Export lamb kill well down so far

Press, 10 January 1986, Page 18

Export lamb kill well down so far

Sheep and lamb kills at the South Island export freezing works are well down this season, in some cases only a half or a quarter of what they were over the same period last year.

The slow killing pattern is most pronounced in South Canterbury and North Otago where drought-af-fected farmers have kept stock on their properties to take advantage of very welcome rain.

The freezing companies have not yet opened all of their chains and company managers have warned that the late start to the season could create problems later on.

Any industrial disruption which accompanied the settlement of the national meat workers’ award could worsen the potential space difficulties, one company manager said. The three sheep and lamb plants of Canterbury Frozen Meat Co. killed 604,704 head up until December 28, said Mr Dick Allen, compared with 1.34 million in the same period of 1984. The cattle kill at Belfast of 9000 was also well down on the previous season when 21,000 had been killed. Mr Allen said the average lamb carcase weight had increased to 12.7 kgs, compared with 12 kgs last season. Obviously he attributed the slow killing and the heavier weights to the uni seasonal rain during November and December over the whole of the province. He also mentioned the schedule encouragement of heavyweight lambs and some lamb health problems, such as increased scouring,

as contributing factors.

For Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd, Mr Max Willyams said that the killing .shortfall was most noticeable at Smithfield and Pukeuri.

Until January 6, Smithfield had killed just 95,276 sheep and iambs compared with 371,020 in the same period in the previous season.

Pukeuri had killed 120,951 compared with 499,951. Islington had attracted exactly half the numbers of stock this season compared with last, with 213,573 killed against 426,160. A similar picture emerged from the figures for Burnside and Finegand, the big company’s southernmost plants, and for its two North Island works, at Wairoa and Wanganui. The newest Marlborough plant has also attracted

only 122,888 sheep and lambs compared with 266,654 to date last season.

The Nelson season is more normal, however, and the Stoke works has killed 71,463 head compared with 105,290 last season. “Waitaki would rather have the lambs larger and later,” said Mr Willyams, “but killing space pressures will come on.”

Smithfield and Pukeuri are still only working to about half normal throughputs, but further chains have been opened at the other works since Christmas.

Mr Allen also said that C.F.M. was operating 10 out of its 12 sheep and lamb chains.

He said the company’s ewe kill was slightly ahead this year compared with last, with 171,000 killed

compared with 162,000. The meat and wool chairman of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, Mr

Kelvin Coe, commented that if the freezing companies were worried about a slow start to the season and the low numbers of light, lean

lambs available for export then they should reduce killing charges and publish a more realistic light lamb schedule.

GROSS LAMB RETURNS ON SCHEDULE (WITHOUT SKINS)

GRADE 90%Meat Board Schedule Meat Company Schedule Difference per head 100% Meat Board Schedule Difference PL (10kg) 12.80 12.10 -70c 14.20 -$2.10 PM (14kg) 19.60 19.74 +14c 21.77 -$2.03 PX (17kg) 23.03 22.95 -8c 25.92 -$2.97 PH (21kg) 27.93 25.20 -$2.73 30.97 -$5.77 YL’ (10kg) 14.20 14.40 +20c 15.75 -$1.35 YM (14kg) 21.00 21.00 — 23.32 -$2.31 YX (17kg) 25.50 27.20 +$1.80 28.30 -$1.10 Alpha (9kg) 14.58 16.20 +$1.62 16.20 — TL (10kg) 9.05 8.00 -$1.05 10.05 -$2.05 TM (14kg) 13.30 11.90 —$1.40 14.77 —$2.87 TH (17kg) 14.11 12.41 -$1.70 ’ 15.64 -$3.23 FL (10kg) 8.00 6.00 -$2.00 8.85 -$2.85 FM (14kg) 11.83 8.96 -$2.87 13.13 -$4.17 FH (17kg) 12.50 9.01 -$3.49 13.85 -$4.84 CL (10kg) 9.75 8.70 -$1.05 10.80 —$2.10 CM (14kg) 14.42 13.02 -$1.40 15.96 -$2.94 CH (17kg) 16.40 14.62 -$1.78 18.19 -$3.57 M (14kgs) 5.46 3.50 -$1.96 6.02 -$2.52