SMALLER LAMBS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21296, 16 October 1934, Page 12

SMALLER LAMBS

+ —- PROPOSAL DEFENDED DETERIORATION NOT NECESSARY A denial that the proposal to export a smaller lamb from New Zealand necessarily involved a lowering of the quality was given by Mr H. D Acland, president of the New Zealand Sheep Owners' and Farmers' Federation, and a member of the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board, and by Mr W. H. Nicholson, secretary of the federation, yesterday, when commenting on the views of Mr A. V. White, a principal of a firm of Smithfleid importers. In an interview with "The Press" published yesterday morning Mr White expressed doubt concerning the wisdom of the proposal. Mr Acland said that the proposal was not to reduce the weights to 25 or 261b, as Mr White appeared to believe but to bring them down to about 28 or 30. If the tonnage of frozen lamb admitted to Great Britain was tn be limited, it would be far better for producers in this country to continue to send their 9 000,000 carcases annually at a reduced weight than to be limited to say, 7,500,000 carcases at the present weights. This would have thp effect of spreading the burden over producers as a whole. If there was a restriction on tonnage and New Zealand continued to export lamb at the present weights, southern producers would be the only ones to suffer because their exporting season was the latest.A Matter of Taste The small milk lamb of from 28 to 301b was the most tempting of all, and there would undoubtedly be a fine market if growers could be induced to go in for this class of export. Mr Acland said that the application of the term "prime" was after all only a matter of taste. Just as certain classes of workers, by the nature of their occupations, could not eat anything but boner beef—workers in iron foundries in the north of England, for example—so many Dersons would not buy fat lamb. That explained why 'second-grade" lamb from New Zealand sometimes maae higher prices than the "orime." Mr Nicholson said that the aim ol the proposal, which was tirst put forward bv Mr Acland at the annual meeting of the federation in August, was to encourage the export of miii< lambs. These carried less fat. which many consumers regarded as waste, but were no less "Drime" than the best heavy-weight lamb. Mr Nicholson considered it would be an excellent idea if there was a revision ot the grading system to include a "super" grade for milk lambs. Dictated by Necessity "The proposal to reduce weights u» not a matter of wisdom: it is a matter of necessity." said Mr Nicholson. "It aims at meeting conditions that may be imposed on us by the British Government without penalising any section of growers in the Dominion." He said that the application of the principle undoubtedly had its limits, but where it was possible for New | Zealand growers to catch the market with "milk lambs it was certainly to their advantage to do so, and there would be no deterioration in the ouality of New Zealand's chief export. " Mr Nicholson said that the recent developments had made it very clear how unfortunate had been the results of the policy of cutting up *he highcountry runs. If conditions were now as they were when the frozen meal trade commenced there would be an ample reservoir of aged merino ewes from which to breed half-bred Leicester merino breeding ewes. Instead of that the producer had to depend on coarser-bred ewes with heavier frames from which to produce lambs for export. Owners with smaller holdings on the high country had quickly realised that it was more profitable to grow for meat export than to grow for wool. They had no alternative but to go in for the larger breeds of sheep. This was the source of the complaint sometimes heard that New Zealand wool had deteriorated, it had not deteriorated; it had changed in character, said Mr Nicholson.