“Super Premium" For Lambs In U.K.

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31543, 4 December 1967, Page 10

“Super Premium" For Lambs In U.K.

A West Melton farmer, Mr M. A. White-Johnson is very pleased with the way that an early shipment of his lambs have sold in the. United Kingdom. They are reported to have earned “a super premium.” The lambs out of Border Leicester Corriedale ewes by a Dorset Down ram, were in the Port Victor which sailed from Lyttelton on October 26. There were 277 in the consignment, which averaged about 291 b at slaughter at eight to 10 weeks of age early in October.

In Britain, where the lambs were due early this week, they were sold by the BritishNew Zealand Meat Company “ex quay delivered” to a Buckinghamshire butcher, who paid 36d per lb for the whole consignment. Mr H. A. Kingwell, the governing 'director of the company, advised Mr A. McDonald, the New Zealand director of the company, of the sale during a telephone call on Thursday evening. Mr McDonald said he regarded the price as “a super premium” for new season’s

lamb, and he warned that it could not be taken as an indication of the sort of price that owner account shippers might expect when new season’s lamb became more plentiful in the United Kingdom. The purchaser of the lambs liked showing new season’s lamb in his window, Mr McDonald said.

. The same man bought Mr White-Johnson’s first shipment of lambs last season, too. but then he paid up to 30jd per lb for only the lambs under 281 b in the consignment. Mr White-Johnson said yesterday that after taking into account all costs and adding the value of the skins he expected to net more than $7 per head from the lambs. As a result of the United Kingdom devaluation, the 36d paid in sterling is only fractionally more in terms of predevaluation sterling than the 30|d paid last year for part of Mr White-Johnson’s consignment but as a result of New Zealand’s devaluation the 36d, which would have been worth 30c in New Zealand before devaluation, is now worth 31.92 c in New Zealand currency.