BUTCHERS' MEAT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 14

BUTCHERS' MEAT

ROAD TO SUCCESS

BREEDING FOR THE MARKET

In a paper read before members of the British Association of Refrigeration, dealing with the influence of refrigeration on Britain's "meat trade, Lieut.-Colonel T. Dunlop Young, Chief Inspector of Meat for the City of London, said (inter alia):

In a great measure, the siTcccss of the Dutch and Danish farmers in the production of the most suitable fresh pork and bacon respectively, and very specially of the enterprising New Zealand lamb producers, is due to their departing from any one special breed, and seeking by cross-breeding to supply the type required by the butcher, and concentrating their energies by selective breeding, to produce a "butcher's type" of animal instead of a pedigree animal. The special points of the former are quick maturity, smallness of bone, large proportion of muscular tissue to bone and fat, the latter being equally distributed throughout the'body, not in patches, and the greatest development in the parts of the body most in demand, and for which the* highest prices arc obtained, e.g., legs, loins, and shoulders, with short necks, light • flanks, and briskets (breasts). •

Stressing this point, two contrasting slides, one of the old Texas "Longhorn" cattle, and the other of a modern prize-winning beast, showed what had been done towards reaching the ideal type of animal. The former, said Colonel Young, consisted chiefly of horns and hide, while the latter type was small of bone, with the head close to the body, there being little or noneck, so that "clods and stickings," as they were termed in Smithefild, which brought only about 2d per lb, were almost eliminated.

Eofrigeration cau do much to bring to England the products of other nations, but it is the nation that supplies the food of the best quality, and of the type required by the wholesale and retail trades, which will achieve the greatest, success. Too often producers err in that they do not give sufficient attention to the types of animals produced, or they take a fancy to one special type and can see no good in any other. - This, from the butcher's point of view, is a very grave • error. It is true that even the type best liked by the .butcher may not be suitable for production on every soil an 4 under every climate, but as far as possible producers in their own interest should produce what the purchaser most desires; •

In the subsequent discussion Mr. E. S. Forsyth, London manager of the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board, said that Liout.-Colonel Duiilop Young had referred to the export of chilled beef from New Zealand. Ho agreed that it was quite possible, but he thought, personally, that there would be many disadvantages-, particularly in the '■'marketing. He hoped they would be shown how to freeze meat- without causing injury to the tissue; he would like, to see .more research directed on theso lines, and he was not without hope that something material would bo accomplished. To experiment on'methods of defrosting seemed to him to be starting tlie problem at the wrong end, as the damage was really done during the initial stages. Ho: rather thought that improvements . in . . the freezing-process would better meet the requirements; of : the' market.. ;

As regard's the < doman.3-for smaller joints, ;he. thought that in. New Zealand tlley had done their utmost, and had now.reached the limit in providing small joints. .-. ' .