Lamb kill down at most Canty works

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 2

Lamb kill down at most Canty works

The plentiful feed on Canterbury farms and an export meat schedule which favours heavy lambs has contributed to a reduced lamb kill at most Canterbury freezing works. Mr Neil Evans, livestock manager for the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company, Ltd, said some farmers had elected to carry their prime lambs through to heavier weights than normal to take advantage of surplus feed on farms. The lamb kill at the company’s three works — Canterbury (Belfast), Fairton, and Pareora — jwas down almost 11 per cent this season compared with last year. Mr Evans said the throughput of lambs had been the slowest at this stage of the season for many years, and this had allowed freezing companies to kill old ewes earlier than normal.

The C.F.M. ewe kill is 28 per cent higher than at the corresponding time last year. There was plenty of killing space available at the moment, but if the weather

deteriorated and farmers wanted to dispose of their lambs quickly there could be a premium on space, said Mr Evans.

At the Kaiapoi freezing works of N.C.F. Kaiapoi, Ltd, the ewe kill this season is more than 60 per cent up on last year’s, and the lamb kill is 25 per cent down.

The manager, Mr Keith Pearce, said there was no pressure on killing space. The season had got away to a slow start and it was unlikely that last year’s total lamb kill would be reached.

A spokesman for Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd, said his company’s freezing works had plenty of killing space. Sheep had been slow coming forward and there was a tendency for farmers to retain their stock longer than usual, but freezing works were working at full capacity.

Some works were holding large stocks of mutton and the lack of freezer space for carcases could ■ become a problem.

The Meat Board has announced that it will soon have proposals to deal with problems associated with the disposal of mutton. The chairman, Mr Adam Begg, said that while the outlook for lamb was improving, the position with mutton was quite different Present processing costs could not be recovered in the marketplace and it was clear that costs must be substantially reduced and alternative uses found for the product.

According to the Meat Board, the total number of lambs killed at South Island works this season to February 25 is 7,396,998, compared with 7,539,821 at the corresponding time last year.