LIVE STOCK EXPORT FROM ARGENTINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVI, Issue 2275, 3 August 1894, Page 4

LIVE STOCK EXPORT FROM ARGENTINA.

Mr Thomas Borthwick has favoured our London frozen meat trade correspondent with the following notes on the trade in live stock from the Argentine, and the possibility of bringing sheep and cattle from New Zealand and Australia :—“ This question is now coming fast to the front. Judging by what has come from the River Plate—both cattle, sheep, and lambs—for the last four months, there is no doubt the trade can be done. There was scarcely a single vessel with frozen meat during that time, besides other steamers, that has not brought a deck load of live stock both, to London and Liverpool. There is a ready, sale at, both places, where they are slaughtered during ten days allowed by Government. The prices in London and Liverpool average from 35s to 36s for sheep, and 32s to 33s for lambs, while cattle on the whole have been poor, ranging from LI 210 stoLI 6. The sheep, particularly the lambs, which have been trained to feed out of troughs, came as ripe and nice as if they had just left their pastures ; in fact, the lambs grow and thrive during the journey. There are a number of small, poor boats which lose heavily in rough weather ; but steamers of a large size, though smaller than those in the New Zealand trade, lose very few. Take two cargoes lately into Loudon ; one started with 1281, and landed 1270 alive, losing 11; another lot of 800 lost 6 Owners, I believe, of cargo boats would be glad to let the whole deck at a price that would not stand over 12a tor sheep, 9s for lambs, and L 6 for cattle. The time taken by these larger boats is thirty days, but only a week ago one arrived in Liverpool which had been forty days on the way, with 120 cattle and over 500 sheep in perfect condition, the sheep as ripe as if they had come from a grass field, fed on a little maize and lucerne hay. “ The class that should be sent are sheep 66lbs, or such as are rather too heavy for freezers, and, lambs which have got a little- corn with.,,their mothers, say five months old of 421 b on starting; with ordinary care they should be 481bs on landing. These can make 30s to 335. It is for the colonists to say whether it would pay to relieve the quantity sent frozen. With sheep, a 661 b wether would make 36s to 40s clear of dues and com. mission, these prices mean if shipped from November to May. Cattle.—-A 750 to 8001 b bullock would fetch, less dues and commission, somewhere from LlB to Ll 9 nearly all the year round. Present price for these River Plates in London and Liverpool market is 6Jd to 6|d per lb; for the mutton alone, a month ago, the price was from s§d to sfd per lb; best Scotch mutton at present 7id per lb; lamb 9d to lOd ; while beef makes from 5d to sld ; for American cattle, this including hides, fat and offal, will bring the bullock up to s|d per lb ; the present price for beef being a very safe one.”— Pastoralists ’ Review.