Canterbury’s Kill For Export Will Decline

Press, Volume C, Issue 29466, 18 March 1961, Page 10

Canterbury’s Kill For Export Will Decline

The general opinion among freezing company officers in Christchurch is that the export kill of lambs and sheep in Canterbury this season will be markedly less than last season. A reduction of up to 10 per cent, in the lamb kill is considered possible and the ewe kill may show a decline of 15 to 20 per cent.

The reduction could mean about 500,000 fewer lambs and sheep handled at the seven freezing works in Canterbury. The kill began early in Canterbury this season, and by Christinas there had been record tallies at most works. At that stage the kill at the seven works was almost 50 per cent, better than a year before, which was a drought season.

Now the whole picture has changed. In spite of an advance in the schedule for lambs from the beginning of last week there has been only the slightest increase in the kill. It remains to be seen whether further price increases which operate from Monday will have any effect on the pace of the kill. The impression is now that there are simply not the lambs to kill. Comparison At the three works of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company about 53.000 sheep and lambs were handled this week, compared with about 94.000 over the same period last year. There was no killing at all at the company’s Belfast and Pareora works last Monday and there will be none again next Monday. Fairfield will have only a little more than half a day’s work on Monday. Compared with last year the kill at these works is now about 5 per cent, below last year, and the general manager of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company (Mr R. D. Iles) considers it likely that the over-all kill for the season at his company’s works could be down at least 10 per cent. Asked whether lambs being held back by farmers because of abundant feed and low schedule rates would come to hand, Mr Iles said:— “I do not doubt that we will get full killings to our present manned capacity, but I do not think there will be any rush, and I cannot see us getting near last year’s killings of lamb and sheep.” At the New Zealand Refrigerating Company’s Islington works the kill is running about 1J per cent, behind last season, and at Smithfield, near Timaru, the decline is about 84 per cent. Movement of stock from Southland in the early part of the season helped the kill at Islington, and without these the decline on the last season would be between 4 and 5 per cent. According to one local source the decline in the lamb kill for the season at the seven Canterbury works

could be about 400.000. This man said that, to start with, the lamb drop in Canterbury this season was down about 200,000 on the basis of Department of Agriculture estimates, which put the province's lambing at 5.766,000 head. It was generally assumed that 60 per cent, of the lambs would go to the works—this means that about 10 per cent, of ewe lambs were normally killed. This season, with abundant feed, it was reasonable to assume that more ewe lambs were being kept back on farms, but with so many ewe lambs born to Down rams which could not be held in flocks for breeding purposes the number of extra ewe lambs refined would probably not amount to more than 5 per cent. It was on this basis that he believed the Canterbury lamb kill could be down by about 400.000. He believed there would be a general decline in the South Island ewe kill, with the Canterbury reduction about 100,000 and between 10 and 20 per cent. At this rate the reduction in the kill of lambs and sheep in the province would be about 10 per cent.

Last season the lamb kill at the seven works in Canterbury was about 4.36 m, with the export kill of lambs and sheep about 5.44 m. At present the kill in the seven works stands at just short of 3.5 m, or about 5 per cent, lower than at the same time last year. But while killing is at a low ebb the lambs that are coming to hand are generally heavier and are grading well. Over the earlier part of the season lamb weights were tailing behind last year. Now the leeway is being made up One organisation reported yesterday that its average was now equal to last year. At the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company’s works the kill of second-quality lambs is 5 per cent, below last season.