Lamb Kill Close To Last Year’s

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30943, 27 December 1965, Page 1

Lamb Kill Close To Last Year’s

Canterbury’s lambkilling performance this season is probably j the best of any dis- . trict in the country, according to a man whose knowledge of the meat industry extends over the whole ! of New Zealand, When killing ceased for the' year at the province’s seven freezing works on Friday the lamb kill, at about 2,111.000 head, was only about 80.000. or 3 to 4 per cent behind that i of last season, when the district was having one of the! loneest droughts in its history., The kill of lambs and sheep; together at 2.191.000. was about 123.000. or about 5 per cent down, but in the words of one industry spokesman the district was now less than a week’s kill behind last season For about the last month there has been steady pressure to have lambs killed at works i in the district, but with feed; supplies everywhere plentiful i

there has not been the ex-; treme pressure of other seasons. Lambs too. have been: (doing very well. On average.j ilambs killed at Canterbury; works this season have been 5 21b to 2 jib heavier than last season and the proportion of second quality or fair average quality lambs has been little more than half that of last I season. The bountiful season has brought with it a continuing problem with over-fat lambs. The numbers of lambs which have had to be graded out I have increased many times 1 over previous seasons. One works spokesman said that the proportion had been running at just under lj per cent of all lambs killed at his works over the last two weeks. This had been a season when it had been necessary for drafters to get out and persuade farmers of the need to have 1 lambs killed said a company ; spokesman. Concern is felt in some quarters about the disposal of these lambs. One works exe- : cutive said that the answer ;

was not to trim them and export them in packaged form, as they could damage the j reputation of high quality lamb packs that had been pul out by exporters. Mr R. D lies, general manager of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company. ..aid on Friday that about 1100 lambs had so far been rejected for export at his company’s works because of their yellow colour. These had come mainly from South and MidCanterbury. The reason for the bigger numbers of these lambs this year is not known at present, but is also suspected to be attributable to the season. Another spokesman said that the increase in over-fat and yellow lambs this year could be linked with a general tightening of grading. This was not a matter for alarm but rather for increased care on the part of the producer. So far works report no rush to have old ewes killed, and it is felt that this may

be a light season for the killing of ewes. It is expected that with plentiful feed supplies and big reserves of hay farmers will tend to hold back all the ewes they can for another season. They are also likely to be influenced in this policy by the high price of replacement stock and also the more modest prices this year for ewes for export.

The relatively good kills at Canterbury works so far this season are in striking contrast to the situation elsewhere in the country, and particularly in the North Island. It appears that many North Island works have not been under pressure at any stage so far this season and have had short killing days. According to one authority, the expectation in the north is that there will be a good kill there in the autumn, which means that the pattern of killing will be returning to that of earlier years, when the main kill was after Christmas.