Lamb skins fall, premium for Ys

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 12

Lamb skins fall, premium for Ys

Woolly lamb skins have been reduced 15c a head in the amended schedule of prices to apply at South Island export meat works from today.

The prices will now range from 81c for a skin with a wool-pull of 0.45 kilograms to $1.15 for a skfn with a wool-pull of 1.20 kilograms. Exporters have also issued a range of prices for shorn lamb skins. A skin with a pull of .2 kilograms will be worth 70c; with a pull of .5 kilograms, 81c; and with a pul) of 1 kilogram, $l. Only two changes have been made to lamb prices. Fair average quality carcases weighing eight to 12.5 kilograms (YLs) have been raised from 39c to 40c a kilogram, and the same grade of lamb weighing 13 to 16 kilograms (YM) has been raised from 37c to 39c a kilogram. ‘FIRST TIME’ According to a Meat Board spokesman, this is the first time that the export schedule price for Y grade lambs has been higher than that offered for prime grade lambs, the Press Association reports.

prime grade carcases, said the spokesman. In the past these sometimes had been described as “seconds” to imply that they were of a lower quality than the prime carcases, but this could no longer be justified. “In our traditional lamb markets, such as Britain, leanness is becoming a much more sought characteristic, while most of our new markets will not accept prime grade lamb with its relatively heavier fat cover. “This does not mean that prime lambs no longer have ja place in our export trade, but rather that increasing emphasis will be given to I leanness.” I The board’s decision to reduce by 2mm the maximum allowable fat thickness of prime grade lambs this season was indicative of this trend, the spokesman added. ‘LIKELY TO STAY’ So long as the board continued to be involved in fixing schedule prices for lamb this season, the new price relationship between prime and Y grades was likely to remain. 1 “Producers can therefore be confident of receiving more for their Y grade lambs for the remainder of the season. We would expect them to respond to this situation by endeavouring to increase the proportion of their lambs qualifying for this grade,” said the spokesman.

The spokesman said that the price offered for YL grade lambs (Bkg to 12.5 kg) was now 1c a kilogram higher than for a prime D grade lamb in the same weight range. For a YM grade lamb (13kg to 16kg), the premium was 2c a kilogram over a prime 2 grade lamb in the same weight range. Y grade lamb carcases carried less fat cover than