LOW BEEF PRICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 14

LOW BEEF PRICES.

EFFECT ON SHEEPFARMER.

DEPLETION OF REVENUE.

STORE CATTLE DILEMMA. Although the sheepfarmer has been heartened in some measure by the recent upward tendency of prices the benefit in some cases, particularly on the large runs, where cattle are used to keep down the rough feed, has been counteracted by the unfavourable prices for beef. This relation of beef prices to the revenue of the sheepfarmer has a very definite effect in somo instances. On tho larger sheep runs where the back country is of a rough nature, it is customary to keep a number of store Vows to trample or eat down the rough feed and thus keep the land in better condition for the sheep. Periodically the cattle are sold for fattening purposes and replaced. If tho market for fat cattle falls there is naturally a decline in the price of .store cattle. In such a case the sfieep farmer who keeps storo cattle is faced*with two alternatives. One is to sell his cattle at a figure which will probably give him a return lower than tho cost of replacements, and the other is to sell bis cattle and not replace them. In the latter event his land will go back, to the detriment of the sheep. In either cc.se the farmer will lose. The herd might, in some instances, be carried over. Such an arrangement, however, would not only withhold from tho farmer an 7 revenue ho might get from a sale, but. it obviously could not be continued irdefinitely. At prese.nt beef cattle a(e selling at a price which, according to; stock market authorities, is payable t<. neither the stock-raiser nor the butcher When prices were favourable the butcl.-er could rely upon the return from by-products to cover the costs of slaughtering, but with the fall in the hides market and the decreased returns from otlnr by-products slaughtering costs became a weight on other charges. Factors in the firming < f sheep prices are slated to be the dry pell which occurred early in the seaso i and tho recently anticipated possibility of a, greatly increased exchange rate. During the dry spell graziers were anxious to sell their stock as quickly as possible, but as the rains have rendered feed plentiful there is not the same dispositkn to sell and prices have accordingly firmed. With regard to the exchange rat 3 factor, it is stated that a number of speculators paid prices .attractive to the farmers in tho hope that they would recoup themselves handsomely if the exchange rate was suddenly and artificially increased.