PAYMENT ON YIELD OF MEAT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30401, 28 March 1964, Page 8

PAYMENT ON YIELD OF MEAT

A SYSTEM of payment for beef on a yield of meat basis is to be instituted in Otago and Southland. The scheme has been approved by the Meat Board and has been accepted by the provincial meat and wool sections of Federated Farmers in Otago and Southland.

Mr H. A. Seifert, of Palmerston North, who is a spokesman for the New Zealand-owned meat export freezing companies, said in Christchurch this week that the system had been devised because cattle in that area ’ were excessively wasteful, so that exporters had assessed their loss on 18,000 prime cattle killed last season at around about £70,000. Operations on this basis obviously could not be continued and two alternatives were open to operators. Alternatives The first was to drop the standard schedule by say 10s per 1001 b and the second alternative, which had been chosen, was to retain the standard schedule for beef of standard quality—that was beef that would give a yield of 62 per cent and above, which was the average in the North Island, and it was on North Island operations that the schedule was based because of the greater scale of the industry there. Where the yield was from 57 to 61 per cent it was proposed to drop the schedule by 10s per 1001 b and where the yield was below 57 per cent by a further 10s.

The effect of this arrangement was to give a just reward to the farmer producing beef of the required quality. It was felt that this was a more just arrangement than any arbitrary schedule reduction imposed on all beef producers in Otago and Southland.

Mr Seifert said the assessment of the percentage of yield had of course to be done by eye and this was under Meat Board supervision, but in addition regular checks would be made by operators

by actually weighing the cattle. This would tend to stop any tendency towards grading either too harshly, or too leniently. It was felt that this new price policy should have a very considerable effect in raising the standard of beef cattle produced in Otago and Southland. Mr Seifert said that it had been shown that where a beast was taken over 7001 b,

41b of fat was put on for every 11b of lean meat. There was some thought that the cooler climate in the southern provinces created a tendency for cattle to develop a greater fat coverage than further north. In this respect it could be noted that the overfat lamb problem had been particularly acute in Southland, but it now seemed to have been largely overcome.

Mr Seifert suggested that some such system might eventually be adopted throughout the country.