WEIGHT OF LAMBS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 43, 20 February 1926, Page 6

WEIGHT OF LAMBS.

AUVX AJfX> DEAD. INTERESTING: PARTICULARS. At Daimevirke ihe other day -where Mr. W. Perry, the -well-known Wairarapa breeder was delivering a lecture, the Hon. O. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture, asked whether Mr.. Perry considered that the sending of heavy-weight lambs to London had a detrimental effect on lamn prices generally. Mr. Perry said tliat -two years ago., as a result of a dry season, the -weights were quite reasonable and the proportion of heavy lambs to light lambs quite right. Last year, a good season, the North Island lambs had a good weight and the South Island lambs were much heavier. There was some demand in London for the heavy lamb, but the great majority preferred small joints. -It was not the price per pound that the ordinary purchaser minded; he wanted small joints. Much of the heavy lamb that should have been sold on - the London markets before Christmas was still unsold. The . Sew Zealand farmer must realise that London public wanted the 301b to 361b lamb with a smaller proportion of lambs up to 401b. The best were those from 331b to 361b. There was nothing to equal "milk lambs^ , of that weight. Dealing with the question of the proportion of "dead, -weight" to 'live weight*' in fat lambs, Mr. Perry said that fat lambs exhibited at the recent Royal Show in Christehurch when killed showed the following results: — North Island lambs, -three fair-sized lambs and three -lighter, averaged 53.5 per cent of meat to their live weight. Thirty-three South Island lambs gave an average return of 52.43 per cent of meat. There was a general impression that South Island lambs killed better than North Island lambs, but the figuree quoted showed that the North Island lambs gave- the higher proportion of meat. The first prize pen, South Island • (on the hoof), a Suffolk-Southdown cross, gave the excellent return of 58.38 per cent of meat. English Leicester-Southdown cross killed out much lighter, per cent of meat than the Bomney and down crosses. The Leicester cross had not the solid flesh and undercut that the Komney and' Lincoln crosses possessed. As an illustration of live weights and dead weighte, Mr. Perry said that a pen of three lambs weighing on the hoof 661b, 701b and 701b, killed out at 371b, 371b and 381b respectively.