Hostility Found To Lamb Exports

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31863, 16 December 1968, Page 1

Hostility Found To Lamb Exports

A Canterbury young farmer who. rpturned at the week-end from a three-mbnth exchange visit to Victoria said soon after his arrival that he had encountered strong hostility to New Zealand lamb exports to Australia.

He is Mr A. Macdonald, a member of the Sheffield Young Farmers’ Club, who farms and also works with his father on a 950-acre mixed cropping farm at Annat.

Mr Macdonald visited Victoria under an exchange sponsored by Thomas Borthwick’s, who provided his transport between New Zealand and Australia, with the New Zealand Young Farmers’ Federation, providing internal transport and the senior young farmers of Victoria acting as hosts. Mr Macdonald said he had quoted some figures to Australian critics of New Zealand lamb exports. He had observed that Australia produced 290,000 tons of lamb, of which 97 per cent was consumed locally. The New Zealand trade had sent in about 700 tons of lamb, which was about enough to feed Sydney for a day. , But the Australians said it was not the tonnage that concerned them so much, but rather that this had been used by the trade as a lever to lower their prices. This had happened just at a time when they were recovering from a serious drought and with lower prices for lamb a lot of producers were feeling the pinch quite heavily. By New Zealand standards, Mr Macdonald said, the prices for lamb in Australia would not seem to be very low. but costs of production were much higher there. ■

At the same time, because of low rainfall, many farmers could not sustain, the same level of stocking as many of their New Zealand counterparts.

Mr Macdonald said he felt that there waa room for Victorian produbers to increase their efficiency in such matters as stocking rates, use

of more artificial fertiliser, higher lambing. percentages and improvement in farm management as it related to lamb production. Mr Macdonald said he did not say this in a critical sense as Australian farmers were frequently working under difficult climatic conditions. In fact, he had been impressed by the fact that they could make a living off such dry country and many ingenious techniques were used to conserve water and make use of every crop.