IRELAND AND FAT STOCK

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7869, 3 August 1911, Page 2

IRELAND AND FAT STOCK

In reference to the recently-published statement that Ireland it to become; an exporter of meat instead of store wtxWk, and that Liverpool will be the landing port for tho cargoes arriving from the slaughterhouses which are'to be-erected at Drogheda or Dundalk. r ‘Tlio. Field" says:—'"Wc do not think that present business arrangements .are likely' to be seriously disturbed by tho anticipated project. Tfc has .been known for some time past that the fattening of cattle was favoured in certain quarters in Ireland, in order that the Irish farmers might pocket the double profit of breeder and grazier. . We can hardly imagine that tho practical farmers of fre-land will bo'enamoured of tho feasibility of accomplishing -what is intended. If they adopt tho policy advocated they must of necessity restrict their brooding operations. and it needs, no elaborate calculation to show that the effect Upon their financial returns will be different from what their advisers expect. Store stock hare been much more remunerative in recent years than fat stock; in other words, grazing has paid better than fattening, and it would bo a retrograde step to sacrifice’ the advantages of a protected for an unprotected market. Ireland cannot have it both ways, and if she elects to enter into competition with other countries in the meat market* she will deprive herself of the monopoly of .supplying store stock for British # farmers. Wlci fcannot think that she will bo <0 ill-advised as to abandon a certain for a very precarious market. In tho moanrime tho policy of Ireland will b© closely watched- on this side of tho Channel. The course she pursues is of direct importance to England and Scotland, and will give an impetus or the reverse to the breeding and rearing of commercial stock.” «