More hopeful signs?

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 15

More hopeful signs?

U-T?, a farmer I- to »»\e to accept fluctuating fortunes — in respect of p P k ts an d climate. It is part ot the game. But the news in the last Zj? e u ? r . two has nc ‘ been f° r sbee P farmers By any means.

.With the prospect that their incomes will be well qown this year — on average by some 30 per cent or more — two weeks ago the Government decided to release farmers the 324.6 M that was still oe-ng held in the Reserve Bank in individual accounts after being akimmed off their returns from wool last year. The move "was welcomed, but the point was strongly made that the Government was only really returning to farmers uteir own money, which ID the interim had been earning no interest and losing value as well in the current inflationarv climate.

Nevertheless the money is probably more valuable to the industry now than it would have been on top of incomes last year.

However, as the Government was taking this action the outlook for the industry was brightening a little.

The wool market was showing signs of having reached bottom and was starting to slowly move up again. By the Timaru sale last week prices on average were reckoned to be some 5c to 10c per kg higher than at the Christchurch sale less than a month earlier.

On the same day meat exporters announced useful rises in lamb meat prices and also for skins. For the PM grade lamb killing out at 13 to 16kg the lift was a good 3.3 c per kg. It brought the price of the standard 13.6 kg PM lamb, with a skin with a wool pull of one kilogram, to 512.63. before transport costs. This compared with $13.34 for the same lamb at the opening of the season, including a 50c premium for early shipment. The immediate reason for the improvement in meat prices was given as a better outlook for prices

in the United Kingdom in Apriland May. In the United States the price for imported boneless cow beef has continued to creep upwards. Early this week the Meat Board reported the price at 83c per lb compared with 68c at the end of last year and 59c a few weeks earlier. Mr B. Jeffries, North American manager of the Meat Board, was quoted recently as saying that every 10c rise in the price was worth S3OM to New Zealand in export earnings.

Beef producers will be wondering whether this is the long awaited and predicted upturn in beef prices.

The better tone about the two-tooth ewe market at Ashburton last Monday was seen by some as a reflection of the slightly better outlook for sheep products.

If there are as well good rains soon and associated autumn growth, the troubles of the recent dry spell and the short supplies of hay may also recede in importance and there may be a silver lining to the season. There is time tor it to happen.