DIFFICULTIES OF CHANGE TO BEEF

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31786, 17 September 1968, Page 24

DIFFICULTIES OF CHANGE TO BEEF

(New Zealand Press Association) BLENHEIM, September 16. The economics of a complete change from sheep farming to the running of cattle for beef production were most discouraging, the Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) told the annual conference at Blenheim today of the Wool Merchants’ Federation.

In the long term this would undoubtedly be the trend, he said, but the economics were discouraging even when compared with present returns from sheep farming.

Mr Shand listed points which, he contended, were the most farmers could do in a practical way. These were that farmers should weigh the balance of their stocking policy somewhat more heavily in favour of cattle; concentrate upon the best strains available of

the kind of sheep to which the country was suited; adjust farming practices to produce a better quality of wool than was being produced at present; prepare the present wool in the manner which suited the men who purchased for manufacture; assist with finance, research and promotion in the field of woollen manufacture.

Mr Shand told the conference that the reason why New Zealand continued to make the basis of its farming the crossbred ewe, producing coarse wool (which has met with such fierce competition from synthetics) and lamb and mutton (among the least preferred of meats by most people of the world) was clear enough to many involved in the industry in New Zealand. Net Return

“The net return from crossbred sheep is still greater on the bulk of our land than ’would be the return from any other product.” Very little land in New Zealand was particularly suited to agriculture in its accepted sense.

Modern farming techniques had very considerably extended the wheat belt the area of land from which it was possible to produce wheat without undermining the fertility of the soil. “These modern methods, in themselves, involve mixed farming and the running of sheep in such concentrations that only the disease-resist-ant Romney Marsh can remain healthy,” said the Minister.

“But the backbone of our farm production is hills too steep to be suited to agriculture at all.”

For many farmers it was physically possible to change the balance of farming—running more cattle and fewer sheep.

New Heart for Baby.—A baby girl two months old is in an “encouraging” condition in a Houston, Texas, hospital today a few hours after receiving the heart and lungs of a one-day-old girl born with a fatal brain defect. A spokesman at St Luke’s Hospital said the donor, who was not identified, died at 7.30 p.m., and surgery was completed at 8.27 p.m.—Houston, September 16.