STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 8

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

By D*oy»s.

Weekly Stock Sales : Burnside, Wednesdays .Astxburton, Tuesdays Addington, Wedneid ays Ferlmghtly : Balclutba, Friday^ Gore, Tuesday! Ojuuarn, Tuesdays

Fortn : yht!y : Invercargill, Tuesdays Monthly : Clinton, PalmerstoD, Wiutop, and Waikouaiti* Periodically Heriot, Kelso, and Kyebura.

About 200 head of cattle were yarded last week, mostly medium quality. Best bullocks brought £9 to £9 -Us ; medium, £7 to £8 ; good cows and heifers. £6 10s to £7 10s ; inferior to medium, £3 5s to £5. The. market was decidedly dull, and there was a considerable fall in price, more especially in inferior to medium qualities.

About 1700 sheep were yarded, mostly medium quality. Best -wethers, of which there wer© only a few, brought 21s to 24s 6d : medium, 18s to 19s 6d ; inferior, about 17s ; good to best ewes, 17s to 21s ; light. 14= to 15s. Only about 200 lambs were yarded, aud butchers competed keenly for this small supply, keeping prices up. They sold at f rom ' 13s 6d to 18s.

Ac Addington the market was duller than for some time, and it almost seems as if farmers and buyers had come to the conclusion that both store sheep and fat might be bought too dear, and I am surprised they have not realised this before. The only classes of stock that remained at previous prices at Addington were fat pigs and dairy cows. In fat sheep, primest wethers sold at from 22s to 24s 6d ; good. 20s to 21s 6d ; ewes, about same ; aged ewes, 15s; medium, about 18s. Butchers had the ma,rket to themselves, as exporters mainly held off. Prices were easier in lambs also. Heavy tegs brought 18s to 20s ; g-ood to prime freezing- lambs, 15s to 18s. The decline in the store sheep market was very decided in all classes. Wethers, 15s to ißs; ewes, 13s 6d to 18s; forward lambs, 13s to 14s 6d. The cattle market was dull, store cattle especially 60. Prime bullocks sold-a-t £8 to £9.

The f ollowing is from Weddel and Co.'s report - under date London, March 10, and it has considerable points of interest: —

Mutton. — New Zealand : Arrivals amount to 74,524 carcases during the past fortnight. There is a slight improvement in the demand for small sheep of good quality ; but the inquiry for medium weight aoid heavy sheep remains slow, and the position of the market as a whole is not very satisfactory. Cheap chilled and frozen beef is at present more remunerative than' mutton to butchers to handle, and they are not unnaturally pushing the sale of beef and correspondingly neglecting mutton. Canterbury sheep of light weight realise ,4Jd and 5 5-8 d per lb; the heavier grades selling at 4d and 4gd per lb. Southland and. Dunedin sheep are off the market. Best North Island brands are quoted at from 32<1 to 4Jd per lb, according tc size, and" ordinary North Island sheep at 3 5-8 d and 3|d per lb. Ewes are offered at 2^d per lb.

Australian. — Receipts total only 22,970 carcases. Very considerable difficulty is still experienced in the realisation of the Australian sheep now in London, their fat and wasteful condition rendering them generally unsuited to the requirements of our markets. Large carcases cannot be quoted at more than |2Jd and 2gd per Ib ; but for the small sheep on offer a premium of gd per lb over those prices is obtainable. Eiver Plate. — Importations are maintained on a, fairly large scale, some 117,018 carcase 3 coming to hand during the past- tv;o weeks. There is a slightly "better feeling in the market, but the consumptive demand is still much below the average for this time of the year, and consequently the market is not firm even at the moderate level of quotation now current. Large carcases are quoted at 3d arcl 3|d per lb, and small sheep at 3Jd and. 3gd per lb. Lambs. — The receipt of only 28,313 carcases from Australia shows a marked falling off. but New Zealand arrivals are increasing, and amount to 51,186 carcases ; 5015 carcases have come to hand from the Eiver Plate. There i 3 a fair inquiry for lambs of all qualties, and the trade is steadily expanding week by week. Best brands of Austradian lambs realise 4Jd and s£d per lb. and the quotation for good, useful carcases being 4\cl and 4£d, while prices of inferior soils range down to as low as 4H per lb. With larger quantities of New Zealand lambs arriving it was found impossible to maintan quotations. An all-round drop of id per lb has taken place; but, even with this reduction, prices are still sufficiently high to check the expansion of the consumption in some branches of the trade. Canterbury lambs under 361b realise GJd and 6£d pei lb. and the 361b to 421b grade sells at 6d and 6£d per lb. Other new Zealand lambs are quoted at sid and s|d tier lb. A few light weight G-isborne lambs have sold at 5d to 5 5-Bd. The small lots of River Plate now on offer are being sold at from 4Jcl to 4|d per Ib, according to quality. Beef — Frozen: Only 3853 quarters are to hand from New Zealand, but the River' Plate import continues very heavy, and amounts to no less than 49,996 quarters during the fortnight. Having regaid to the low prices current, the rate of sale of frozen beef is still somewhat disappointing, although the trade is now appreciably better than it recently was. While chilled beef remains at the low level of prices which is has occupied during the -oast month, however, the sale of frozen beef is bound to be checked. There is no Australian beef available, ancl sales of New Zealand beef are so few that quotations are nominal at 2Jd fores, and 2s<3 per lb" hinds. River Plate frozen beef is selling at 2ja and 2%d fores and 2Jd and 2 5-Sd per lb hinds for best quality; but stored stocks and very heavy quarters are feeing sold at as low as 2d and 2Jd fores, and 2Jd hinds. Chilled : Some 10 733 quarters have been received from the River Plate. The qualify and refrigerated condition of most of these arrivals have been only fairly good, and with Norfh American beef cheap, low rarices have ruled for Argentine chilled beef. At the close. North American is quoted at 3g<l and 33d per lb fores, and 4-kl and 5Jd v>er lb hinds; ancl River Plate at 2ad and 3 id per lb fores, and 31d and 3£cl per lb hinds.

Tn the provincial markets sales have been below the averaee at this time of year, and the consumptive demand is small, even though the prices are generally below those paid in London. I am not at all sure that it is good policy to divert trade from London : it seems to me that ship-Dine to Liverpool and the Wast Coast of England

as yet has had a tendency to lower prices, instead of advancing them. Liverpool and the West Coast of England is the distributing district for River Plate mutton. London does not receive much River Plate meat. Prices are always lower for River Plate than for New Zealand, and I fear that New Zealand meat has to come down in price to get a hold against River Plate on the West Coast of England. Quality is, of course, a great point; but cheapness, always provided the article is fairly good, weighs considerably also, and in the large manufacturing towns of the Midlands the cheapness of the Kiver Plato meat will always tell with consumers. London having a much wider area of distribution, I am inclined to think -v«w Zealand shippers of frozen mutton mi '■'lit do worse than stick to London, and let River Plate stick to Liverpool.

The London County Council secured a conviction, with a fine of £20 and costs, against the meat contractor who fraudulently- attached New Zealand labels to Australian meat, and Weddel and Co. suggest that shippers should affix their tags with grade marks £>nd brands with sealed wire, as is done in some cases by American beef shippers. I think, however, an indelible brand on the fore and hind quarters of our sheep and lambs would bo much more uspful and effective, and such a brand can, I believe, now be obtained.

It will be noted from the report quoted above that the London market by no means responds to the very high prices paid for mutton and lambs in Now Zealand owing- to scarcity and it appears also that there is quite enough supply there at present rates, and in fact it seems that unless prices come down and tlie* number of consumers i 3 increased, there will bo quite enough mutton <*nd lamb to go round, despite any shortage in New Zealand.

Without s>,ny desire to take a pessimistic view of matters generally, I would say that the note of warning against the speculative element in sheep-farming sounded by Sir Robert Stout the other day is worth consideration. He reminded his hearers that millions of money were lost in the past on land and stock, which went to a very high figure, and then fell. A good many of us have a vivid recollection of that. True, it occurred in days before the frozen meat trade or the dairy produce export trade had come to anything. At the same time, it must be remembered that these heavy losses were made when neither stock nor land was at anything like the prices now paid. We are still, I think, feeling- some of the oenefit of the Australian drought, which was a. blessing to Now Zealand, for as yet, and for some time to come, the meat trade and the dairy produce trade in Australia aie just beginning to get going, and are comparatively small in volume. There is certainly, I think, need for caution against buying either land or stock at extra.va.gant prices. Active and pushing auctioneers are to a very large exten+ responsible for the high prices going, a.nd farmers follow one another in mobs like sheep, and I think place possibly more reliance en auctioneers and ag-ents than on bheir own judgment, and are also led away by hearing what their neighbours are doing. London is our market, and London is supplied hy the whole world. London values must rule both the price of land and the price of stock in New Zealand, not the prices given by our neighbours and friends, and so we have to keep our eyes fixed, not on New Zealand only, but on other countries supplying the London market, such as River Plate, Australia, Denmark, and Canada. Acrain, let me say ti'iat I think Sir Robert Stout's remarks on this point, were useful and aprjrouriate, although I don't always agree with his views on matters political.

The Pastoralists' Review says: —

Our Argentine letter reports a splendid harvest and any amount of grass for pastoralists, who are turning their attention to breeding lambs for freezing. "Ewes are cheap and land is obeap," but cultivation with rape, turnips, etc., is yet a thing of tho future, and information is nought as to the best breed of sires for this purpose, Leicesters being at present favoured.

Several lots of our best stud sheep have been going steadily to River Plate lately, and they are large buyers from the best English breeders ; in fact, Argentina has for years been a mine of wealth to Engli&h sheep and cattle breeders. Money they spend in plenty, and secure the best they can, and in large quantity, too.

The question of improving the quality of milk supplied to dairy factories is one that will be dwelt upon a good deal by the Dairy Commissioner and his staff, and certainly this, along with the. question of weeding out our milking cattle and keeping only profitable cows, is the most important matters dairy farmers can turn their attention to. The milking yards and stockyards are a source of trouble to very many farmers in the south. In some places metal could not be obtained, and I have to suggest a plan I have seen tried in Taranaki — that is, to put a roof right over the stock yard or approach to the milking sheds. A ton of corrugated iron does not cost much, goes a long way. and can be easily put up. If this is regarded as too expensive, paroid might be used as an inexpensive substitute. A further improvement can be made by putting the iron or paroid right along: the weather side of the stockyard also. Cows one stormy night could then be left in the yard under shelter. This plan has been most successful in a very wet district in the North Island, the yard being kept perfectly dry, and being easily cleaned up. lam certain this would pay better in the long run than to allow the yards to get many feet deep in slush and mire, and it would certainly lielp largely to the much-desired object of milk-improvement and cleanliness.

The exports of butter and cheese for the vcar ending March 3 show an "increase in butter and a declino in oheose, the latter due to one large factory in the North Island, which made 900 tons lsst year, turning to to butter t£is year. But for the dry weather in the North Island the increase in butter would have been very mucth large-r. The figures are: —

iear. .904-5 1903-4 its. Butter. 342,797cwt 314,3190vt Cheese. 82.639cwi 86j535cw