HIDES AND BRANDING

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3345, 13 May 1926, Page 11

HIDES AND BRANDING

PREVENTABLE BLEMISHES. A HEAVY ANNUAL LOSS. A reliable estimate given by an official of the New Zealand Tanners’ Association states that an ordinary oxhide weighing about 501 b. will realise Id to 2d per lb. more if not branded than the hide which has been branded on the rump. In 1924, says tho “New Zealand Times,” nearly 600,000 ox-hides and 800,000 calfskins were produced in Now Zealand, but from BO per cent, to 90 per cent, of tho ox-hides wore spoiled to somo extent by branding on the rump, reducing their market value by 5s to 7s each, equalling a loss of from £150,000 to £200,000 annually through indiscriminate lire branding. Tho Stock Act interprets a cattle brand as “a distinct and plain mark, burnt with a branding iron into the skin and not less than 2in. in length," but nothing in the Act compels anyone to brand horses, cattle or pigs running on securely-fenced lands, nor does it stipulate tho part or parts of the animal on which the brand is to be placed if the owner decides to firebrand his stock. Colonel J. Pow, uecretary to the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, stated in an interview in Wellington that a large percentage of tho cattle in New Zealand wore branded on the rump, and the loss was becoming so serious that it had been taken up by the Farmers’ Union, which had sent a circular letter on the subjejet to tho affiliated associations. The New Zealand Tanners’ Association is endavouring to have tho Stock Act amended by providing that the brand shall bo burned into the skin only on the shoulder or neck; also that it shall be compulsory that all calves born, if not registered pedigree cattle, shall bo dehorned.