Beef breeding cow slaughter continues

Press, 18 June 1982, Page 8

Beef breeding cow slaughter continues

PA Auckland The New Zealand beef breeding herd has suffered a further marked decline at a time when exporters can see a rising demand for prime table beef in world markets. The North Island beef kill lias risen by more than 30,000 head during the season to the end of last month. Many of the animals slaughtered have been in-calf cows of the traditional Angus and Hereford breeds.

The slaughter accentuates a trend which has been apparent for years. Steadily rising farm costs have made retention of the beef breeding cow increasingly uneconomic in relation to sheep or to the quick raising of crossbred beef from the dairy herd. Representatives of major meat companies have called the slaughter of capital stock "dreadful.”

They are worried about the implications for future production, which could take years to recover.

"Somehow we’ve got to preserve our beef breeding herds because we need an adequate supply of top quality table beef,” said Mr John Dotchin, group marketing manager of the Aucklandbased R. and W. Hellaby, Ltd.

From Wellington, the livestock manager of Borthwicks, Mr Peter Snelling, called for some special incentive apart from the Government’s supplementary minimum prices scheme to encourage farmers to retain purebred beef breeding stock Both men said the S.M.P. scheme appeared to have been a factor in the slaughter of stock because the high level of Government minimum guarantees for stock slaughtered for export had not been reflected in prices for stock sold as stores in the saleyards. The S.M.P. on prime beei was also out of kilter with the guarantee oh lamb and wool.

New Zealand has for many years geared the larger proportion of its beef trade to production of crossbred beef from the dairy herd with the United States as the main market.

The United States has provided a good outlet but prices have waxed and waned. Over the past 18 months they have been depressed with a marked American consumer swing from beef to cheaper meats such as pork and poultry.

Mr Dotchin said that there was nothing wrong with

crossbred beef for the markets where it was required.

But he maintained that there was an entirely separate trade for prime purebred beef for the hotel and restaurant business throughout the Pacific and in the Middle East.

He said the demand for that type of beef was expanding and that New Zealand was in danger of losing its production at a time when it had advantages over Australia. Mr Dotchin said the structure of New Zealand’s supplementary minimum prices scheme was wrong. Manufacturing grade cow beef from the dairy herd attracted a supplement of 21c a kilogram but a prime purebred beef steer earned a supplement of only 5c to 6c. This showed clearly that the producer of the prime purebred animal was getting the major part of his return from the market and that there was a demand for that type of beef. “What I’m talking about is what our customers both here and overseas are telling us,” Mr Dotchin said* •

“For the local trade in Auckland and Wellington we stopped killing crossbred beef 12 months ago and now we don’t get complaints.

“Overseas customers tell us they want purebred beef from traditional breeds and they stipulate their requirements down to the age of the cattle and the fat cover.” Since 1975, total purebred beef numbers in New Zealand are estimated to have dropped from about 6.2 million to about 5.1 million.