STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 7

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Br Droter.

Weekly Stock Sales: Burnside, Wednesdays Ashburton, Tuesdays Addington. Wednesdays Waiareka Railway Junction, Tuesdays Fortnightly: Bulclutha, Fridays Gore, Tuesdays Oaruaru, Tuesdays Invercargill, Tuesdays

Monthly: Ngapara, first Thursday in each month Glenavy, second Wednesday in each month Duntroon, second Friday in each month Clinton, Palmerston, Winton, and Waikouaiti. Periodically: Heriot, Kelso, Kyeburn

At Addington and Burnside last week prices for sheep and prime lambs were the same as the previous week. Among the lambs yarded there was a large proportion of unfinished in many pens at Bumside. This does not make for good prices. Export buyers can onlv pay top prices for prime lamb, and will not pay this for pens of mixed lots of prime and unfinished. If farmers want top prices at the yards, they must send drafts of prime finished sheep and; lambs, and keep the unfinished till they improve. Probably an improvement could be made in some cases if the agents were to draft the prime and secondary into separate pens. Buyers complanned that, the pens were not well drafted. The lambs this- year are still going lighter than in previous years in proportion to the yardings. It is rarely that purchasers’ lines kill out up to 361 b average, the general run being about 321 b. All the works are going full speed, and there are plentiful supplies always waiting for their turn. By cable we learn that the London market price still keeps good, but,_of course, no large quantities of New Zealand have as yet arrived. It looks as if employment in Britain was to be better than last year, and trade seems brisker, and unless labour agitators engineer a strike trade will be good, and therefore we may expept a larger consumption of meat. ‘But much depends on the labour agitator, and already several big strikes involving some tens of thousands of labourers are talked of Let us hope, however, that the good sense of the men will prevail over the arts of the agitator, and then the market for our frozen meat will be considerably better than last season. Under date February t Messrs H. S. Fitter and Co. say:—“Last week the weather was very cold, and (his had its effect

on the demand, which was decidedly stronger and trad? better all round. This week, however, damp, arid mild weather has prevailed, causing a slight reaction, and business at the moment is very dull. Scotch and home-killed mutton finished up rather short, last week, and consequently made a fairly good start this week, but later the demand weakened, and prospects for the finish are not very encouraging. Ewes have -lot been quite so plentiful lately, and as there is very little Dutch mutton now arriving, prices are firm. In spite of the shortage of frozen mutton, the demand lately has not been at all satisfactory. This is no doubt due in a large measure to fee plentiful supply and consequent cheapness of Australian lamb. Large quantities of the latter have been sold, and whilst thev remain at somewhere about the same price as mutton, the demand for them will naturally continue,' n's they must give infinitely more satisfaction to the cciftumer, but if holders aw> tempted to stand out for higher prices, then the demand will scon fal' off. There is still only a limited quantity of new season's New Zealand lambs available, and prices are firm, but the sale of high-priced lambs at this season of the year is always very limited, consequently present prices cannot be expected to hotel as scon as larger shipments arrive. Chilled beef has been short, and it was considered probablr ; that prices would rule considerably higher. The demand, however, did not come up to expectations, and prices did not advance as was anticipated. Quotations for frozen beef are slightly' better, but the trade has been rather disappointing. Pork has been, in very fair demand, and prices are slightly firmer. .Several small consignments of French pigs have lately arrived." The same firm quote as follows:—Lamb—> Canterbury (N.Z.) lambs 5d to s|d per lb, Wellington 4£d to 54d per lb, Australian 3|d to 4d per lb. River Plate 3£d to 4<J ner lb. Pork—E-nelish 6kl to 7£d per lb. Dutch 6id tc 7d per lb, French s£d to- 6|d. »Whilst the tendency is for beef, mutton and lamb to be in over supply from time to time, the demand for pork is increasing faster than the supply, and .ther« appears to be ample room for New land to develop a big trade in frozen pork. Already this yeai about 6COO pigs have gone from Taranaki. Wellington, and Auckland. The Christchurch Meat Company, which operated in the North as well as the Soath Island, having given up bacon-cur-ing, caused a lowering of prices for a time, enabling cxDortevs to secure pigs at export value. Thev have, it appears, cleared the surplus pigs in'North Island, and now the local demand will enable better prices to be paid than exporters can give. Tha pig industry has always been a very fluctuating one. Farmers go in for fattening pigs, and. then give it up and try to feed calves on their ekim-milk. Prices consequently fluctuate, and it is either a feast or a famine in the pig supplv. Th« pig-rearing indust.rv has aever really been -seriously attempted in a proper manner, and it never will become a great industry if w'o depend on the local market and. its over-recurring fluctuations. If it were cons into as an; export business, it, .-would b» better cverv wav. Butter and cheese would not be realising the present prices if ib were not for our export. Cheese and butter to-dav locally (wholesale) are worth. s?d and ll£d per lb respectively, all o'vt ■ New Zealand, and . this is actually id, pel lb more for cheese and ?d per lb more for butter than the present f.o.b. export price that buyers for London arc prepared to pay. This is not anything unusual—it is the' normal state of affairs: that is to say, that generally the local wholesale nrice for butter and cheese, the great bulk o? which is exported, is always highei than the export value. If pig-rearing were gonet about systematically, and we had a good export trade, the local price would, as ia the case of butter and cheese, be always good—better than, the export value. Ii am convinced that systematic pig-rearing would pay any small farmer better thani sheep can ever do. I am told that North! Island pigs, 701 b to 901 b, finished on skiroi milk, suit the export trade well. I ben lieve southern farmers could do equally! well with whey and a little cheap grain] food, the latter being more plentiful thatt in the North Island. The Ruapeh'u and Kaikoura sailed' 6th the 14th March with 35,314 boxes bufcta* and 18,055 crates of cheese. The •corr« sponding steamer last year took 30,68§ boxes __ butter and 16,215 crates of cheese? This is an increase for the fortnight of 4625 boxes butter and 1840 crates of cheesel Included in above, Bluff, Dunedin, an<| Lyttelton shipped the following: —LytteW ton—22B boxes butter and 158 crateS cheese; Dunedin—ll 34 boxes butter jos 1161 crates cheese; Bluff—no butter, 420-li orates cheese. The figures show increase from Bluff of 20 per cent., and Dunedin: and Lyttelton no increase in cheese. Th* butter shipments from Canterbury are veryi

small, as the largo factories there all stopped shipping and stored foi winter use at the end of February. In addition to the above 380 crates of cheese from Bluff, 308 crates of cheese from Duncdin. and 175 crates of cheese from Lyttelton went by West of England steamer last week. Despite the late dry weather, milk supplies are holding up better than was anticipated, and the shipment- from Southland and Otago this year will largely exceed those of last season. In the North Island, without doubt, the export season will this year be a record. They have had a good rainfall all along and plentiful rain lately, and the supply of milk to factories there is keeping up very well. * The bookings for the next steamer, the Rimutaka, at the end of this month, are: Bluff 3594 crates, Dunedin 876, Lyttelton 549 crates cheese. No butter has been booked. Shipments of butter from the North Island will continue till the end of May, and of cheese probably right on iill the new season opens.