Place seen for heavier lamb in U.K.

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33964, 3 October 1975, Page 6

Place seen for heavier lamb in U.K.

A Mid»Canterbury man with a lively- interest in farming who has recently returned from a trip overseas, including a visit to Britain, thinks it is time New Zealand took a close look at producing a heavier type of lamb for the British market.

He is Mr T. L. Crooks, of Ashburton. For many years New Zealand visitors to Britain with a farming interest have been struck by the apparent anomaly that exists, that • while New Zealand concentrates on sending lightweight lamb of about 301 b dressed weight to the country its own producers generally turn out a very much heavier lamb.

Certainly there has been a premium paid for these lighter lambs and their production has probably made good sense while lamb has continued to be sold through the traditional type of butchers’ shops and there was a demand in the big cities for small joints. But what makes Mr Crooks believe that a change could now be timely to production of a bigger lamb is that there is evidence that methods of marketing are. changing and in the supermarkets and self-help stores the consumer is no longer aware of the sort of animal from which the cut of meat that he buys has come. Mr Crooks is confident that he is not a lone voice in this matter and that he has authoritative support. “A study could well be made of producing in New Zealand a heavier export lamb with a low fat content.” he said this week. "For many years farmers in this country have been encouraged to breed lightweight lambs of the order of about 30 or 321 b and these have been established as a premium grade compared with heavier lambs. But there are now positive signs in the United Kingdom that this pattern could well be changed to advantage to the producer.” Mr Crooks says that an increasing quantity of meat is being purchased in large supermarkets and in smaller self-help stores. On his most recent trip he had persona) experience of life in an area close to Earls Court in London. This is an area of high population density in high rise buildings. One such building on the fringe of the Earls Court area, he says, would have some 130 compartments and house possibly about 300 persons. In this area he said there was one traditional butcher’s shop and one supermarket and three self-help stores all with their cabinets of meat. In the large supermarkets and smaller self-help stores he said the meat was precut and attractively packed in small quantities, which had no relationship to the size of the animals from which the cuts had come.

This took, trade away from the traditional butcher, but some of the enterprising chains of butchers’ shops were following a similar

method of offering small cuts. They would take a few chops from the end of a large leg then cut the leg, as well as the shoulder in half. The flaps were rolled and stuffed. The purchaser then bought to a price that he or she could afford. The supermarket meat displays were attractive and popular because the housewife could purchase all of her domestic requirements at one point of call. Obviously most of the United Kingdom’s own lambs were produced from heavier breeds than were commonly used in New Zealand, Mr Crooks said, and he recalled seeing on one farm in Kent large Border Leicester ewes with lambs that would dress out at more than 401 b. He had seen in butchers’ shops in the United King-

dom home-grown lambs of up to 481 b on the hooks, and cuts from them at the beginning of the season sold at a higher price per lb than New Zealand lamb. Certainly Mr Crooks said that New Zealand lamb arriving in the United Kingdom before Christmas seemed to command a premium market and these lambs would naturally probably not be heavy lambs, but the method by which a lot of meat was now sold gave rise to the thought that the New Zealand lamb producer should perhaps no longer be concentrating on production of a light lamb and should be looking into the production of a heavier lamb.

In many cases an extra 101 b could probably be put on to lambs with very little trouble, it should also lessen processing costs, increase the country’s overseas exchange earnings and also the return to the producer himself. In Bournemouth and London Mr Crooks said he had gained the impression that the 301 b or 321 b New Zealand lamb was worth about SI7 in pre-devaluation currency. It was his feeling that the New Zealand producer was not getting an adequate or fair price for export lamb taking into account the price he had been receiving at the farm gate and the price paid at retail by the consumer in the United Kingdom. It ■ seemed to be a ridiculous situation that by the time a lamb reached the retail stage in the United Kingdom it was worth one and a half times the price at the farm gate, and then the

butcher added his profit which resulted in “pricey” meat to the consumer. In this situation, which also included home production to a lesser extent, it was no wonder that many English consumers were restricting their consumption of meat to a few meals a week and turning to alternatives.

Mr Crooks, although better known as a journalist, has had a life-long interest in farming. In his younger days he wanted to go farming and for four years worked on farms in North Canterbury and South Canterbury'. For 42 years he worked for “The Press," 38 or 39 years of it in Ashburton, where he was inevitably closely associated with the fortunes of farming. He helped out with the harvesting during World War 11, and now he has a daughter who is married to a farmer at Maronan in Mid-Canterbury.