MEAT PRODUCTION FIGURES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 164, 8 April 1944, Page 4

MEAT PRODUCTION FIGURES

As a means of increasing the quantity of meat available for export this season the Meat Producers’ Board appealed to farmers to do whatever lay in their power to add to the weight of the stock before forwarding it to the works. In a majority of cases that would mean holding the stock a little longer than usual, but the prolonged dry spell early in the season made such a course impossible in .some districts. The stock had to be sent to the freezing works or it would have lost condition. Today the position has materially changed. In many districts farmers are said to be holding their stock in order to cope with the heavy growth of feed, no doubt caused by good rains on the warm soil. In order that producers may know the exact position, the board, in its reports, will, in future, give information regarding variations in weights, and this will enable farmers to see how the campaign for an increase is progressing. This development, following the inclusion of summaries of farming conditions in the various districts, will make the reports of greater interest and value. In view of the conditions that ruled during a critical period in the growth of this season’s lambs it is pleasing, and rather surprising, to find that the average weight has come so close to last season’s figure—33.46lb. as against 33.601 b. last year. In the North Island there has been a gain in average weight, but this has been more than off-set by the loss of over half a pound in the South Island average. But it is probable that during the remainder of the season the leeway will be more than overtaken, for the killings of lambs thus far has been substantially below that of the preceding season. To March 11 the decline was approximately 850,000 head. The Dominion average for wethers shows an increase but, as will have been expected, that of the ewes killed is below last year’s level. Total killings of lamb and mutton to March 11 show a decline of nearly 1,000,000 carcases, but given reasonable climatic conditions for the remainder of the current season, the total exports may yet record a greater quantity of meat than was anticipated. The rationing of domestic supplies should also affect the position favourably, and represent the consumer’s contributiftn to the good cause, fl he graders have reported that prospects of adequate autumn feed .arc satisfactory in most districts, and should do much to ensure that, although the season started slowly, it will end with the works fully occupied and the output of meat for overseas evidence of a united effort to render all the assistance possible in this vital respect.