THE PROFITABLE PRODUCTION OF MEAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1679, 26 January 1884, Page 6

THE PROFITABLE PRODUCTION OF MEAT.

111. A competent authority on sheep management observes, " When lambs have been once stinted in their growth, either by disease or insufficiency of food, they become what is technically termed sticky," after which, though they appear to bo in health, it is beyond the power of earth to fatten them. Hence it is of t o utmost importance both that the ewes should have abundant food in order to produce a flow of nutritious milk while they are suckling, and the lambs should have plenty of good pasture, or of other succulent green meat when they are weaned. Now even the most inexperienced breeders here know that succulent food would to a certainty cause scour in weak lambs with attendant fatality, and therefore it will be apparent that breeding profitably on a farm is only compatible with uniform good feeding. On stations where wool, and in inconsiderable increase in frame annually, aro regarded as sufficient profit, tho owner has small motive, or would from the nature of the country or pasture, find it impossible to mature sheop early. The farmer, on the other hand, can devote attention to a small flock, has at command many expedients for cheaply providing superior food for his sheep, and should studiously endeavour to turn his limited pasture and crops cultivated for feed to tho best possible account. If circumstances are unfavourable to the proper breeding as outlined, it will be decidedly inadvisible tc attempt the system, for the much better policy will prove to be the purchase of sheep in forward condition, which will quickly fatten off. Within the week we have seen carcasses of sheep weighing on the average 781b. The flock was bought off tussock ten weeks ago—the price, 13s per head. Put on rich succulent pastures, these sheep 'made weight rapidly, and the buyer calculates hie profit the wool shorn) at 9s per head clear of charges. Farmers who do not find circumstances favourable to breeding, have ample opportunities of money-making by purchasing the class of sheep they require, and provided they have the necessary ample supply of various feed. But the rule observed by graziers who hold prime pastures must be observed by the farmer who grows choice feed. If the example of the wealthy graziers in the Home Country be taken to illustrate the position, what do we find ? These men occupy all th& beat feeding pastures in their several districts ; they buy the best bred and conditioned cattle in the marketß to feed on and finish. So proverbial i 3 this practice that it is commonly represented of them that they are " fancy buyers." But they make money and grow in riches, because < with an exact knowledge of the exceptionable value of their pastures they select the stock that will consume it to the largest profit. The New Zealand farmer, with perhaps only moderate pasture — and this even in small proportion to the extent of his farm, — can grow at very little cost an amount of feed which puts him in a more independent position than any who rely on grazing exclusively, for he cau be a more thorough business man in the purchase and sale of his stock, buying or holding as prices or markets may suggest.

A writer in a leading Australian journal in commenting on the successes of New Zealand mutton, in the English market, volunteers the advice that while the value of the mutton is a consideration, the wool- bearing capabilities should be held in nearly equal estimation. Thig idea is precisely what might be expected from an Australian standpoint, and it is at the same time common enough among ourselves. Stations are large in Austraxia, the climate and soil forbid the successful cultivation of crops as food for stock, and with sheepowners wool, and in a great measure only wool, can be relied on for profit. We have country in New Zealand where like circumstances govern th« management, but the farmed lands present wonderfully different conditions, and on these a system of breeding and feeding stock will ere long eventuate that is impossible in the neighbouring Colonies. We have given this wool delusion some consideration, and have to protest against the extent to which it obtains. Even in the show yards sheep which have not the slightest pretension to purity are exhibited successfully as of certain breeds, and there are any number of men with fictitious standing as judges, who base their opinions solely on the quality of the wool, and who are as ignorant aa the animals they inspect of the distinctive character of the wool of the several pure breeds of long-woolled sheep. If wool is to be the 1 primary object we shall never have an eru'ly maturing sheep. We may arrive after years of careful breeding at strains of blood in which we shall have excellence of wool and propensity to fatten combined, but for the New Zealand farmer the sheep par excellence are the British breeds or their crosses. We write from memory, but almost with certainty, on the subject, that in tables published in the Times it was clearly shown that the value of wool has been decreasing for the last ten years. We have a strong conviction that there is no prospect of any alteration for the better in values. Competition from wool- producing countiies is every year becoming more formidable. Great efforts are being made at the Cape, in Mexico, and in South America, to improve the breeds of sheep. The wool from theso countries has wonderfully improved in quality, and now commands attention in the markets. In the United States the tendency of legislation is to encourage a wool production equivalent to their wants. Australia in two or three years time will dominate the world in special wools, and from all this we argue that mutton production must be the farmer's speciality in New Zealand. In this line we have advantages possessed by no other country, and the breeding of tho best mutton growing sheep, and the correct and economical Bystem of feeding are the considerations paramount with iiß.

The present aspect of the export trade in mutton need occasion but slight uneasiness. Wo have tried but one market — London, a market notorious for rings and vested interests. How is it, wo may ji«k, that whilst New Zea-

land and Australian mutton has suffered in price American beef and mutton has not declined?—at least no complaints have been heard of from United States exporters. The explanation is easy. The travelling reporter of the Australasian newspaper, in America, gives particulars of a large exporting business carried on in the States. The firm shipß to an agent in England, who distributes the consignment to established agencies in the provinces, where the meat is brought directly under the notice of the consumer. And it is worthy of note that the firm under notice not only ships to England, but a considerable trade is done with Scotland, and to a less extent with Ireland. Our companies must give this market question more practical consideration than it has yet received, and when this has been done London butchers will cease "bossing" New Zealand mutton.