I joined

the Society in 1982, now increased to the 340 odd registered ewes today.

There are probably another 100 ewes in unregistered flocks but these are not

available for registered breeders to use in their flocks. There are also around

160 or so young ewes that won’t enter the flock book til next March too.

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Tom and Lucy had gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that the various groups

of ewes from their initial purchases:- from us, Lorne Kuehn and John Green,

were in their respective mobs of origin, as well as the ones from Ross and

Pamela Fraser’s dispersal and those they have since bred. Ewe and ram lambs

were separate and the four stud sires were penned separately with their

pedigree details nicely laminated for ease of reading.

Next year’s AGM and flock tour will be back in the North Island and we hope

to have as many breeders there as possible to complete last minute plans for

the proposed congress. It would be wonderful to have truly international

recognition for our Shropshire breed.

BIT OF HISTORY FROM PAPERS PAST

RECORD PRICES FOR SHEEP North Otago Times, 8th August, 1912

A new Australasian record for the price of fat sheep was made at the

Addington Saleyards to-day, Mr F Bull’s Romney Marsh/Shropshire wethers

selling at £4 to £8, and Shropshire wethers up to £4/12/6d. The previous

record was held by Mr Bull, his Shropshire wethers last year selling at up to

£3/17/6d.

�����

RECORD PRICE FOR A SHROPSHIRE EWE, Sydney, This Day

Wairarapa Daily times 26th June, 1906

Forty one guineas was paid at the sheep sales by Mr Seth Smith, of New

Zealand, for a yearling Shropshire ewe from Mr Mansell’s Tasmania flock. This

is said to be the world’s record for a yearling ewe.

[Just to put that into perspective, in 1967 our family sold an extra large prime

bullock at the Masterton Saleyards and he made £93/12/00 which was the

sale record for a bullock up until then. For those young bods not familiar with

pounds, shilling and pence – a pound was 20 shillings and a guinea was

twenty one shillings if I remember correctly. In theory, a pound equals $2 but

actually was worth a lot more in today’s terms. A quick bit of research has

shown that £50 in 1919 was worth about $3,813 in 2003 so would be more

again in today’s rates, Editor]

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MAMAKU STUD - ORIGINS

It is with a certain amount of sadness that I have seen the last

of my Shropshire ewes leave after nearly half a century of

breeding, but circumstances change and you have to let go at

some stage. Thanks to Helen, Dan and Keith for each taking part of the flock;

at least they now have a chance to contribute to the breed’s future. I can now

concentrate on keeping this cancer at bay. Helen has asked me to write

something of the early flocks that have been used to make up the breed as it

is today. My flock came from several strains.

Through the ‘Cranbrae’ (Margaret Gallagher) and ‘Leathad’ (George McDuff)

flocks, I accessed the blood of the very old Flock #2 of WP Reid. This flock

was well established prior to the first Flock Book. These sheep were rangy,

open faced sheep of good dark colour; very hardy animals.

McDuff had used several ‘Oporo’ rams. His sheep were much like ‘Cannock

Chase’ M414(t) [aka Sooty] who some of you will be familiar with, very long,

but shorter in the leg. The ‘Cranbrae’ ram 1/61, tall, a little narrow but long

bodied, he also had ‘The Pines’ blood from Australia. He was a dark coloured

sheep. In the 1960’s, the ‘Cranbrae’ flock, together with the ‘Mattingley’ flock

– which was an offshoot – were sold to Ivan Van Asch of Havelock North. I

saw these ewes (96 in number) and they were good sheep, very even in

quality with a nice open appearance.

The McDuff flock was a good even flock, descended from Reid ewes, over

which two generations of Pearson rams had been used. Pearson sheep were

of similar ewe lines, crossed with Jas S Marshall’s, ‘Oporo’, rams. What I saw

of the Pearson ewes were good bodied sheep, larger than ‘Oporo’ but similar,

showing the ‘Orange Grove’ blood (Australia). These sheep also had Nicoll

blood in them.

The Oporo flock also imported 3 ‘Orange Grove’ rams and 2 ewes from EW

Ham and used a ‘Pines’ ram. I think it was imported by GH Nicoll. The Oporo

sheep were a smaller, more compact type with a lighter brown colour. This

flock also contributed a lot of woollier headed sheep. Both the ‘Penola’

(imported from Ron Maidment, Western Australia, in 1987 by H McKenzie &

WJ Potts of ‘Rosemarkie’ stud) and the ‘Merriyong’ ram (AI) imported from

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Geoff Baker in Victoria, by K Wratt of ‘Turoa’ & ‘Rosemarkie’ stud, carried

Orange Grove blood from EW Ham.

Looking at another flock that has no descendants, but is still of interest, was

that of LK McLay, in the mid 1960’s. His sheep were very woolly. These were

by an English ram bred by A E Everall and imported by GH Nicoll. I have

photos of some of these. Also of interest, we may still have some descent

from the flock of T E Upton who in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s had a flock of

1200 Shropshires.

In the 1930’s the flocks of Rupert Parry and Thos. Evans were very woolly

headed sheep. These two breeders were prominent in the shows.

Estate T Evans Shropshire ram

Photo: Stock & Station Journal,

February 1928

In my area of the North

Island there were several

old flocks up to probably

the mid 1940’s or a little

later; EO Pryor, Marton;

George Marshall, Turakina

and Sir Jas Wilson from

Bulls. These were all flocks

similar to the type I have

tried to breed. Also the Waikato flock of the Storey brothers in the mid 1930’s

was of similar type.

With the Shropshires, with a little selection you can easily change the look of

the sheep, as in their background you have had very open faced, dark

coloured, large sheep and also very woolly headed flocks.

In England in the 1880’s they went from open faced, to wool ‘from the tip of

the nose to the toes’ to satisfy the American demand at the time. This lasted

around fifty years and then they started to open the heads again and today

they are back more towards our type.

In New Zealand, we are lucky to have had long term breeders like WP Reid,

who bred functional sheep, and did not get carried away with fads and show

ring fancies. In England, with inspection as a prerequisite for registration, a

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breed can be forced to follow certain trends. Thank goodness we have never

had these restrictions.

I hope this brief summary of my time with the breed may be of interest to

breeders when it is remembered that all the present sheep registered are

descended through my flock from one of these lines.

Regards to all breeders

Cheers, John

ROSEMARKIE REPORT

We have had a major disaster with lambing. Our ewes were not due to lamb

until approximately 14th August. On 19th July they started dropping lambs and

about 50 have lambed. I thought it may have been a couple of really late ram

lambs we left on their mothers for too long, but found out they were removed

well before the dates have indicated. So I searched again in the diary and

found where 1 Ryeland ram lamb (tag noted) and several Shropshire ram

lambs were removed from the ewes. We thought they had been there only a

couple of days but were obviously very wrong!

We will have a good line of early Ryeland cross and straight Shropshires to

sell to the works, but that does not make up for the disappointment of some

ewes who may have been having their last lambing with us due to age etc

having un-registerable progeny.

We sold several ewes this year - 1 lot were OK as they were kept separate

and left home before lambs got out; second sale lot have had some

‘illegitimate’ lambs. We have offered humble apologies to the purchaser.

However, I understand their frustration, especially when starting a new stud.

Warwick started tagging the registerable lambs on the 14th of August. In 1998

when we were still on our 400acre farm we had a year where we only

registered about 6 Shropshires (we had around 120 ewes at the time) due to

a mix up. There wasn’t the enquiry for them then as there is now. As Robert

Burns wrote ‘the best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley’. Be

warned - it can happen to anyone!

We are hoping to enter sheep at the Wairarapa A & P show (Carterton) and in

the Royal Show at Manawatu and would welcome some competition!!

Helen & Warwick

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GLANBALLYMA RARE BREEDS FARM

Dan & Kathleen Murphy live

on a 7 acre block on the

edge of Palmerston North

City. We became interested

in running rare breed

animals after seeing the

Kerry Cattle in County Kerry,

Ireland. Dexter cattle

originate from the Kerry

Cattle. We began with

Dexter cattle and rare breed

poultry and then Shropshires

Kathleen & Barney Photos: Supplied became the next logical thing

after reading a newspaper article about John Green’s Shropshire flock in

Feilding. We contacted John and he got us established initially with 4 ewes

and a ram. We have since increased our flock from John to 11 ewes and 2

rams. We have kept 3 ewe hoggets from last season and look forward to

many more lambs very soon.

Dan was raised on a back

country sheep farm in

Taranaki. Dan is principal at a

local primary school and

Kathleen teaches at another

primary school in Palmerston

North. We have 4 children

and 8 grand-children, who all

enjoy the farm.

Dan, Shropshires & Barney

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SHROPSHIRE’S IN THE OLIVE GROVE

Karen and Ian Juno are olive growers in the Wairarapa who had been

considering grazing animals on their 17 acre olive grove to keep the heavy rye

grass down. They trialled the neighbouring heifers, but when they started on

trees they moved them out and the mowing tractor in, until they stumbled

upon Shropshire sheep. This is their story.

We first heard about Shropshire sheep while watching the TV programme

“Escape to the Country.” The programme is about people who want a dream

retreat in the English countryside. The show’s front person had taken one

couple to a Christmas tree farm and there grazing freely among the Christmas

trees were Shropshire sheep.

“Don’t they eat the trees?” asked the couple.

“Oh, no, replied the owner, they only eat grass” and as silly as that answers

sounds, we dived onto the internet to search for Shropshire breeders in New

Zealand. We found two in our region and chose the breeder closest to us.

This just happened to be Nan McDonald and Sue Kingsford. After making the

initial phone call, we drove excitedly to their lovely farm.

Nan and Sue had penned up a few hogget’s and pregnant ewes for us to

choose from. We decided to buy two pregnant ewes and four hogget’s, then

had to borrow their trailer to take them home. Novices we were and still are,

even though Ian was raised on a King Country sheep farm some years ago.

Our Shropshire’s quickly settled into their new life on the olive grove. They

keep the grass down and eat the unwanted water shoots growing low on the

tree trunks. This saves us the back breaking job of pruning them. We have

found the odd nibble on the olive trees, but no major damage.

We’ve noticed some endearing traits about our Shropshire’s, and wondered if

others have experienced the same. Shropshire’s don’t seem to bleat

repeatedly like other sheep breeds do. We had never heard them bleat until

after the ewes lambed and called their offspring with short, sharp little

sounds. Every time we entered the grove the hogget’s and ewes would

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protectively encircle the lambs. They would face outward, challenging us not

to approach too close. They’re like a little family that flock together, never

venturing too far from one another. Even when we fenced off the lambs

before bringing in the ram this year they remained huddled along the fence

line gazing like this day after day.

With the ram now gone and the olive harvest over, life in the olive grove is

returning to normal. Our two ewes and four hogget’s are enjoying roaming

free on the olive grove and will deliver new lambs in early September just as

the olive trees begin flowering and the life cycle in the grove begins all over

again. Shropshire’s are delightful. They have character and we love that. We

have chosen well.

UK NEWS #1 TRIP TO GERMANY

Courtesy of Shroptalk - Summer 2013 (Abridged)

Recently a group of eleven SSBA members travelled to northwest Germany at

the end of April to visit Shropshire flocks and participate in the centenary

celebrations of the NRW Regional Sheep Breeders’ Association.

Three Shropshire flocks were visited: those of tree grower Willi Fladerer,

Heiner Junge and Peter Quast. Heiner was the guide for the first day and the

tour group was impressed with the very high lambing percentage he achieves

of around 200%. Heiner’s sheep are used in his tree plantations, as are Willi

Fladerer’s. Peter Quast’s farming enterprises included a dairy herd milked by a

robot, a very large acreage of conifer trees (grazed by Shropshires) and deer

kept for venison.

The 100th Anniversary Celebrations were held at the Agricultural Centre Haus

Dusse, Soest. The tour party met more German Shropshire breeders and

viewed a range of sheep breeds, sheep equipment and a sale of German

Blackface rams.

NB: UK now has a community Facebook page, called ‘Friends of Shropshire

Sheep’ set up so that breeders around the world can exchange news and

views about our breed. If you belong to Facebook, check it out. [Editor]

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SADDLE HILL SHROPSHIRES

The Suttie Family have owned a 40 acre property on Saddle Hill overlooking the Taieri Plains and Mosgiel since 1994. The property is a North facing gully, with about 15 acres grazing, 12 acres light kanuka bush with the remainder QE11 Covenanted native forest. When we moved here, there was a lot of gorse, few internal fences and no vehicle access. We have worked hard to clear gorse, fence paddocks, put in stock water and bulldoze a network of tracks. We have removed the feral goats and gradually increased our sheep numbers.

Our mainstay originally, and even now, is a flock of Perendale ewes, and they helped us get the grazing into shape. However, we are both originally from Scotland and had been interested in rare livestock breeds for a long time. After the farm began to get established, we looked for options to farm a rare breed of sheep in New Zealand. The criteria were set out

• An unusual, but yet commercial breed (not Arapawas or the like) • No horns • Not large • Not too woolly (we run sheep in loose bush)

• Clean legs

The list of sheep breeds available in NZ fell down to Shropshires or Ryelands, and, through colleagues at AgResearch, where I worked at that time, we gained access to Shropshires first!

We have had Shropshires for 5 years, but only registered the stud this year. We find them very quiet, easy to handle and shift (contrast the Perendales) and the rams cross well with the Perendales to produce store lambs. The ewes milk well and the lambs grow quickly. Our ewes twin most of the time. We lamb in large bushy paddocks and find the ewes move predictably to certain areas to lamb and don’t mix with the Perendale ewes much.

We will be keen to build up our Shropshires as we like them. We have recently invested in Rosemarkie bloodlines and we are looking to them to provide some hybrid vigour. We are still learning about the breed – you never stop learning – and we are keen to get the best out of them in our coastal Otago hill environment.

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Our daughter Moira helps a lot with the lambs particularly and we find the animals very quiet and responsive to good handling. Overall they are lovely sheep.

Jimmy, Sandra and Moira Suttie

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

‘Drive carefully, it is not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.’

‘Good judgement comes from experience – usually experience is the result of

poor judgement.’

‘It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to

others.’

MORE OF PAPERS PAST

This article appeared in the

Ashburton Guardian of 1st

May 1897. I have been

unable to find any modern

reference to Shropshires in

Argentina.

Courtesy of the NZ National

Library’s ‘Papers Past’ facility.

(Sorry it’s crooked but that’s

just the way it was! Helen)

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UK SHROPSHIRE NEWS # 2

By Pippa Geddes The "hot" news is that HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, is having

some Shropshires at Duchy Home Farm (part of his Highgrove estate). They

are going to graze in orchards and will have organic status, so will also

produce organic lamb as well as keeping the herbage down in the orchards.

He's starting off with 12 shearling ewes and a ram. The ewes come from four

flocks: Sprotbrough (Alan Oliver, Doncaster, Yorkshire) Canalside (Peter

Richards, Shropshire), Moorgreen (Paul and Diana Redgate, Nottinghamshire)

and one from Liz Bowles (Hayne Oak, Devon).

They were all

inspected by Claire

Jakeman to ensure

they met the breed

standards and were

of high quality. The

ram was purchased

on behalf of HRH

from the Sidedowns

Flock (John and

Pauline Bowles) at

the recent show and

sale west. He is

Sidedowns Nimrod.

See photo at right.

It was announced earlier this year by our Rare Breeds Survival Trust that

Shropshires are no longer a rare breed in the UK. The Trust will continue to

monitor the number of registered females we have in the breed, in case we

slip back a bit, but hopefully not, as interest continues to grow and we've had

a lot of new flocks formed. We are now classed as a "Traditional Breed" which

I think is fantastic.

Best wishes

Pippa

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MASTERTON A & P SHOW RESULTS February 16th, 2013

Judge: Barry Wilton

(Total of 19 sheep forward for judging – 4 exhibitors)

Results:

Ram Over 21 Months 1 Mamaku #76 (J Green)

(4 in class) 2 Rosemarkie C50

3 Rosemarkie E22

Ram under 18 Months 1 Rosemarkie E51

(4 in class) 2 Stirling F501

3 Mamaku ?

Ewe Over 21 Months 1 Rosemarkie D89

(5 in class) 2 J Green #4

3 Rangitukia D18

Ewe Under 18 Months 1 Rangitukia 148

(3 in class) 2 Rangitukia E24

3 Rosemarkie F6

Champion Ram Mamaku #76 J Green

Champion Ewe Rosemarkie D 89

Supreme Champion Shropshire, & Champion Ewe ROSEMARKIE D89

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PHOTOS BACK COVER:

Top: Matt Stiles with some of his Shropshire ewes Photo H McKenzie

Bottom: L - R Greg Burgess, NZ Sheepbreeders’ Assn general manager;

Denise Rackley, Adrian Rackley; Matt Stiles, Lorne Kuehn (front), Helen

McKenzie, Lucy Burrows, Tom Burrows - at the AGM Photo: Rebecca Stiles

MR A E WRATT’S CRITERIA FOR THE SHROPSHIRE BREED

1) A good mouth and teeth – no undershot or overshot jaw

2) Small bone, with good attached muscle

3) No wool around eyes or feet

4) Large, upstanding sheep, well set on its four feet

5) Solid back; no hollows

6) Well formed rear end; not too heavy in the shoulders

7) Good even fleece

SHROPSHIRE WOOL PUT TO GOOD USE

Society President, Nan McDonald’s, new

nephew, Benjamin Davies, with his

specially commissioned Shropshire wool

blanket.

The wool was from one of Nan & Sue’s

ewe hoggets. It was spun and knitted up

by Marion Cameron, of Masterton. Marion

is a long time member of the Wairarapa

Black and Coloured Sheep Association

and also the local spinners and weavers

group. She prefers to spin the finer types

of wool and has previously bought a

Ryeland ram from us to cross with her

coloured ewes to provide her fleeces.

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