STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2541, 26 November 1902, Page 7

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Bi Dioto. Weekly Stttk Salet : Fortnightly : ButMide. Wednesday. Invercarpll, Tuesday. Ashburton, Tuesday. Monthly: Aldington, Wednuoays Clinton, Palmenton ; WUnton, and Wai Fortnightly: kouaiti Balclutha, Friday. 1 Periodically: Gore, Tuesdays Herfot.Kelio, aad Kye Oamaru, Tuesdays * burn. There was a yarding of about 160 head of cattle at Burnside last week, and, mainly, I think, on account of the lessening of competition owing to the freezing works being closed down, prices showed a slight decline. Prime bullocks brought £12 up to £14; good, £10 to £11 10s; prime cows and heifers, £11 to £12 10s; medium bullocks and cows, £9 10s to £10 10s; inferior cattle £6 10s to £8 10s. Considering that only butchers were competing prices were quite as good as could be expected, and if larger yardings coma -forward during the next inon.h we may expect a fall in price of about 20s per- head. I - em inclined to think that prices must come * to a lower level 'ere long in any case.The. high price .of cattle, and of calves ,' also, has induced many farmers' to try "rearing calves on skim milk. So far as I ceu find they have not met with much success, nor would I expect them to.~ I have a -verypoor opinion of sldm-mflk calves, even when reared, and the percentage of deaths in rearing will be found very heavy. Skim milk, I am convinced, can be much Before profitably utilised in feeding pigs. Ang good calves are worth feeding on something better than ekim milk, and if they are not worth this they had better be killed, but I flrink this could be avoided without having to resort to skim' milk. lam -sorry^for tu<l future of our beef trade if our calves are to be reared on skim milk. And when you add to the skim milk the cost of any sort of calf food added to it, it will be found thai this method of feeding is neither as good nor as cheap as feeding on whole milk. Even with the comparatively small yarding of about 1300, the sale of sheep "was a dull one. There were very few prime sheep in the yarding. These brought 22s to 255, some good 20s to 21s, and some prime ewes 20s to 21s 6d; medium ewes and wethers sold at 17s to 193 ; inferior, Ms. About 300 lambs were yarded, mostly poor things not fit for the. butcher. Prime lambs sold, readily at. 12b to 12s 6d ; good, 10s to lls od ; the balance, of poor quality, at from 5s to 8b — quite a waste to. send these poor lambi in. - The pig market was-brisk, all forward selling well. Bacon pigs are worth fully s£d dead weight, and all classes, from suckers tc' porkers, sell readily. Prices seem tc be advancing for store pigs, and so far as I can judge they will do so. I know no more profitable line for farmers fan breeding and rearing pigs at present, and yeta-large number of farmers continue to give the pig little or no plaoe in their business. What partrctilarly astonishes me is the neglect of this industry in the case *.f the smaller faimer. Some of our leading large farmers haye } always gone in foi pigs heavily, anc! found the business one of the best of all branches of farming, ' »yen when prices and prospects were far below those at present. At Addington last week the yarding of fat sheep (7000) was the largest for* some tiint past. The bulk were ewes of good quality. The wethers were of prime quality, yet prices were easier. This is to be expected, for the rates lately ruling coald not, I think, be maintained. Prime heavy shorn wethers brought 238 to 26s 3d, and some extra heavy •how sheep up to 335 ; best shorn freezers brought 18s tc 21s 6d; shorn freezing ewes, 15s tc 17s 6d ; medium butchers' ewes and. wethers (shorn) brought from 12a to 15s. Prices, I think, were good enough. About 700 fat lambs were yarded. Freezing buyen were active, and secured about one-third of the best at 14s 6d to 17s, butchers taking the balance at from 9s 6d to 13s 6d. There wag an unusually small yarding of store sheep at Aldington (1000), and all sold readily at good prices. Shorn wethers, 14s 3d to 14a 7d ; a poor lot of shorn ewes and lambs, all counted, -5s 9d. Th« store sheep -were b% no means of best quality. Pigs at Ac 1 > dington were eagerly competed for. Bacon

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pigs, 5d to sid; porkers, s£d to 6d; very small pigs, 10s to 14s; good stores, 22s to 30s.

The grain market is brisk. WHeafc for New Zealand supply is evidently short. The North Island people are buying what they can. Milling oats can hardly be obtained, and all good feed lines are readily sold. Oatsheaf ohaff is also in demand. Potatoes also are firm again, and good shipping lines are wanted.

It seems quite evident that Australia is still suffering from the drought, and rain now would hardly save the situation. I look forward to a very brisk demand for every lfsne of farmers' produce during the coming cix or eight months at any rate, and good prices must rule. They still pray for rain in Australia, but they have never F»ken the one proper step to help themselves, and even a beneficent Providence cannot reasonably be expected to help them until they do. I mean they should at once remove all the duties on fodder and all foodstuffs. Then New Zealand can feed them more cheaply than now. I have before this said that Providence can. hardly be expected to help them or anyone else i_n fostering so wicked a thing as Protection. It seems to me perfect madness to retain these duties, which must be a sore burden on all, espe-, cially as the bulk of what they eat and what their cattle -and horses eat has now to pay these duties in most of the States.

Ijast week I alluded to Mr 11. C. Orbell's long-continued efforts to institute reform in our export meat trade, and I am in a position now to give shortly an idea of his proposals and views on th<» matter. Shortly," the following were the proposals he brought before the exeoutivo -of the Farmers' Union in South Canterbury: — •

1. That an Advisory Board be established in London, and another in this colony. 2. That no meat be consigned to Smithfield men or any others that are buyers in our market.

3. That all consignments go through our local stock agency companies and freezing companies who have one of their own staff to sell. i. That the banks do not employ, as is often the case, a buying broker to sell for them, but that their consignments be put in the hands of one of the above-named recognised salesmen. 5. That the freezing companies freeze only upon the above condition.

I believe so good an authority as Mr Gilbert Anderson has approved of these suggestions, and his company, the Christchurch Meat Company, would be willing to fall in with them, and I believe our southern factories would also do so. The main point is to get farmers' unions and farmers generally to unite and agree on the matter. -Mr Weymouth always has played a lone hand on matters of fcliis sort. But unity on the part of farmers would soon compel all freezing oompanies <to fall into line, and the sooner the power to manage and control absolutely our meat export trade is wrested from the frozen meat oompanies the better. The oompanies must be put in the position of faithful and loyal servants to the farmers of New Zealand, and not the bosses of the situation, as in times pa^t. Most of them will willingly take this position, and co-operate with farmers for reform. Now, es over, the main difficulty is to get the farmers to Jook ahead, and unitedly pull together. And I confess that, judging by the past, this is indeed a big undertaking to carry through, but it could be done. Evidently Mr Orbell's main idea is to get the farmers interested and united through their unions. The South Canterbury Union endorsed these suggestions, and arranged to meet and discuss them with the North Canterbury executive. This was done, and the North Canterbury Union unanimously agreed to support them, and it was then resolved to send a copy to all brandies of the union in, Otago and Southland to endorse and aporove. I hope all our farmerß* unions will do so. Later on the North Island will be asked to come in also, and 1 think they will do so, for in many parts in the North Island they are ripe and ready for this change, and in many respects more alive and energetic than we oanny Scotchmen in the south. There seems little doubt that all Canterbury will agree to these proposals. I need not enlarge upon the importance of the Boards of Advice, nor upon the importance of putting a stop to consigning to brokers who aro both buyers and sellers. Both c.i.f. and f.o.b. sellinp could be carried on through these authorised brokers, I presume. Personally I look forward to the day when our frozen meat will be carried on as our dairy produce trade is. Some consign always, and some sell f.o.b. always. Meafc graded properly could be dealt with this way, stated average weights, etc.

"A Director" writes- re butter-box branding in last weefo's Witness. I shall probably deal with the letter next week. Mcautiuie I may tay that liig arguments are just "eauld kail hot again" — the same as the Australian ajre-nti* in Wellington used at the Chamber of Commerce. He seems to think we in the dairy produce can copy the frozen meat trade. Not so : the frozen meat trade must and will yet copy the methods of the dairy produce export trader, u'hioh has been and is a great success, whilst the meat trade all along has been a miserable muddle.