BOILING DOWN STOCK.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 862, 30 July 1867, Page 3

BOILING DOWN STOCK.

(From the • Arßus/ July 8,) A meeting of the committee of Eiverine sheepowners lately formed at Deniliquin, for the purpose of farther discussing the subject of boiling down stock, was held on Saturday last, at the office of Mr. E. E. Landale, Queen-street ; Mr. Gr. S. Lang in the chair.

The Chairman read the following report on the subject: — " Since, our mooting at Deniliquin, I have deyoted much time tp collecting information, as I promised, on the.subject of boiling-down in all its bearings, and have met with great difficulty and delay in ascertaining the numbers of the sheep, the actual results of boiling down, and the consumption of the population. Through the information kindly afforded by Mr. Archer, the registrar-general; Mr. G-. P. De'sailhr, Mr. J. GT. Dougharty, Mr. Arthur King, and others, it is now in my power to lav before you the real state ol ? the case, which proves, what stockowners: have been loth to believe, that the time has arrived when they must of necessity resort to boiling-down. ■ . i 1 "As Victoria and the Eiverine district; are one, so far as the disposal of sheep and cattle is concerned, the two stocks are treated as one ; the numbers of the first are taken from the registrar-general's reports, but the Eiverine numbers are estimated—the returns so mixing the stock of I Eivorine and 3setv South "Walea pi'apev n& i [ correoi division ocrald be made. • ! I " Every sheep-owner has hitherto bred I from everything, without any'consideration as to the capacity of his run ; for if ! his own was full the general increase was always absorbed either by the increased capacity of old runs from fencing, or the occupation of new country. Even when boiling-down was formerly in operation no necessity _was felt for checking breeding, ! there still being new country available. This is now at an end. Even in our district the number of sheep is so great that the surplus increase this year far exceeds what will be required for new country, while in Victoria the runs are heavily overstocked, without any outlet whatever. "We have reached . that stage in ouri progress when an entirely new system of management must be adopted as to numbers in breeding and selling off, which henceforth must be strictly regulated, so, that the sheep on each station shall never exceed its capacity to keep* the stock generally in fair store condition, and to fatten off the annual cast of ripe sheep. As; subsequent calculations are based upon the results of this system, I shall premise, by explaining it.' The first point is to breed no more than will, during the number of years that will elapse from their : birth until they are turned off, complete the number the run will carry, no more and no less. The following calculation shows, not with mathematical accuracy, but near enough for all practical purposes, the numbers of the various sexes and ages, in a fixed stock of 2O 3 000 on a run where they can both breed and fatten. The relative numbers of ages and sexes will of course be modified according to circumstances, as in the home country, where some only breed and others only fatten, with every modification between. The calculation is made for the Eiverine district, where the lambing is in May, June, ; and July, and the fat sheep at their best in November and December, so that the lambs are weaned and taken into account as the fat are removed, the ewes at six \ and a half the wethers at four and a half years old ; it is for this time, the end of the year, the calculation is.framed. The ; number, of ewes ado^ted.will supply, at 85 ; -per cent., the requisite increase, leaving: about 22 per cent, of the maiden- ewes to •be culled for fattening. The deatb.B:in a .body of B]ieop=iiH;heir prime will be very limited, and the' allowance is slightly under H per cent. ; .but, as the old ewes can be safely kept another year, and the ■two-year-olds can be used if necessary, ; there is an ample supply to draw upon when the per-centage or death is higher, or the percentage of lambs smaller.

This gives one-fourth, as the proportion oT breeding ewes, and one-fifth as the annual cast, sold fat every year. " "We have now to ascertain the number of sheep that will require to be disposed of this year, either by human consumption or boiling-down. To arrive at the number of sheep in the Riverine district, I deducted from the total value of wool exported from Victoria iv 1865, £3,316,000, the clip of the Victorian sheep at ss. per head, the estimate made by ' Vktilax' in the very , able article published 1$ him lately. He estimates the New South Wales fleece at 3s. 2d., which would give the number of Biverine sheep as about 7,000,000; the valuation is' too low, so allow 4s. per head, at which the balance, £1,100,000, gives the number of Riverine sheep as over 5,500,000. Add to this the lambs of 1865, 800,000, and of 1866, 1,300,000, the number arrived at by Mr. Desailly, counting station by station, and not including the Darling and Bogan, also add 1,000,000 for the sheep whose wool went to Adelaide, or remained on the Dai'ling for want of carriage, make a total of 8,600,000. From this deduct the sheep brought across the Murray in 1866, 275,707 ; to which add 125,000 for those brought over in 1865 after the returns were made, and 700,000 for killed and dead during the drought — in all, 11,000,000 ; leaving 7,500,000 as the Hiverine stock of sheep in the beginning of 1867. This is quite within the mark, as no allowance is made for the number of sheep brought from Queensland and the eastern portion of J^ew South Wales, which is very great, and allows only £200,000 as the value of the wool sent to Adelaide and detained on the Darling, which latter alone at one time was estimated by those with the best information at 20,000 bales. In Victoria, the sheep on 31st March, 1866, amounted to 8,835,000, to which add the net increase of 1866 (same as 1865), 650,000; making 9,500,000 as the stock on Ist January, 1867. This has proved lately, beyond any doubt, to bo far beyond the capacity of the colony in its present state of partial improvement, and for a permanent calculation we cannot take more than 7,500,000, making, with Eivorine, a total of 15,000,000, the annual cast, one-fifth, being 3,000,000 for. the consumption of this year. "The consumption I have had great difficulty in arriving at. By the latest return for 1865, the consumption is given to the registrar-general as 634,551, but this is evidently imperfect. The number passing through the Melbourne yards alone is, as nearly as possible, 550,000 per annum. The population of Melbourne and the country within a circuit of fifteen miles, which is supplied from the- Melbourne market, is 184,000,'0r twenty-eight and a half per cent, of the entire population

£643,912), the consumption being 550,000 slieep, givesfor the whole colony 1,925,000. Tg this has to be added the consumption of the Eiverine district. Dividing the £60,000 paid as Murray Customs to the Sydney Groverninent by £1 17s. od., and the amount per head paid by the Vijtorians, the present population is 32,000 ; but there has been no census in cither -colony since 1861, and as the Eiverine people have been supplied from Victoria without any account being taken of their leaving, they are included in the account of the Victorian population. We must, therefore, take the numbers of 1861 about 20,000, making in round numbers 660,000 people, consuming 2,000,000 sheep. This is the extreme. Taking the 2,000,000 sheep at 451 b., and the cattle for the whole, m proportion to 1,000 head per week, at 6501 b., for the Melbourne circuit, it gives 6 ( l-slbt, per week as the average consumption of the entire population. And, again, when boiling-down prevails, only the very best wethers will be killed for food, averaging, probably, 551 b., instead of 451 b., which would reduce the number by nearly 400,000. This leaves 1,000,000 as the balance of the regular cast to be boiled down this yeai', which, as the poulation is almost at a stand-still, will increase rapidly' from year to year. Our proportion of the 3,000,000 is only one-half, while the increase this ' year in Eiverina will be between two millions and a half and three millions, and most of the surplus will ba ewss ssfcaiiia/l foi« Tii'6£<liiig 7 to fill up new Hiverine country. But besides this million, there must be boiled down this year the 2,000,000 of surplus sheep_ in Victoria not taken into the calculation ; and, further, as most old Eiverine runs are fully stocked, and all require a rest after the drought, most men will take advantage of the fine season to fatten off the ripe.sheep that have accumulated during the drought, and probably add another half, million to the three destined for the boiling-pot. "Proceeds of Boiling-down. — The utmost diversity of opinion exists as to the results to be obtained from. boiling-down, which arises from the fact that as a general rule only inferior or very old sheep , were boiled down' formerly ; only the balance was boiled after the human consumption and store stock for new countiy hadibeen supplied ; first- class sheep as to ago and condition, which on well-managed stations will in' future be the rule, were then the exception. These calculations are not speculative, but are taken carefully from statements supplied by several gentlemen separately as the actual results of extensive experience in boiling-down ; — Eesult of boiling-down 1,000 prime wethers, averaging 601 b., and yielding 281 b. of tallow each (they often do . 301 b.), 12 tons 10 cwt., at £36 £450 0 0 Boiling-down 1,000, at 6d. per head £25 "00 Caskingdo ... 30 — 55. 0 0 £395 0 0: Carriage of twelve and a half tons of tallow, from Echuca . . - . , . £40 12 6 £354 7 6 ISTett resydt, 7s Id per head for tallow alone, without taking into account the skin, which at this season of the year is 3s 6cl, making 10s 7d per head. Prime ewes of 50lb. to 541 b. per head will yield the same. A wether of the same frame, : but fattened up to 541 b. only (not reduced from 601 b.), will give 251 b. of tallow, and nett 6s 3d, or with the. skin at. the' present' time, 9s 9d. A 48lb. wether, of medium frame, in prime condition, will yield 231 b., and nett 5s 7d,. or with the skin,- 9s Id,

"" To this has to be added the value of the meat, which is successfully preserved by more than one process. Let us, however, take Liebig s, now in successful practical operation by Messrs. Tooth, in Queensland, so that its application is merely a matter of capital and teaching of men the process of manipulation. The result is lib. of essence from 301 b. of meat, which is now disposed of readily here for 14s, or about s|d to the lib. of meat. When supplied wholesale the produce must find a market in Europe, where, even with the high price prevailing for meat, this price could not be relied upon ; but as the essence contains the whole of the nutriment in the meat, we may safely count upon netting 2d yer lb. for the flesh of the carcase, exclusive of the tallow, which is only from one-fifth to one- seventh of the price of the same meat in England. Besides the tallow, there has been deducted for bone from the wethers 151 b., leaving 291 b. of meat, value 4s lOd ; from the ewes 121 b., leaving 141 b., value 2s 4d I cannot ascertain whether the bones are included in the 301 b. of meat producing lib. of essence, but to be safe it is deducted ; and for the same reason, the 41b. | or 51b. of tallow extracted from the bones are not counted. j " The proceeds from 4,000 out of 20,000, as above, would be thus : — Wethers, prime, 2,010, in tallow, 7s. Id. per head... £'71117 6 Do., essence, 4s. lOd. do. ... 485 15 0 Ewes, 1,990, tallow, 7s. Id. do 704 15 8 Essence, 2s. 4d. do 232 3 4 £2,134 11 G Being 10s. Brd. per head, and with the skin at the present season, 14s. 2fd. per head. Wethers of same frame, 541 b., will for tallow and essence nett Bs. 7d. ; ewes, 401 b., 6s. 6d., being an average of 7s. 6|d. for carcase alone, and lls. o|d. counting the present skin. If stations are properly managed and not overstocked, the full stock should be prime, or nearly so, when the proceeds should be equal to and much steadier with boiling- down than when sold for food, and for these reasons : — First, that the price will be steady, depending on the market of the world, instead of haphazard sale in Melbourne yards from week to week, which for sheep far travelled in a full market gives barely store prices ; second, that the numbers from each station will be larger and of riper age, and the cast eAves will be disposed of in their prime, instead of dying of old age; and third, that the ownors can select the time when the sheep are at their best, instead of sending them off to catch a market.

" I statod that the sheepowners at home regulated their business according to the position and nature of their pasture — some breeding only, while others only fatten, &c. ; there is, however, ono rule of management which they all, and that most carefully, observe — never to overstock. That is regarded as the most ruinous mistake a man can commit, and it is one which the ftiverine scmatters are fast approaching, and which the Victorians are now suffering from most severely. Men have hitherto bred from every ewe they possessed, and laughed at paper calculations ; but the result proves that the time for that style of business has passed away, and in future the difference between breeding on calculation of the capacity of runs and breeding on blindly , as hitherto, will be the difference between profit and loss. Let us take warning in time from the Victorians. They have so overstocked as to have depreciated wool, carcase and constitution ; their numbers are so great they have not grass to fatten off their surplus, and there is no fresh country for them to go to.

1 Their only resource is to take advantage of the ensuing season, which is now safe to be most favourable, and cull off and boil-down everything, at whatever it will bring. Every station-holder must carefully calculate, from past experience, the number his run will carry well, and reduce his stock ruthlessly to that number. He will thereby obtain more profit, and escape a serious danger. " Some exceptions might be taken to these calculations — first, on account of the country beyond the Lachlan still to be filled up, which Riverine squatters would rather stock than boil down, but this can avail only to a limited extent, and nearlyone million of the Riverine increase is left out of these calculations for that purpose ; secondly, that the present price of fat sheep proves that the time for boilingdown has not yet arrived, but it only proves that overstocking in Victoria, and the drought in the Riverine district, have prevented them being fattened— the sheep are there. " The facts I have stated prove, it appears to me beyond a doubt— first, that we must resort to boiling-down, and the sooner a commencement is made the better ; secondly, that a full-stocked run, not overstocked, sending off its cast of ewes . and wethers every year in proper" condition, will yield as large and aVmxiclx steadier profit by boilingdown than by the present hap-hazard sales in the Melbourne market ; that store sheep •will te. a. cWvvg; V»i giwfcivnß jib profitable as. ever ) and thirdly, that there is ample room for boiling-down establishments at Hay and Deniliquin, as well as Echuca. It is a mere matter of calculation for eaoh sheepdwner, whether the expense and loss of tallow in driving will be more than the carriage of the tallow." After a lengthened discussion tho meeting was adjourned to Thursday next, at three o'clock, to give time for . the due consideration of the report. It was . intimated that others interested,- whether on the committee or not, would be welcome to attend and discuss the whole questionJ

. BBEED- ' FATTENing, BTOBE< iNa. Ewes, one year 2,180 Do. two years 2,100 ... Do, three years 1,700 870 Do. four years 1,670 ... 860 Do, five years 1,050 Do. six years „, ... 1,030 Wedders, one year 2,130 Do. two years... ... 2,100 Do. throe years ... 2,050 ' Do. four years ... ... '2,010 Rams 100 „. 5,020 i 10,980 4,000 Total, 20,000.