RESTRICTING OUTPUT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 15, 19 January 1931, Page 4

RESTRICTING OUTPUT.

GISBORNE SUGGESTION. BREEDING Ol' , SHEEP. In the present chaotic condition of leading industries there have been many instances of producers in various parts of the world endeavouring to remedy the mai'Kct position by curtailing production. It has been reserved for a Poverty Bay farmer to carry the suggestion into the livestock arena.

In order to get over the surplus sheep dillicult in Poverty Bay, Mr. F. S. Boweu, a well-known sheep farmer, is going to adopt a plan which ho is recommending to other farmers, and that is to stop breeding this year. He argues that if the.surplus sheep in the- district cannot be sold at a figure that is going to help the farmer, the sheep would be better remaining on the laud and carried through the coming year as dry sheep, which are more easily catered for than wot ewes. In adopting his proposal not to breed during the coming mating season, Mr. Bowen claims that if a farmer wishes to make up any numbers in the flocks next spring, it will be cheaper to do so by buying in stores than by breeding, for he claims that the over-production apparent at present will not Lave been worked off by that time.

A Gisborne paper, commenting upon Mr. Bowen'u proposal, states that it has been noted in times of comparatively good prices,, the Dominion's flocks have increased, remarkably, while when slumps occur to a lesser or grezrter degree the sheep population falle in sympathy. Probably this will be the result of the present period of deflated prices, and "if Mr. Bowen's advice is widely accepted, even partially, the decrease in the flocks next year should be substantial. •