HIDES AND BRANDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19324, 11 May 1926, Page 14

HIDES AND BRANDING.

PREVENTABLE BLEMISHES. A HEAVY ANNUAL LOSS. A reliable estimate given by an official cf the New Zealand Tanners' Association states that an 'ordinary oxhide weighing about 50ib. will realise Id to 2d per lb. more if not branded than the hide which has been bianded on the rump. In 1924, says the New Zealand Times, nearly 600,000. ox-hides and 800,000 calfskins were produced in New Zealand, but from /50 per cent, to 90 per cent, of the oxhides were spoiled to some extent by branding on the rump, reducing their market value by 5s to 7s each, equalling a loss of from £ISO ; CCO to £200,000 annually'through indiscriminate fire branding. The 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 securelyfenced lands, nor does it stipulate the part or parts of the animal on which the brand is to be placed ir the owner decides to fire-brand his stock, i Colonel J. Pow, secretary to the New ' Zealand Fanners' Union, stated in an interview in Weliineton that a large percentage of the cattle in New Zealand were branded on the rump, and the Wc

was becoming so serious that it had been taken up by the Farmers' Union, which had sent a 'circular letter on the subject to the affiliated associations. The i New Zealand Tanners'' Association is cnclcavout'in" to have the Stock Act amended by providing that the brand shall be burned into the skin only on the shoulder or neck-: also that it shall be compulsory that all calves born, if riot registered pcdigrco cattle, shall be dehorned.