LAMB IN BRITAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22922, 28 December 1937, Page 5

LAMB IN BRITAIN

NEW ZEALAND RECORD OVER HALF OF SUPPLY AUSTRALIA'S BID FOR MARKET [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Dec. II The consumption of lamb in Great Britain this rear has created a record. Some 18.000,000 carcases have been sold over the butchers' .counters. Just over half the quantity came from New Zealand. The number of lambs shipped from the Dominion was 9,100,000. In 1914 the total consumption of lamb in the United Kingdom was 5,500,(XX) carcases. .

"It has been a record year for the quantity of lamb imported from New Zealand and Australia," said Mr. I{. S. Forsyth. British representative of the New Zealand Meat Board, this week. "Thanks to the better spending power of the people, duo in a measure to the rearmament programme, it has also been one of the best price years we have had for some time. In spite of the heavy' landings of lamb from both countries, stocks in the United Kingdom arc now extremely short. I have never known them to be so low before; which accounts for the rise in price during the past weeks. "We have received a slightly higher average price throughout the whole season than in 1936. The average last season was 7Jd per lb. Ihis year s will work out at about id per lb. higher. The lowest that our best Down lamb sold for was 7£d per lb., but for the last two or three months it has fetched Bd.

"The increase in consumption lias not been recorded so much at Smithfield and the southern areas as in the northern and midland districts, the great manufacturing centres. The board has continued its policy of advertising ' drives ' in the industrial areas during the lamb-selling season, and the increase in sales has proved their value conclusively. Australian Competition

" While New Zealand farmers may well contemplate these results with satisfaction, their attention should be drawn to the increased competition now offered by Australia. It has been greater this year than over before, The Australian grading system has been improved enormously, and a much greater proportion of Southdown-cross is being shipped. Although a large percentage of their lambs cannot compare in quality with ours, the quantity of their best has so greatly increased that it is now offering strong competition to the New Zealand product. Australian lamb competitions inaugurated at Smithfield only this week, on similar lines to those held by my board, proved this conclusively. " Australian lamb is not unattractive to retail butchers for other reasons. Owing to increased competition among the retailers, many of them have been unable to pass on to the consumer the higher wholesale price this year. This, naturally, has reduced their profits, so that there has been a tendency for the retailer to look round for a cheaper wholesale line which he "can sell at top rates and so improve his profits. New Zealand's price premium has been a slight handicap in this respect, and we have suffered in a few instances on its account. The retailer, however, has no misgivings as to New Zealand quality and our prestige has never been nigher with him than it is to-day. Decline in Mutton.

" As to prices for next season, these promise to be satisfactory with a continuation of the Government's rearmament expenditure. " Prices for mutton this year have been very good, and also on a slightly higher range, due to fairly low spot stocks. The total consumption in Great Britain for the year was roughly 3,250.000 carcases, or about half the quantity of mutton eaten 15 to 20 years ago. showing that there has been a decided switch over to lamb. No doubt this has been accentuated by a larger proportion of ewe mutton being placed on the market, coupled with the present-day demand for small joints."

BUTTER CHAMPIONSHIP WORLD CONTEST PLANNED AUSTRALIAN CELEBRATIONS i [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, Dec. 23 An event to be conducted during the 150 th anniversary celebrations next year is a world's butter championship competition to be held at the Sydney Showground in April. The prize-money offered for the class is £IOO. The specifications are for a box of salted butter, 12 weeks' stored, to be graded on Australian export standard. The dairying industry has been responsible for another anniversary suggestion. Melba XV., world's record butterfat cow, will be immortalised in statuary, if a suggestion of the Australian IHawarra Shorthorn Society is adopted. The suggestion has been submitted to the Celebrations Committee. Melba XV., at the age of seven years, produced .'12.522.51b. of milk, of an average test of 5 per cent. This was equal to 1,164.11b. of butterfat. No cow has yet been immortalised in statuary in New South Wales.

EROSION BY SEA LOSS OF FARM LAND TEN ACRES DISAPPEAR [FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT] LONDON. Dec. 11 Fvery voar nil English tanner loses about three-quarters of an aero of his land. This' week nonrlv an acre of good rich soil vanished overnight. When men employed 011 Mr. Fred Starling's farm at Sidestrnnd, on the Norfolk coast, near Cromer, went to n field which they had been preparing for sugar beet, they had a shock. At the bottom of the 100 ft.-high cliff lay 20.000 tons of earth which tlio hungry, cold sea was already devouring. No one had heard the land ko; it happened in the (lend of night—as, curiously enough, fulls of cliff on the coast almost invariably do. "if it had happened the day before some of my men might have had an unpleasant "shock," Mr. Starling said, "for they were working on that pari of the field. "In the last 15 years," he mentioned, "I have lost ten acres of my farm, which was 150 acres when 1 took it over. Coast erosion about hero is getting very serious, but nothing is done about it, and I cannot expect any compensation. If the sea carried away the whole of my farm, I would have to stand the loss." One one occasion a cliff-side field belonging to Mr. Starling was being ploughed when part of it disappeared so suddenly and so quietly that the ploughman! returning on the next furrow a few minutes later, had a narrow escape from falling into the sea after it.