Not helping themselves

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32708, 10 September 1971, Page 15

Not helping themselves

“No wonder the farmers can’t make money. . . .” This comment came this week from one of the principal buyers at Addington. He was looking at a heavily woolled pen of Corriedales being offered in the fat sheep pens—and they were heavily in lamb. Looking further, he found they had good mouths, and one of them was a two-

tooth. They were sold for $4 each, and ended up on the hooks. This pen of ewes was typical of hundreds of inlamb ewes coming into Addington each week. Why is it that the vendors, having taken these ewes through the winter on turnips and hay, now sell them, at this stage of the season, in the fat pens? Nothing is more definite than that there is a complete lack of confidence among sheepfarmers, but as the buyer remarked, how can they afford to sell them at $3 to $3.50, sometimes a little more?

The farmer, at this stage of the season, has made his outlay in taking his ewes through from autumn to spring. They are about to come into production. While wooi is not realising much, a fanner can clear $1 a head, and then there is the lamb, which conservatively must be worth at least $4. This is the profit, which the farmer is declining to take. Of course, what is happening in practice is that the farmer who began lambing at the end of the first week in August has now been lambing a month. With the pressure on agricultural work for springsown barley, grassing down, or early preparation for next year’s winter crops, the last of the ewes to lamb are bundled off to the market No matter how one looks at the situation, it is a serious waste. At Addington this week, there were ewes in the fat pens lambing throughout the day. In some instances, the buyers declined to take ewes heavily in Jamb. This class of ewe, however, is not the only class of sheep not suited to the retail trade. Depressing the market at the present time are the hundreds of lightweight ewes, still in the wool, which are not suit-

able for thq trade by the wildest stretch of the imagination. Even for bon-ing-out purposes, they are not a good proposition. As a result, larger numbers of these ewes sell in the $2 t 6 $3 range, and some as low as $l.

In spite of many weeks of good, fine weather, virtually all the ewes to have been sold so far at Addington are Still in the wool. At this time of the year, the buyers would much prefer to have the ewes shorn.

It was a point of interest this week that the small selection of shorn ewes to be offered sold every bit as well as woolly ewes of average quality. So, again, the farmer-vendor is denying himself a clear dollar on the value of the fleece.

Although prices for sheep and lambs at Addington are lower than for some years, well-brought-out stock still sell well. Yet, at the very time that profit margins to the farmer hold a particular significance, the standard of much of the stock they offer leaves a tremendous lot to be desired.

Bad marking is another aspect which continues to detract from the sale of a number of sheep. Although the offering of wethers this week was one of the smallest of the season, the principal retail buyer could not bid on several pens of goodquality sheep because they were liberally plastered with red and green sprayed brand.

As reported in the farm pages earlier this year, the butchers have their own colour combinations so that the sheep can be sorted out after they have reached the abattoir. Farmers and drafters should, therefore, mark their sheep only on the head or' nose—preferably in black—if the sheep are not to be the subject of confusion once they reach the slaughterhouse.