U.S. To Buy N.Z. Cattle On The Hoof

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28536, 15 March 1958, Page 12

U.S. To Buy N.Z. Cattle On The Hoof

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 14. Large-scale shipments of beef cattle from New Zealand to the United States are planned to start next month. The first four shipments of live cattle will each comprise 1500 head off prime ox off a total value of approximately 750.000 dollars. This trade is being pioneered by a large ranching corporation in California which is reported to have a large ship under a long-term charter. A shipment will be made every 50 days. The shipments are being made by the Imperial Valley Company, in Southern California. The company’s president (Mr James Delfino) visited New Zealand some time ago to buy meat. He was apparently unsuccessful in obtaining supplies and has turned to buying and shipping live cattle direct from New Zealand to the West Coast of the United States where they will be stall-fed to the right condition for marketing. Mr Delfino applied only recently to the port authority at San Diego for permission to' build seven acres Of corrals at the port terminal to which shipments of

cattle would be taken for fattening. He told the port authority he hoped to import 1500 cattle from New Zealand every 50 days, and was planning to place a large ship under «a long-term charter. Other firms, Mr Delfino added, might also be applying for corral’ space at the port for cattle shipments. The type of cattle to be bought for shipment will be well-grown beef animals from two-and-a-half to three years of age, capable of being fattened quickly into primequality carcases. It is not known whether this beef will be marketed in open competition with domestic beef, or whether it will be sold to tract customers. GOVERNMENT’S APPROVAL Scheme Seen As Dollar-Earner (New Zeainnn Press, Assort ation) AUCKLAND. March 14. The first trial shipment of cattle to America would be given Government approval subject to the issue of health certificates to meet United States quarantine requirements, said the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Skinner) in Wellington tonight. He said this was being investigated. The deal could result in the earning of perhaps 750,000 dollars, he said. He had received no representations on the subject of shipping live cattle overseas from other interested parties.

Mr Skinner said he could see no harm in a trial shipment being sent as from the results it would be possible to examine the implications of this type of dollar earning. Mr D. P. Alexander, general manager of Dalgety and Company, Ltd., the New Zealand agents for the American promoter of the scheme, said he was not able to give any information on the proposed shipment at this stage. He added: “Things are still up in the air at the moment." Personal Items Lieutenant-Colonel R. R. J. Jenkin (retired list) has been appointed Colonel-Commandant, Royal New Zealand Provost Corps. The Rev. Father A. Olah Toth, a Hungarian Roman Catholic priest, who is a refugee, arrived in Christchurch yesterday to undertake the spiritual care of the Hungarians in Christchurch and other parts of the South Island. Father Toth will offer Holy Mass in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament at 5.30 p.m. tomorrow and will preach in Hungarian. Mr S. T. Barnett, ControllerGeneral of Police, will leave from Auckland today to attend a conference in Melbourne of the heads of police forces in the South Pacific area. He will return on Inarch 28.—(P.A.) Mr L. E. August has been reappointed to the New Zealand Milk Board as the representative of the Dominion Federation of Milk Vendors. Mr R. A. Candy has been reappointed chairman of the Dairy Cattle Breeding Committee. He is the representative of the New Zealand Dairy Board on the committee.