EXPORT OF EWE LAMBS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1676, 13 April 1904, Page 64

EXPORT OF EWE LAMBS

Some newspaper representatives have been interviewing some of the pastoral authorities in the South on the proposal of Air Seddon to stop the export of ewe lambs, with the result that some useful information was obtained'. Mr A. L. Joseph said there was .no doubt the matter would straighten itself out without such restrictions as suggested. Last season was a phenomenal one, and the demand exceptionally heavy, owing partly to the Australian drought and the South African trade. “But we are not going to have the African trade for our mutton, because wet cannot compete with- other places which are now supplying meat to the Cape, aind we are not doing it,” said Mr Joseph. Continuing, he pointed out that comparatively little exportation was now going oil, as all offered were too dear. Numbers of lambs would be kept back this year owing to. the high price of store and other sheep, and this would induce farmers to hold till later for heavier leg mutton. U.p till a little while ago the dry weather experienced had caused the trade to' be rushed, and what wouild farmers have done with no feed for their sheep if such an Act as suggested had been in force when it became absolutely necessary to sell lambs ? It was quite safe to say that there would have been am outcry such as had never before been known in the colony. If it paid men better to sell their lambs than to keep them for breeding ewes, they would seii them, and that was the point. It was at present almost impossible to buy a half-bred ewe in Canterbury, as the majority of the stations were declining to sell ewes. There would in all likelihood be a scarcity of ewes this year, but. this wou’d right itself by th® next season. He knew of one instance in which a thousand lambs had been sold, but thie bnyer had' been instructed by the vendor to purchase for him a better lot of ewe lamb® to be held over. The moment prices dropped matters would right themselves, and if they did not drop, then Mr Seddon ought to be very proud to- think how very prosperous the colony was, and be content to let well alone. The true road to the improvement Of stock for the meat trade wais to adopt the system of America and England, and to do with our oats as the former country was doing with its maize, and make it walk to market instead of being carted. This was the view thinking men who had studied the question were now taking. Nothing paid batter than feeding oats to lambs, and! a good mam; farmer® began to realise this. One he knew in Ashburton had fed 1200 bushels to liis sheep tMs season, and was quite satisfied with the results. Hard-fed mutton was quite as good as. if not better, than that entirely grass-fed. If this course were followed, a. better price would be obtained for sheep, and there would be less inducement to sell bad lambs through shortness of feed. He had proved that it paid handsomely to purchase oats at prices up to Is fid per bushel to feed lambs, so long as moat continued ait the prices they had been getting of late. A cheap and simple feeding trough could be fixed, with sacks attached to the paddock fences, with a batten or stick in front, and he had found it scarcely possible to' get a lamb to eat mor© than lib. of oats per day, while the good the animal derived was astonishing. Mr Gilbert Anderson, managing director of the Christchurch Meat Company, was not impressed with the Premier's proposal, which he considered an exemplification of the utter fallacy of the belief of those who think that everything can be made right by legislation. From another standpoint, observed Mr Anderson, the proposal said little for the Premier’s estimate of the common sense of the farming community. Dealing with the reduction in the number of sheep in the colony, Mr Anderson said it was mainly due to the fact that many farmers in the North Island had given up sheep, and had gone in for dairying. The comparatively small lambing in 1802, owing to the severe season. and the export of a large number of ewe to South Africa, had ail so contributed to the decrease. The matter would remedy itself, because if farmers had to pay high prices for ewes, they would keep ewe lambs if tbe,y had any suitable for breeding from. So far as Canterbury was concerned, restrictions of the nature proposed by the Premier would hit the small farmer very severely. They simply bred, for the freezing industry, a mixed class of sheep that would 1 not do to breed from permanently, and the whole of their arrangements on their farms were made to provide feed to fatten the lambs they raised, and to get rid of them when fattened. Undoubtedly the high price of ewes would lead fanners to go in largely for breeding them. The Premier had partly admitted that the lands for settlement policy had something to do with the present shortage of sheep. Mr Anderson, whilst agreeing with the purchases of Cheviot and Waikakahi, considered that other estates purchased liy the Government had not been so satisfactory, when the necessity for keeping

up the colony’s flocks was considered 1 . “If the colony’s flocks are to be kept up there must be largo breeding stations,” was liis summing up of this aspect of the (subject.