Heat affects U.S. beef consumption

Press, 15 July 1980, Page 13

Heat affects U.S. beef consumption

NZPA correspondent

Washington

The heat wave and drought which have hit much of the central United States have thrown another series of puzzling questions, into the nation's multi-miliiondollar meat trade, which is of vital interest to New Zealand.

“For most of the year, the meat market has defied sensible analysis,” one trade source told the NZPA yesterday. “Nobody, can work it out — we don't know what is happening.” Imports of beef, the key to the meat market, are down 20 per cent on last year, including shipments from New Zealand. The

domestic kill is also well down, but prices are low and show little sign of improving in the near future. Trade analysts can only put it down to the general economic uncertainty in the United States, but they say that even this doe’s not fully explain what is happening. As far as the drought is concerned, there ae conflicting reports out of Texas and other big beefproducing states. Some say farmers are sending their cattle to slaughter because of the lack of grass and the rising cost of feed. Others say they will not risk sending them to market because many will die in the heat on the wav.