Good outlook for meat

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33052, 20 October 1972, Page 10

Good outlook for meat

Very’ good prospects for meat but tough times for dairy 7 products are seen ahead by Mr J. S. J. McCaskey, of Waipara. He has recently returned from an overseas trip looking at various aspects of farming and at the end of August he wrote to “The Press” from Britain saying:

“England — and it is summer at last What a glorious set of isles these are? From Devon to Dumfries, from Fife to Kent, the scene is one of intense activity in the harvest fields. Barley and wheat over every horizon, green grass, potatoes, you name it and it is growing somewhere. Thousands of tons of silage are away and enormous stacks of barley straw are taking shape. “Every sleek mob of cattle I see offers an exercise in maths and the same for sheep. Stock prices over here turn me green with envy . . . For example, I attended the store stock sale in Castle Douglas last week. Weaner calves of only average quality, of perhaps 3001 b live weight, were selling for SNZI6O each. I will be converting all prices into approximate New Zealand currency. Three Hereford heifers totalling 15cwt at $320 each. One 700 to 8001 b bullock at $212. “Beef sells in the butchers’ shops at well over $1 per lb. Even New Zealand rump steak was $l.OB per lb plus. “Store crossbred lambs sold from $14.60 to $2l. Evidence of the current boom in the sheep industry is the price being paid for Blueface Border Leicester cross Scottish Blackface ewe lambs—s4o. “A butcher friend of mine gave me these quotes. He pays $9.60 for a 271 b YL and retails the carcase whole for $11.34, which is 21p per lb (42c), but when he sells a joint, leg, loin, or chops it retails at 35p per lb, which is 70c per lb.

Alongside the New Zealand lamb is best Welsh lamb joints at 45p or 90c per lb. “By way of interest, compare the average E.E.C. country prices with the United Kingdom for the week ending August 5, and if you have the heart to do it add the current New Zealand prices. Cattle per cwt: E.E.C. countries, $37.96; Scotland, about $3O. Lambs (per lb deadweight): E.E.C., 78.7 c; Scotland, 44c. “The only comment that I can think of to finish these quotes is that it must be high time the New Zealand farmers demanded an inquiry into the meat export trade. “Sometime around 1960 I can remember it cost $2.75 to land a carcase ex farm in the United Kingdom. “I asked a butcher in a shop in Bath for a New Zealand 301 b first quality lamb carcase and was quoted $12.50 ($l5 the previous week) and I am sure I raised the eyebrows of his customers by informing all assembled that I had sold, possibly that lamb, off my farm, complete with pelt, liver, kidneys, tongue and other offal for $4.50 last season. “The question that has been asked me most has been for my opinion on the New Zealand position after British entry to the E.E.C. and I have answered it thus:—‘The prices paid for meat and meat products in Mexico, the United States, the United Kingdom and on the Continent have given me every confidence as a producer of lamb and beef

that New Zealand’s future in these products is great.’ “To this statement I add the qualification ‘providing the costs from New Zealand to the market can be contained or even lowered, which largely depends on having a Government capable of governing and a big change from the ‘please buy’ to ‘hard selling’ on the part of our Meat Board and processors.’ “To dairyfarmers I would say make the most of it. Dairy products and the E.E.C. will be a tough exercise and I feel it is ludicrous that anyone can feel otherwise.

“The E.E.C. countries, especially when they include the United Kingdom and Denmark, will be well able to supply the majority of their own dairy products and some time spent among Dutch and Danish farmers convinced me of this. The United Kingdom dairy potential is largely untapped by New Zealand standards. “I remember forecasting that the colossal rise in dairy prices last season would do the same harm to dairying as high prices did to wool in the 19505. Some time ago here the press reported a change in the policy of hospital boards from using butter to margarine. The saving to one medium-sized hospital was quoted as being $6OOO per year. I would take some convincing that they will ever go back to butter. “New Zealand dairy farmers could do well by getting back from the Government the money that has been withheld from them and using it to tune up their industry to a high pitch for the road ahead will have some big potholes in it and only the well shod will survive. “New Zealand cheese has a great acceptance here and hard selling should keep it that way.” (To be continued)