53. Some Thoughts in General
Most Highlanders who have to do with the land know a good
deal about sheep. In the crofting districts sheep are almost the mainstay.
When everybody is a professor of the job, what is there for me to say? I do
not propose that it should be much beyond a few comments from my own
observation over a wide field and the contact of almost a lifetime with hill
sheep.
West Highlanders were not sheep men two hundred years
ago, but after the Rebellions, when Lowland flockmasters turned their eyes
to Highland hills, they took to shepherding with remarkable ease and without
customary objection to this newfangled notion. The Highlander tends to take
to the pastoral life much easier than he does to the clodhopping monotony of
arable cultivation, with its attendant work of bullock fattening and pig
feeding. I, who am not a Highlander but a Borderer by breeding, have much
sympathy with this delight in a pastoral husbandry, but my personal opinion
is that sheep have been the curse of the West Highlands—sheep and hoodie
crows.
To begin with, the coming of the sheep was responsible
for many more clearances and more cruel ones than was the rise of the deer
forests at a later date. Hill sheep farming employs the least man power of
any form of husbandry in Britain. Hill pastures and glens under sheep
deteriorate faster than under any other class of stock. The early sheep men
cut down an immense amount of cover, and since then the sheep have
effectually prevented regeneration of patches of woodland over large areas.
At the present time, I should say, there are quite twice as many sheep in
the West as there should be for the health of both sheep and ground, and it
is concern for sheep, more than anything else, which is holding up any
considerable advance in husbandry in the crofting areas. When a township is
in such case that its sheep stock cannot be kept outside the head dyke and
that ewes and lambs are nipping the heart out of the enclosed grass parks
until the end of May, that township is grossly overstocked with sheep. The
crofters of such a township are year by year lessening their stock-carrying
capacity by reducing the possibilities of growing winter keep.
There is also a queer distribution of breeds in the West.
There is a good green ground on volcanic soil carrying Blackfaces which
could carry Cheviots quite well, and there is a stretch of country in the
North-West trying to maintain Cheviots though it is the poorest hill ground
in the whole of Scotland. Even Blackfaces would not be robust on such
ground. When an area cannot maintain its ewe stock from its own breeding it
is obvious that it is not good sheep country ; yet such is the position in
parts of the North-West. I suppose the reason for Cheviots being kept in
such country is that it is not far away from the good Cheviot ground in
mid-Sutherland. The shotts have filtered over to the West.
I have heard from crofters in such poor areas that they
make a better price from Cheviot lambs than from Blackfaces, and
down-country farmers have told me that the Cheviot lambs they buy from these
crofting areas always do well with them. Quite so : but the price of lambs
is not the sole criterion for judging the profitableness of sheep. There is
the question of mortality to be considered and the cost of wintering the
sheep stock as a whole. Similarly, the fact that a down-country
farmer makes a good thing out of these lambs on better land
is no reason for suggesting the crofter also made a profit out of rearing
them. Those lambs represent the final survival from a long line of death.
The mortality among tups is very high in the West, there are winter losses
among the ewes, losses at lambing among both ewes and lambs and the first
winter losses in the hoggs. Those wether lambs which come into the little
township sales certainly ought to fetch a high price. If a breed is kept in
which mortality is much less, then a lesser price for a larger number of
lambs may show a greater profit.
54. Fleece Types
The above remarks were not intended to decry the Cheviot
breed in the North and West and extol the Blackface. Personally, I think
Blackfaces are easier to herd than Cheviots, but the Blackfaces have their
serious disadvantages. For example, it is the general opinion that
Blackfaces are more likely to be struck by the fly than Cheviots, though the
latter are bad enough as we all know. There is also the problem of Blackface
wool. I say problem, because it is indeed a tangled skein and a fantastic
situation. At the present time, when the export trade in Blackface wool for
carpet manufacture is at a standstill, most of the clip is being stored and
an uneconomic high price is being paid for it by the Wool Control—which
means the taxpayer.
The best Blackface wool for carpets or for mattress
stuffing is that which comes from Lowland hills, particularly Lanarkshire
and parts of Ayrshire, and from Angus hills. The worst Blackface wool comes
from the West Highlands. Yet year after year, sheep farmers in the West, and
crofters, through the Department of Agriculture, are importing tups with
stronger fleeces from farther south and east in order to try and keep a type
of fleece which the West simply cannot grow. All we succeed in doing is to
produce the worst wool of a type which we have to sell because it is no use
to us at home. And if we are making a profit on it at present it is because
we are passing the buck to the country at large, which is having to buy at a
high subsidized price a raw material it does not want, cannot use, and has
to store.
In the West we should try to see this problem as a whole
and put our foot down fair and square. The Outer Isles by reason of their
remoteness or what else have a strain of Blackface sheep which are rather
longer on the leg and much shorter and softer in the wool than ordinary
Blackface sheep. The Hebrideans are not attempting to sell this wool as
nondescript Blackface and therefore do not come into that market at all.
This wool is the precious raw material of their distinctive product of
hand-woven tweed which, until recently, had the name of being hard-wearing
and wet resisting. Now such is the misguided enthusiasm of improvers of
animals (they are a class to beware of for they see one thing in front of
them and nothing else) that hard-fleeced Blackfaces are being imported to
improve the island type. The result is that some of the Hebridean wool
is becoming too coarse for tweedmaking and has to be exported to join the
other rubbishy stuff from the West in the Blackface wool stores. And to
complete the fantastic situation, the Hebrides have nowhere near enough of
their distinctive type of wool for this Harris-tweed trade and are having to
import wool from Galashiels and such places. Surely it would be better, not
only in the Hebrides, but in the West as a whole, to give up trying to breed
the type of Blackface fleece which only the Lowlands can produce
satisfactorily (and like as not the Lowland Blackface men are only following
a fashion) and turn to breeding a type of Blackface with a woollier fleece,
the kind of wool which keeps its separate staples with a bit of "lash" at
the tips. Such wool could be processed and finished in the West.
I hope the above remarks will not represent me as wishing
to see the Lewis type of Blackface spreading over the West Highlands. The
place for the Lewis Blackface is in Lewis, where it is an example of a sheep
adapted to its particular environment, which is largely deep peat bog. It is
an axiom of the science and practice of animal breeding that an animal
should not be "improved" beyond the capacity of the environment to maintain
such improvement. The sheep of Lewis are probably as good as they can be
except for better selection and greater care within the island flocks. But
in the West Highlands generally we must not contribute to the fallacy that a
good-bodied Blackface sheep must of necessity have a nondescript strong-wooled
type of fleece. The Galloway men have shown that it is possible to grow a
woollier fleece on a good sheep. Galloway sheep clip lighter than
Lanarkshire ones, but I understand their wool is being used for tweedmaking
rather than going into store and is worth more than carpet wool on a
competitive basis. There is nothing in such a policy to prevent continued
emphasis on mutton qualities.
55. West Highland Wool in the Future
It is fifteen years since I finished a piece of research
on the Blackface fleece as it occurred on the animal, but I did not give up
an awakened observation which that research brought about. Since then
observation has confirmed some conclusions I made rather respectfully at the
time, for I was a young man reared in the Blackface tradition and with a
great admiration for the big names in the fancy.
The story as generally told is that the Blackface fleece
of the desired strong type is necessary to turn the heavy rain. Is it? The
rainfall in those areas which best produce this desired type of fleece is
less than half what it is in the West where such a fleece cannot be grown,
however much you pay for a tup. In point of fact, that particularly rainy
area of Ross-shire to the east of Skye grazes Cheviots almost exclusively
and makes a good job of them. Furthermore, the outstanding defect of the
Blackface fleece, and one which breeders do their best to remedy, is a
tendency to thinness of fleece over the withers. The staples part there and
let the rain on to the skin, so any supposed rain-shedding quality of the
strong staples is not much good anyway.
The Blackface type of fleece is not good in snow, yet the
desired type of long stiff staple is found where the snow is likely to be
heavier and to lie longer than in the West. The certain good point in the
fancy type of Blackface fleece is its good weight. If industry finds a
technique of melting down rough wool and drawing a new uniform wool fibre
from it, then there will be plenty of room for all the Blackface wool we can
produce as the raw material of a new industry. [Since
writing the above I have come to the conclusion that such an idea holds no
hope, for in a recent conversation with a research chemist who is actually
producing an artificial wool fibre, I learned that the protein used cost
about 1½d. per lb. and was derived from nuts. He
said it would be quite possible to dissolve Blackface wool and produce his
new fibre, but he would not be able to pay 1s. 4½d.
per lb. for it.]
If you take a staple of Blackface wool, examine it
carefully and draw forth the long hairs (and the stiff, dead kempy fibres
which should not be there at all), you will be left with a small amount of
beautifully soft, lustrous wool. In the course of that early research of
mine, I found that this fraction of the staple was the most constant, and
that the long hair and the kemp (particularly the latter) were more variable
in their numbers and weight. As change by selective breeding depends largely
on the existence of variability, I suggested that the character of the
Blackface fleece—so largely determined by the texture of the long
hairs—could be altered within a few generations. There is already a decided
move in Galloway to breed a much woollier type of Blackface, and it is there
we should go for good bodied tups which would further woolliness in our
western stocks and yet maintain and improve conformation.
One of the great advantages of the Blackface over the
Cheviot on western grazings is the altogether better type of birth coat of
the lamb. As far as I can observe, the woollier type of Blackface is not
noticeably poorer in birth coat. After all, in breeding for a woolly
Blackface we are not aiming at a Cheviot type of fleece, but, as I said
before, a woolly moderately separate staple tapering to a short "lash." Such
a fleece, with its sub-stratum of soft, lustrous wool would be ideal for
tweedmaking.
I am sure that the West Highlands cannot afford to export
their wool raw. We should keep the processing of it here in the West as a
small local industry ; and the finishing, such as tweedmaking or knitting,
should be done in our own homes. Some may say, should not the spinning be
done in our homes as well? Personally, I think hand spinning, except for
special jobs, will die out and we should not be unduly sorry. It is a
tedious job taking a lot of time and prevents a woman being able to get out
and about or to have time for reading, gardening and social life. There is
far too much romantic whimsy-whamsy about hand spinning.
56. The Shetland Sheep
It is with some hesitation that I devote an article to
the Shetland sheep, because I am an enthusiast for the breed, and until a
few weeks ago was the proud owner of a small flock. If the chance comes my
way again I shall certainly start up afresh, for not only do I like these
sheep, but under certain sets of conditions they will leave more profit than
either Blackface or Cheviots. The main difficulty is that there are not
enough of them, and they are so little known that when they appear in the
markets, buyers look askance at these small, scraggy creatures that can jump
and do not work to a dog as well as other sheep do.
The Shetland sheep is nearest the primitive wild Moufflon
of any of our British domesticated sheep. The Soay sheep of one island of
the St Kilda group are still nearer the Moufflon, but they can hardly be
called domesticated. Most Shetland sheep are chestnut-brown in colour (like
the Moufflon), but there is a diminishing number of pure white ones, a few
fawns, a few blacks and a few greys, but these greys have a different type
of fleece and in my opinion are more akin to the Ronaldshay breed of sheep
in North Orkney.
The tups are horned and many of them grow the same shape
of horn as the Moufflon, smoother, wider spreading and black, quite unlike
the Blackface type. The ewes are mostly hornless, but some have short,
rather shapeless horns. These sheep were undoubtedly brought from Norway in
Viking times and not only to Shetland but to the Outer Hebrides and West
Highlands as well. These were the old "tan-faced" sheep which were here two
hundred years ago and were to become extinct as Blackface and Cheviot came
north in the great sheep colonization of the Highlands. There may
still be people alive who remember the last of the old kind,
and if any of them would care to send me any information about such sheep, I
should receive it gratefully.
Shetland sheep are mostly clean-faced though many ewes
carry a little bit of "muff." The legs are always clean of wool to above the
knee and hock and are of fine bone of exquisite quality. The tail is
naturally short, triangular in shape like that of the Moufflon and bare of
wool for the last couple of inches. These sheep never need to be "birled" or
tail-clipped at tupping time or for keeping them clean.
One of the outstanding points of the Shetlander is the
milky quality of the ewe. She will rear a lamb by a Cheviot tup that will be
bigger at weaning time than pure bred Cheviots in the same area. In such a
cross the Cheviot type is dominant. Obviously, if the breed became commoner
in the West, the cross with a Cheviot tup would be the one to make with the
cast Shetland ewes. The Blackface cross is a miserable looking creature and
not to be considered.
Speaking of cast ewes reminds me to say that Shetland
ewes are inclined to be like old soldiers who never die but only fade away.
There are deaths, of course, but the Shetland ewe is normally a long-lived
animal who will keep a full mouth of teeth years longer than a Blackface.
When given the slightest chance of better keep she produces twins and rears
them well. Triplets are quite common and are also easily reared. The lambs
are nigger brown in colour if the parents are "moorit" or chestnut-coloured,
and they have a close hairy birth coat, which is proof against all the
weather we are likely to get.
SHEEP SHEARING, SCARPA, HARRIS
These are good days in high summer. These Blackface
sheep of the distinct Hebridean type have woolly fleeces which provide
the best type of wool for Harris tweed. With more care in selection and
breeding it is probable that the weight of fleece could be increased.
This type of wool is worth much more to the crofter weaving his own yarn
than the Blackface wool of mainland flocks. In the Hebrides, as in
Shetland, it pays to keep wether flocks; for these sheep sell but poorly
as lambs and the wethers give a good clip of wool which can be used at
home.
Mortality in ewes and lambs is low, and more important
than almost anything else, these moorit Shetlanders are highly resistant to
attack by the maggot fly. I never had a case in my own sheep (which being on
a remote island were never dipped), and when I had to do with the breed in
small paddocks at the Institute of Animal Genetics at the University of
Edinburgh, we did not have a case there, though the fly was a scourge in
other breeds under such conditions.
I believe that an extension of the Shetland breed of
sheep in some of the Islands and on some of our West Highland promontories
would be a good thing all round. The wool could be finished at home and go
to a retail market which is large and quite unsatisfied at present. Because
of the high price of the wool, it pays to keep wethers to two or three years
old, which fact, together with the low mortality in ewes and lambs, means
that it is unnecessary to keep a large ewe stock. Shetland lamb provides the
small joint much in demand, but a finished Shetland wether is a gourmet's
dream. The fat on the Shetlander cannot be felt from outside the sheep for
it is within the muscle and round the kidneys.
Their biggest drawback is the work they put on the dogs,
but if a few ewes are tamed and kept around the croft, they are tamer and
more sensible than Blackfaces or Cheviots.
57. Sheep Diseases
I have no intention of going into a long description of
sheep diseases. Most of us know the symptoms well enough. But it might be
worth while saying that during the last twenty years a good deal of research
on the subject has been done, and that it is now possible to prevent the
incidence of many diseases which still take a heavy toll. This preventive
treatment usually means the injection of a vaccine, which contains a
modified form of the germ which actually causes the disease. The injection
of this modified-germ preparation causes the production within the sheep's
bloodstream of those bodies which could fight and kill the disease. The
blood is thus armed against that particular disease and when infection comes
along it is nipped in the bud.
Braxy, for example, is a common early winter-time disease
which tends to go for those sheep which are in best condition. Inoculation
confers immunity in fourteen days, though where braxy is very bad, two
injections at intervals of a fortnight in early autumn are advisable.
The scourge of louping-ill or trembling can also be much
diminished by the use of a vaccine. Louping-ill is caused by a virus which
is transmitted to the sheep or cattle beast by means of the saliva of the
tick. If we could get rid of the tick we should rid ourselves of the risk of
louping-ill, but we cannot do that in hill country. The disease occurs
mainly in April, May and June when the ticks come on the animals, and to a
lesser extent in September when there is a second tick invasion.
If vaccination has not been done before, it is wise to
inject the whole sheep stock, except the young lambs, for they are apt to go
down under the injection. Subsequently, hoggs and gimmers should be
inoculated at the beginning of March; or if the ground is known to be bad
for louping-ill in autumn, the ewe lambs should be inoculated in August and
again in March.
Dipping of the ewes about ten days or a week before
lambing is a partial and external aid to preventing louping-ill, in that it
discourages the invasion of ticks, but it cannot be looked upon as a very
satisfactory means. Dipping at such a time means hashing the sheep and
gathering them from their accustomed places on the hill, all of which does
them no good, and if the weather is wet, the dip soon goes.
Lamb dysentery is also causing a lot of trouble. One
means of naturally keeping the incidence low is to keep ewes and lambs well
out and not crowded at all, for infection is heavy in pastures contaminated
with excrement. Vaccine prevention consists in inoculating the ewes a few
days before tupping time and again a fortnight before lambing. It is
interesting to note that the lamb within the mother's body is not made
immune, but her first milk—the colostrum—is heavily charged with antibodies
and the lamb is given a short-term immunity which lasts it through the
danger period of the first and second weeks of life.
These vaccines have been largely made possible by the
research carried on at the Moredun Institute, Edinburgh. It is in the
interests of all independent crofters and members of sheep club stocks to
use inoculation as a preventive measure in such diseases as respond to this
form of attack.
Worm diseases in sheep are common enough, but we know
enough about them now to exercise control. Liver fluke need bother nobody
now that carbon tetrachloride solution for drenching sheep can be bought at
almost every village store. Stomach worms are much worse in sheep which are
poorly fed, and they increase enormously if the density of sheep on any
particular bit of ground is heavy. Good bodily condition and keeping the
sheep spread about the hill and not allowing them to congregate on the low
ground or common grazing just outside the fence, are the best means of
keeping worms in check. Salt licks are also a help, but they should be well
spread about the ground. Remember— congregation means infestation.
