BIGGER SEASON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20489, 25 February 1941, Page 11

BIGGER SEASON

MOVEMENT OF SHEEP GISBORNE TO WAIKATO ESTIMATE OF 250,000 DISPATCHES NEAR END The dispatch of breeding ewes from the Gisborne and East Coast districts to the Waikato is practically ended, and comparatively few sheep are now on the road north of Gisborne. It has been a big season, the best for four years, although the numbers are expected to fall a long way short of the peak season of 1936-37, when 355,000 sheep went out of the district to other parts of the Dominion, including small consignments to the South Island. A Waikato estimate gives the number bought for forward delivery from Gisborne and the East Coast as 230,000. It is impossible to confirm that figure in Gisborne at present, but if it is correct many thousands more must be added for those which were sent on consignment, and a total estimate of 250,000 as the aggregate, comprising those involved in forward sales and those on consignment, would be a low figure. Deliveries Doubled Last year, according to stock inspection figures, only 125,000 sheep went north from Gisborne and the East Coast and just under 40,000 to Hawke’s Bay. Therefore, the deliveries to northern districts this season are double those of 1939-40. It is reported that during the present season, ewes bought on forward deals were 2s to 3s a head dearer than the sheep that were sent forward on consignment, but that is not always the case, for frequently 1 those buying forward have avoided a harder market later on.

Conditions were very trying for sheep which were driven from the Gisborne -district this season, as there was little grass and the hot weather proved detrimental to the stock. Many of the mobs were driven for six weeks right through to the Waikato, owing to the congestion a.t the railhead. Not so many were brought by boat as in previous years.

Apart from the odd herds which were driven through in the late spring and early summer, no cattle have been forwarded from the Gisborne district to the Waikato up to the present, although the stock which arrived last year met a good market. It is not expected that any movement of East Coast cattle will take, place until Mj>y or June.