MEAT KILLINGS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 169, 17 June 1940, Page 10

MEAT KILLINGS.

SUBSTANTIAL RISE. LARGE INCREASE IN BEEF. As the meat export season nears its close it is becoming evident that the killings will be very substantially in excess of those of the previous season. The Meat Producers' Board, in advising details o£ the killings for export at all works during the current season to Juno I, states tht the total weight of meat of all classes handled for export was 11, freight carcases, representing an increase over the previous season’s killings to Alay 31, 1939 (the nearest comparable date) of 1,649,922 freight carcases. The improved production represents an increase of 16 per cent. LAAIB AND AIUTTON.

Lambs killed this season total 10,001,149 (North Island 5,180,064, South Island 4,821,085), an increase of 746,048, to which the North Island contributed 634,526, and tho South Island i 11,522. A very substantial increase is also shown in the mutton group, the wether killings this season having been 1,274,287 carcases, and ewes 1,841,895. Compared with the corresponding period of the previous season, wether killings have decreased by 141,000, but the killings of ewes for export have increased by 715,000, making a net improvement this season of ,574,000 carcases. This season’s killings of beef in quarters total 510,493 (North Island 503,358, South Island 7135), as eonipared with 331,598 quarters for last season, representing the ]arge* > increase of 54 per cent., or 179,000 quarters. PORK AND OTHER MEAT. The special conditions of the original agreement with the United Kingdom Alinistry of Food required farmers to carry a greater proportion of their pig® to the heavy baconer stage, with the result ' that although in numbers, the killings of porkers and baconers have dropped by 115,000 (534,000 last season, and 419,000 this season), the current season's production in actual weight is now equal to that of last year. North Island killings of porker carcares total 94,296, and of baconers 309,355, while the South Island figures are: Porkers, 3773, baconers 11,634. Killings of other classes of moat this season to June 1, in 601 b. freight carcases, with the comparative figures of last season in parentheses, are as follow: Boneless beef. —North Island, 617,844 : South Island, 39,564; total, 657,408 (525,077). Boneless bobby veal. —North Island, 52.878; South Island, 14,455; total, 67,333 (68,203). Sundries. —North Island, 290,230 ; South Island, 105,559; total, 395,789 (337,974). The statistics relating to stdeks of meat in store as at Juno 1 show that shipping facilities have not only been able to cope with the heavy carry-over which had to be lifted at the commencement of the war last September, but that, current season’s killings have been receiving excellent dispatch