A MATTER FOR REGRET

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31322, 18 March 1967, Page 10

A MATTER FOR REGRET

TT is to be greatly regretted that the Meat Retailers* Association should have dropped its support for the Grand National Fat Stock Show and forced the abandonment of this event. The statement of the butchers that the show has outlived its usefulness is not strictly correct. It would be more correct to say, perhaps, that the show in its present form may not be perfect That is something which if necessary can surely be rectified. It can be claimed that the weekly markets are a sufficient guide to farmers of the sort of stock that is required by the trade, but such a show, if it is to serve a real purpose, should be an occasion on

which the expert stock men make a special effort to produce the best stock that it is humanly possible to produce to meet the requirements of the trade. The show, therefore, acts as a stimulus to the production of really top stock and if butchers choose to pay a little more for this stock then it can only be assumed that they do so because they expect to get value for their money. But one is bound to say that butchers cannot be expected to pay more than a beast is worth to them, and if in the past producers have expected something more than this then

they have been unrealistic and unfair. But it has frequently been claimed by those associated with the show that the trade has not paid enough to compensate producers for the effort that they have put into the production of that little bit better stock. Pity It has, of course, been a pity than more fanners have not followed the fat stock show in the past, for in a sense it has had an important educational role, and it is here that sometimes in the past it had been claimed that it has fallen down. The fault has not been with the idea of the show itself, but rather with the rules and regulations. A criticism has sometimes been heard that a particular class did not meet up with modern trade requirements. But where that sort of thing crops up it surely is possible to rectify the weakness.

There is no question that stock breeding and production is becoming more scientific with performance testing and measurement, but this does not mean that there is not a place for bringing together periodically the best stock that man and computer can produce for the pleasure of all, including the trade, to look on and assess.

Such shows are still held In other parts of the world, and the farming industry and trade in North Canterbury may be the worse off by the abandonment of this show for their mutual benefit.