NOTES BY THE WAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 11

NOTES BY THE WAY

LIGHT LAMBS

It was mentioned on this page some time ago that the average weight of export lambs in the season just closed would probably be substantially below normal. The annual report of the Meat Producers’ Board confirms this prediction. In the 13 years since the board was instituted and commenced publishing these figures, there has been only one year in which the weight has been lower, and that was by only a tenth of a lb. This was in 1934-3 a, when the average weight of lulled was 32.71 b. To the end of May this year the average weight was 32.sib, and with the many light lambs mat were sent to the works in the South Island in the month of June, it is’.not improbable that the record for a light crop might be established. In eight of the 13 vears the average weight has been 341 b or more, in two years the average was between 33 and 341 b, and in three years between 32J and 331 b. This season it is 32.8 lb, the figure also for 1931-32. In making comparisons with the heavier weights allowance has to be made for the demand for light lambs—32’s to 34’s to-day as against 34’s-36’s, the latter, of which weights were aimed at until three or four years ago, but even as late -.s 1935-36 the average weight was 341 b, and farmers and the trade can, scarcely persuade themselves that the lighter weights this season are entirely due to popularity. It is due to many unfinished lambs being sent to the works. The average decline in weight this season compared with that of two seasons ago is 1 l-51b. On the production this season of 9,125,000 carcases this would mean, compared with two seasons ago, a weight decline equivalent to about 330,000 lamb carcases. This, of course, reduces the weight of meat shipped by the Dominion to England, and, it is hoped, correspondingly reduces the criticism in England of the competition from New Zealand. MUTTON WEIGHTS The weights of wethers and ewes show a corresponding decrease with those of lamb —of ewes on the preceding season by 11b and wethers by 1.21 b. The average weight of wethers was 53.11 b, and only in one year in the 13 covered by the board’s return was it less. That was in 1931-32, when it was 52.91 b. The average ewe weight this last season was 52.81 b, the only season lower than this being in 1935-36, when the average was 52.7. The decline on last year of slightly more than a lb a head on the 2,150,000 carcases killed is equivalent to about 40,000 odd carcases. , The feature of the return this season is the high ewe figure—1,159,432 a? against 806,997 last season, the South Island works handling 503,915 os against 355,049. The explanation of this probably is that old ewes in the South Island had been kept on many farms unduly long, and with the steady export demand almost from the beginning of the season, farmers took advantage of thb favourable opportunity to quit and replace with reasonably priced young ewes. These younger ewes this season were substantially cheaper than they were last year, and money went further in replacements. In Canterbury the export buying of ewes has been irregular in most seasons, but from early in the season this year until the closing stages there was a continuous demand, and the works served a useful purpose in clearing a lot of these old ewes from the farms. The one not altogether satisfactory element is that there is a heavy quantity of ewe mutton on hand in stores, the figures at the middle of July being 515,443 carcases as agdinst 365,737 last season. Wethers sljow a’ small increase on last season—r-999,237 as against 970.C05. The South Island shows a very substantial increase, from 66,393 to 118,457. The North Island, on the other hand, shows a decline of 24,500. Stocks on hand show a satisfactory position—--326,702 as against 349,845 last season. In the matter of lamb carcases in store the position is equally satisfactory, there being • a decline of 200,000 to 1,330,000 this season.