LAMB, SHEEP KILL DOWN 5 per cent

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 8

LAMB, SHEEP KILL DOWN 5 per cent

In respect of numbers and weight of stock killed, the export lamb and sheep season in Canterbury ended a lot better than many people would have thought possible earlier on in the season. Over both lambs and sheep the kill for the seven works in the province wAs down on the previous season by a little more than 5 per cent —the actual drop was about 340,000 head. The season’s total kill was about 6.26 m. The drop in the lamb kill was about 540,000 or between 9 and 10 per cent. The kill was about 4,925,000. On the other hand, the sheep kill—about 1,340,000 — was up about 196,000 head or about 17 per cent. Canterbury Frozen Meat Company’s Pareora works had the distinction of bejng the only works to kill more than one million head—its performance was better than 1,036,000, but it was lower than in 1968-69 by more than 162,000. The company’s Belfast works was the only one among the seven in the province actually to kill more than in the previous season, but Borthwicks killed almost aS many at its Belfast works. The recovery in the feed position on farms in the latter stages of the season resulted in a remarkable upsurge in weights of lambs killed. This was perhaps no more marked than in Mid-

Canterbury where over the last three months of the season lambs were averaging about 331 b at the Fairfield . works. At the end of February the average weight of lambs killed at Fairfield was 28.27 lb. By the end of the season it was up to 29.711 b—a recovery of close to IJlb. Over the same period the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company’s three works’ average lifted from 27.711 b to 29.061 b, or more than IJlb. Fairfield ended the season with the highest lamb weight average, 29.711 b, with the averages for other works ranging down to 28.281 b. Compared with the previous season these averages were lower by 0.371 b at Fairfield to 1.231 b less at the works showing the biggest margin compared with 1968-69. Reflecting the drought conditions, the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company reported this week that the percentage of prime 291 b to 361 b lambs in its kill in the season just ended was 35.8 per cent compared with 44 per cent in the previous season. In the latest season there were 27.88 per cent of prime light-weight lambs up to 281 b compared with 22.83 per cent the previous year. The proportion of seconds or fair average quality lambs was between about 28 and 31 per cent and was generally a little higher than in the previous season, but at one works it was as low as a little more than 22 per cent. Sheep weights were also

trailing last season and averages, for individual works, ranged from about 421 b to 481 b. The cattle killing season is now drawing to a close but the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company expects to have a full kill until the end of this week. The over-all kill for the province, at a recent date, was up about 12} per cent on last season at 65,903. The increase would have been greater had not

one company needed to have 1200 head killed away. At the same time it is reported that there has been a spectacular increase in the kill in Southland this season where, at the beginning of this month, the kill at more than 68,000, was up almost 36 per cent on last season. Some of this gain can be put down to the killing of stock acquired from drought-affected Canterbury districts.