Meat for Britain

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 67, 31 May 1940, Page 2

Meat for Britain

Following the sale of our meat to the United Kingdom the duty of supervising the grading of the different classes at the various freezing works is receiving the closest attention of the officers of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board. In the negotiations with the United Kingdom it was specially arranged that a separate price should be paid for prime Down Cross lambs, and a special price was also fixed for prime Canterbury lamb. The general condition of purchase in respect of grading laid down by the contract with the British Ministry of Food is that the meat is to be of the usual descriptions and grades as at present shipped from New Zealand. This, however, has to be qualified as regards the North Island to the extent that the Down Cross lambs will be graded separately from the ordinary crossbred type lambs at all works. An undertaking has been given to the British Government that all carcases graded “Down Cross” will be of “Down” type. This should be kept in mind by farmers when considering the grading returns they receive from the works, as only lambs which show characteristics of the Down can be included in this Down Cross grade. In order to conserve space in the freezing stores and in the vessels which are provided for the carriage of meat, the British Government requested that all carcases of mutton and lamb should be telescoped, as was done during the last war. To ensure that all freezing works are cutting and packing the carcases to a uniform standard, the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, as a result of a dis-

cussion with the Primary Industries Controller, arranged for one of its officers to specially visit the various works in the Dominion to examine the way in which the cutting of carcases was being done. The Meat Board’s Supervising Grader has now finished his work in this connection, having carried out demonstrations at the works with those concerned. This should result in a uniform pack being shipped from the various freezing works.—New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, Wellington. An Argentine wool expert, returning from Manchukuo, estimates that within a decade Mongol sheep there, by constant crossing with Corriedales, would produce between 71b. and 81b. wool instead of the present poor fleeches weighing from 21b. to 31b. In two decades there will be ten million sheep in Manchukuo to provide Japan with wool instead of the present two million.