STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2730, 11 July 1906, Page 7

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES,

Br Dxotjss.

Weekly Stock Fates : Fortn'ghth/ : Burnside, Wednesdays Inverc»rgi 1, Tuestbys A shburton, Tuesdays Vnnth7,,Addineton, Wednesdays -„ , J/0 "' A f • * Clinton, PahnerstoD, Fortnightly: Wiaton, acd WaiBalclutha, Fridays kouaiti. Gore. Tuesday* Periodically: Oaniaru, Tuesdays j Heriot, Kelsc, and KyeI burn. About 170 head of cattle were yarded J« t st at Burnside, mostly medium and unfinished. The market, however, was lively, and all sold readily at good prices. Prime bullocks brought £10 to £11; good, about £9; medium, £7 10s to £8 10s; light and inferior. £4- 10s to nearly £6; best coas anJ heifrrs. £8 to £8 15s and up to £10 5s for very prime ; medium to goe'd, £4 100 to £5 10s. About 2400 sheep wero yarded, most'y of the unfinished and medium quality sorts, but prices all round were fully Is 6d better than those of the previous week. Prime wethers were scarce, and sold at 25s to ever 275; medium, about 235; inferior, 17s to 395; best ewes, 23* to 25e ; medium. 20s to 21s ; inferior. 13s to 15s Anything with a good skm on it sells well, the skin being tlve main attraction, and the quality cf meat .only a secondary consideration. Nearly 800 lambs, or rather tegs or hoggets they might be called, sold at up to 19s and as W as 11s The sala for this class of meat vi London will receive a check soon — probably when nice light-weight Australian yheep arrive, togethe" with rca! earlj' lambs. It is o. poor .substitute for good mutton. At Aldington the " be<?f market is about the samo as at Burnside Prime beef, 22* to 25s per 1001b; 20s to 22s for medium. end 18s to 195 for inferior. The Christchurch Pr-ebS reports re itorc cattle. — Two laige lines of good grazing cattle gave more importance to this department than for a long time past, and buyers wore well represented. The two lines mentioned were sold privately, and other business was unimportant. Three and four year old steers sold up to £5, two-year-old steers £3 5s to £3 10s, two-year-old heifers, £3, 18-month cattle 25s to 40s. At Addington about 3500 sheep w-ei"e yarded, including some very prime lines of Down wethers ana ewes and merino withers. Tiie =ale opened f-trong. and tlie bidding was brisk for prime wethers till jupt toward the end of the sale, when ihs pace seemed to have told on some competitors, and bidding then flagged a little. Eucs were noi in such request, and prices not within 2s of previous week's rates. Quotation* were a s follows :—Wetheis, prime 23s to 265. extra to 295. light from 18s lOd ; owes, prime 20« to 22s 6d, extra to 245, medium 17s to 19s. aged from 13s 6d ; merino wctheie, good to prime 16s to 18s, extra to 23s sd. About 2000 lambs at Addington varied in quality from very piime to "\ery backward. Competition v. as keen, there being another BichmoncT in the field in the shape of a buyer who has not operated much previous >y this 6eason. Values were about the same as those of previous week, skins not having further advanced this week. Prices were: — Fair to prime freezers sold at l?s to 21s. extra ro 24s Bd, ight and secondary 15s 2d to 17s 6d. The Pastorali-ts' Beview for June, dealing with the price and prospect of the Australian frozen meat trade, says: — The position of the frozen meat export trade, as far as Australia is converneel, 10mains unaltered. A little meat was shipped from the north last month, and that is about all the movement there has been. Since last writing some splendid rains have fallen in ceitain districts, particularly those which supply most of the lambs for export, but the western «lopes and New England di\ i>ion of New South Wale, mo6t, of Queensland, and the Northern Territory would be benefited by another good fall. This timely downpour in the lamb-produc-ing country has greatly improved the prospects of next season's output, tho weather up till this week having kept i-emarkably warm, and' consequently thp grass made good growth before the wintor proper eet in The la-mbing appears to. be turning out ■splendidly almost everywhere, and the mothers, having ample feed, are in good condition, and ought to be able to rear a fine shapely crop of freezers. Growers, hewever, mnat make up their minds to accept slightly lower rates this year. We hoar that practically every exporter of tho frozen lamb trade lost heavily last season owing to the slump in London, and it is against reason to expect them to do the same again. The Smithfield quotations for Australian mutton and lamb are firm, -with values unaltered. Some of the lately-closed Queensland works are just commencing operations again, on cattle, and if the price will allow, the exports of beef should increase materially during the next month or two. Many of the New South Wales and Victorian works are choked 'up with rabbits, and it is satisfactory to hear that the trade in London is stagnant. Babbits do a very large amount of harm to frozen meat, as people switch off to rabbit* whenever meat goes up in price. New^Zeatand is still exporting immense munH*— ~f

frozen moat, last month's shipments to London being 210,000 carcases mutton, 378,000 carcases lamb, and over 14,000 quarters, of L<?ef, but, unfortunately for all concerned, the market at Home is weak, particularly so in, mutton. Oabiod quotations show valu'is at Smithfield for New Zealand I "mutton have been shrinking steadily for nearly two months, and prices, probably ■ for the first time in the history of the trade, are almost on a par with Argentine meat. However, since the beginning cl June the market appears to have recovered .: somewhat, so it is hoped that bedrock tas L-cen reached. ' The London correspondent of the Pastoralists' Review, ,one of the ablest and incst reliable of press writers, under ate London, 11th May, predicts lgw prices all round in the coming reason, and says: — Current market values for frozen meats do not augur well for good average results from the trade of 1906, and an upward tendency will have to declare itself *oon if the year is not to show very poor figuresfor Australasian meats. Thi feature of the month has been the decline in price of North Island mutton, which has fallen about 2d since I last wrote, and which ia now selling under landed cost. The supply, though ample for lequirements, has nofe_ been at all heavy— lo,ooo less than in April, ISCS ; and as to totals for January-April, • we have received over 200,000 less than for the same period of last year. A shortago of 200,000 carcases of New Zealand' snoop for four months, combined with a i-eduction in market value for the same, indicates that special factors have betn at work. South America also shows a faljingoff, and the n-et decrease (Australia lias on increase of 80,000) is 160,000 for the iouu months. As the ungenial weather has kept the lamb trade back, we must look t- beef imports for the explanation. The increase to date of beef is 136,000 quarters of frozen, and 85,000cwt (bf chilled, and the low prices at- which this meat lil goes into consumption have tempted retailers to ad- - vance this article at the expense of mutton. New Zealand mutton is spread about a good deal, and the general disposition of salesmen is to decline to recognise anything as compared with South American.; id per 1b is the difference between the two sorts now. Marking time describes the position at present. The weather has been backward, and lamb has not entered fully into consumption. Excepting Australian sheep, wHeh stand high as compared with other sort 3, mutton and lamb are making no better prices than they have at any time during the last three months. Australian mutton is getting short, hence the rise. South American mutton has enjoyed a steady trade, and benefited considerably by th-e light arrivals of New Zealand muttoni in the first three months of the year. In 1905, for January-March 393,000 New Zealand sheep arrived ; in 1906 only 196,000. Meat shippers iv ihe colony would do welf io arrange their shipments better than this, for legular buyers of New Zealand mutton going off to Plate, as they have to. are difficult to get back, again, finding Plate meat suitable and cheaper. Mr Gilruth's address upon the frozen meat export trade from New Zealand is valuable and timely. My readers will not be surprised that I agree with him as to the advisability of compulsory stamping of New Zealand meat as New Zealand. I

have for many years past advocated this, »nd now Mr Gilruth has clearly stated that the main objectors to this meat-marking were the freezing companies, and their reason, he plainly stated also, was that Jaeat-marking— that is to say, stamping the Erat as New Zealand — would prevent it jng sold fraudulently as English and fbotch, which business they considered of great value to the colony. I Fave never agreed with them on this point, and never jball do so. No one has a greater admiraiicn for our freezing companies than I have. I fully recognise the great benefits that have come to every farmer in New Zealand through their enterprise and energy in equipping their works and' generally developing our meat trade. But I consider that their policy of fostering this trade of selling the New Zealand frozen mutton and lamb as English or Scotch was wrong and shortsighted in the extreme. Mr John Roberts, now or lately a director of one of these companies, expressed his surprise hhat they had so objected to meat-marking, and said he did not think they would now object. I hope not, and i£ they do I hope the people of the colony, through Parliament, will see to it that the meat companies are not allowed their way in this matter. Mr Gilruth also alluded to the boned-beef trade. Old cows, bringing en aa average £2, are boned and' shipped. The stuff produced at best is never sightly or creditable to the colony, and I agree with him" that in view of the Chicago meat scandals the sooner we prohibit the sending of this very inferior stuff Home as New Zealand meat the better. No hardship can. accrue to any farmer. These Bame cattle sent to the digester straight from the farm would," in hide, tallow, and offal, bring 30s. This I know from personal experience. To get this extra 10s for these old beasts we are running the risk of damaging the good name of NewZealand' meat, for I am certain that if a clever scribe were well paid to damage New Zealand's reputation on the London market, he could take hold of this led beef, or boned beef, there, and easily do it. Though it ia free from disease, an unscrupulous wtiter could, without much difficulty, show it to bo unfit for human food, and a pretty scandal would thus he created. I hope Mr Gilruth will advise Government to stop this export, and trust all well-wishers to the New Zealand meat fcrade will support him.