STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3117, 10 December 1913, Page 15

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Weekly Stock Sales. Ngapara & Wiuton, Ist Burnside, Wednesdays Thursday Ashburton, Tuesdays Mataura & Waikouaitl Addington, Wednesdays 2nd Thursday ' Waiareka Railway June- Riverton, 3rd Thursday i tion, Tuesdays. Wyndham, last Thursday Fortnightly. Ba'four & Thornbury, 1 m , Ist Friday Clinton, Ihursdays Duntroon & Otautau, Balclutha, Fridays 2ad t - riday Oamaru U Tuesdays Riversdale, 3rd Friday Invercargill, Tuesdays. Waikaka, last Friday, j Wallacetowu, Tuesdays. Periodically. Monthly. Heriot, Kelso, Kyeburn, Palmerston, Ist Monday Lumsden, Mossburn, Glunavy, 2nd Wednesday Orepuki, Clifden.

BURNSIDE MARKETS. At the Burnside saleyards on Wednesday last there was a yarding of 168 head of fat cattle, of which 01 were cows and .heifers. The entry did not include any extra heavy weights. Competition throughout was good, owing to tho trade haing only short supphos, and values wore sligutly higher when compared with those ruling a week earlier. Beef may bo quoted at about 35s 6d per 1001 b. Prices ranged for best bullocks from i>l3 to £ls 10s, extra to £l7 ss, medium £lO to £l2, best heifers £ll 10s to £l3 10s, and good from £9 to £lO 15s, and inferior from £5 16s to £B. There was an entry of 66 stores, 24 of which were not offered, and six bulls. Tho quality of tho entry was poor, with the usual exceptions. The few yearlings included in the yarding were of an ihdifferent class. Prices ranged for cows from £2 15s to £7, steers up to £6 16s, and bulls from £6 to £8 Is. Tho 23 calves yarded sold from 12s 6d to £2 11s. Tho entry of dairy cows totalled 14, of about tho usual quality, and prices ranged from £5 to £9 7s 6d. There was an entry of 1400 fat sheep. The yarding proved to bo too small to meet requirements, and competition was very keen among butchers. A feature of tho yarding was tho entry of extra heavy weight shorn sheep, which brought up to 28s. Prices showed an increase of 2s on tho previous week’s rates for prime wethers and ewes, but for medium and inferior lots the advance was not quite so high, being between Is and Is 9d per head. Best woolly wethers 28s to 335, medium 23s to 255, best shorn wethers 26s to 28s, good 22s to 245, best woolly owes 25s to 27s 6d, medium 20s to 22s 6d, best shorn owes 20s to 225, and extra up to 275. There was an entry of 93 fat lambs. There was a brisk demand, and prices were from Is 6d to 2s per head higher than at the sale a week earlier. Best lambs realised from 21s to 23s 3d, good 18s 6d to 20e, and medium 15s 6d to 16s 6d. There was an entry of 21 fat pigs and 27 stores. Prices for fat pigs ranged from £3 6s to £3 12s, and stores from 25s to £2 18s.. ADDINGTON At Addington the yarding of fat cattle totalled 283 head. Included An tho entry was some good-quality beef. At the commencement of the sale prices were not as firm when compared with tho previous week's lates, but towards tho close tho market improved, and beef realised from 31s 6d to 38s per 1001 b. Steers brought £7 2s 6d to £ll 10s, extra to £l6, heifers £7 to £9 10s, extra to £ll ss. Competition for tho best classes of stores was brisk, but values remained, unchanged. Only an average number of calves were forward, and prices ranged from 8s to £3. The greater part of tho dairy cows were a jxi or class, but She bettor classes excited keen competition. Prices ranged from £3 to £9. Tho entry of fat sheen was larger than on tho previous week. The market opened well, but export buyers held aloof after discovering that tho supply was more than was required, and thus the sale became irregular. At tho close prices showed a decided decline. Woolly wethers realised 275, woolly owes 22s to 31s 9d, prime shorn wethers 21s 6d to 25s sd, prime shorn owes 20s to 245, and extra to 27s 6d. The number of fat lambs yarded was 528, of excellent quality. Tho supply proved to be too much for butchers’ requirements, and nricea decreased about 2s per head. For best lambs from 16s 6(1 to 20s 6d was realised, lighter 14s to 16s. The store sheep numbered 2500, chiefly shorn wethers. Tho demand was again good, and all lines were disposed of at auction at a slight advance on recent rates. Fourtoothed wethers realised from 16s 4d to 18s Id, two-toothed 14s 6d to 15s Bd, twotoobhed owes 17s 2d, crossbred owes with lambs 12s 7d, all counted. There was a medium entry of fat pigs, and tho demand was a shade better, but values showed no quotable change. Only a small number of store pigs were penned, mostly of an indifferent class. There was a fair demand. Largo stores realised 35s to 40s, medium 26s to 345. Weanors brought from 14s to 18s, according to quality.

AUSTRALIAN LAMB EXPORT. To apreciate the prospect for our own fat lamb export trade it is always well to know what our rival competitors aro doing. Concerning the Commonwealth the Pastoral Review says:—“All ths works in New South Wales and Victoria are now putting through tho maximum number of lambs, and anticipate a particularly busy and profitable season. Southern Queensland and South Australian establishments are treating small lines. Tho October clearance for the whole Commonwealth to the United Kingdom totalled 214,000 carcases, as against 76.000 for the same month of last year. Tho shipments for November aro likely to be between 500.000 and 600,000 carcases, and, say, 500.000 should ho exported in December. If these figures are realised the output for tho July-Dccember half of the current season will exceed 1,300,000 and tho shipments for tho whole year may bo somewhere a boot 1.750.000 carcases. An export of one and three-quarter million lambs in 12 months would bo a record for Australia. Tho highest so far is 1,662,000 during tho 1910-11 season. The lambs are coming.. into the works in prime condition, and are killing well. Grass seeds aro causing some trouble, and aro likely to get worse as tho season progresses. With tho heavier supplies coming to hand, values have eased since last writing. Sliippera aro now paying between 3sd and 3£d per lb green for the stuff they are drawing from the Newmarket (Melbourne) yards. Prices in Sydney are a shade lower.” THE VANCOUVER TRADE. Australia evidently intends to lose no opportunity of trying to secure a share of the trade with Canada in frozen meat and dairy produce. Tho prospectus has been issued in Sydney of a now shipping lino which it is proposed to run between Sydney and Vancouver. It is proposed to charter four steamers, each of 10,000 tons register, and to ultimately purchase these steamers. At present the reciprocal treaty between New Zealand and Canada gives our Dominion an advantage over tho Commonwealth, hut it is hoped this will Vie overcome by Australia conducting a similar treaty with Canada. THE NORTH AMERICAN TRADE. Although the direct shipments to North American ports during October wore on a smaller scale than during some of the preceding months, there is no sign of the demand easing off. One exporter describes it as booming. The exports for October include 1568 quarters beef, 24 sides mutton, and 100 carcases veal to San Francisco, and 876 carcases, 806 pairs lega mutton, and 6b carcases veal to Vancouver. For this month a special steamer, tho Waimato, has been chartered to load meat at Queensland and Now South Wales ports for tho Pacific Coast. The Waimate’s cargo will comprise 1400 tons of frozen beef, 90 tons of mutton, and 40 tons of veal. Some of the meat will bo consigned to Vancouver, but it is understood that it is practically all intended for consumption in the United States. In addition to the Waimate. throo American mail steamers will clear during November, and each will carry fair-sized parcels of moat. FARMING IN THE HOMELAND. Impressions formed during a holiday visit are liable to be somewhat superficial. Mr W. Perry, a well-known Wairarapa sheepbreeder, is a shrewd observer, however, and his impressions about farming in tho Home Country may he of more than ordinary value. * Mr Perry lias just returned from a visit with Mrs Perry to England. Scotland. Ireland, and the- Continent. Mr Perry told an interviewer that “ farming at Homo was a very leisurely affair. 'There was nothing strenuous about it; the land-owner did not take his coat off. The English farmer thinks it infra dig to take a turn in the field with the men as New Zealand farmers (lid. Joining in tho hunt and attending the stock sales comprised the business in life of the English farmer, and, like master like man, tho workers on tho English farms were very slow, but they wore certainly thorough. It was u treat to see an English paddock after tho plough had been over it. The single-furrow plough was still used. A double-furrow might put Hodge out of a job. It was complained by some farmers in New Zealand that they paid too dearly for their farm labour, hut Mr Perry is convinced that one worker on a farm in Now Zealand does as much work as two hands on an English farm. ‘ England,’ said tho New Zealander, ‘ is a land of slow growth and development, and the people take very much after tho nature of their land. l did not properly understand this fact until I had travelled through tho country and made observations at first hand.’ Scotland was found to be much more progressive in tho farming, and the land (which was excellently tilled) gave promise of an excellent harvest. Ireland contained two widelydiffering countries —tho south was poor and badly tilled, tho north was bright and rich and progressive. Dublin, the city, was typical of tho south, Belfast of tho north—the one dull and lacking in modernity, the other full of life and activity and enterprise.” THE WORLD’S LARGEST STOCKYARDS. While Mr A W. Pearse was in Chicago as tho representative of Australia and New Zealand at the International Congress ot Refrigerated Industries, he inspected the Chicago stockyards, claimed to bo the

largest in the world. Mr Pearse says: —« Stock are not sold by auction hero; the/ are all dealt with privately, and on all day, and on six days a week. r l nty the Americans claim to bo the most per. feet system of marketing. It is said that stock to the value of £200,000 is sold hers every business day of the year. The daily capacity of these yards is 75,000 cattle* 300,000 hogs, 125,000 sheep, and 6000 horse* Ihe area is 500 acres, 450 acres of which are bricked. There are 300 miles of railway track, and 25 miles of streets through them. 13,000 single deck pens, and BSC# double-deck pens, 725 chutes, 25,000 gate* and 450 offices. The yards are well sewerea throughout, having enormous reservoirs <v water, aro electric-lighted with 10,000 io> candescent lights, besides having 450 aro lights. »Sovcn million gallons of water ar& consumed on ordinary hot days. It is estimated that 45,000 people earn a living at the stockyards and in the packing-houses, and that 250,000 of Chicago’s population are dependent on the livestock industry in connoctioa with the Union Stockyards. Nothing is more pleasing to the visitor at the yards than the cleanliness everywhere apparent. I hat ho can bo shown through this vast barnyard, and these groat slaughter-houses, oven in the hottest weather, is .possible only because of the vigilant care exorcised throughout, and the perfecting of a system to such a degree that animals can now bo killed and prepared for market as well in the summer as in the winter. The pens aro floored with impervious brick, and aro well drained. In the killing rooms the walls and the floor, unavoidably, are unsightly during use, but thCy are daily thoroughly cleaned with squeegees, and an abundance of scalding water. At the end of each day the trucks in which the moat is carried arc immersed in tanka of boil ing lye, or thoroughly rinsed with scalding water, and scalding water is poured through a large hose upon all floors throughout the packing-houses, which aro afterwards thoroughly scraped. The wooden tables aro all treated in the same way, amthen sprinkled with salt. The attention and care given to the matter of the personal cleanliness of the employees is attested by the numerous signs posted throughout the buildings Officials aro appointed to see that employees wash their hands before returning to work. Aprons and uniforms, frocks or jumpers are washed in the laundries maintained on the grounds, and inspectors may compel (without fear of tho union) a change of clothing whenever ho considers necessary. Whenever in cat is put up by hand in tho canneries, the hands of tho workmen aro properly cared for my manicurists employed for that purpose. CONTAGIOUS MAM3IITIS. It is to bo regretted that tho investigations and tests in connection with contagious marnmitis which have been conducted by the stock branch of the New South Wal es Department of Agriculture are to ho discontinued. Mr Shepherd, of Bomaderry, who gave tho use of his land to Mr Sanderson, M.R.0.V.5., is most enthusiastic with regard to the success of inoculations, and claims that heifers treated six months ago have remained immune up to now. The work lias not been quite so successful with regard to cows which had previously had the disease. They were treated and apparently cured, but the disease broke out again in a milder form. So far os tho heifers are concerned, Mr Shepherd contends that if they were rendered immune for only six months, the treatment would bo comparatively efficacious, as it would pay to have it carried out twice a year, if only tho disease could Tie kept away. It may bo explained that the reason for discontinuing tho experiments is that the location is unsuitable. In practically tho whole of tho dairying districts of New South Wales tho disease exists, and it in believed that in most tho spores of the haoleria which cause IJio disease exist in the soil. For this reason the experiments cannot bo pursued on definite lines except in an entirely new locality, known to bo free from the disease. PURE WATER FOR COWS. Pure water for cows is as important in milk-production as tho food they eat. Much, has boon written concerning the rations for dairy cows, the amount of feed, cto., but little has been said about the water whioh the cow drinks, and its relation to pure milk and the health of the animal. The dairy cow needs an abundant supply of pure water, not only as an aid to digestion and other bodily needs, but to produce her normal supply of milk. If tho cows do not get enough water, tho milkflow will be decreased, just as surely as if they did not got enough food. There aro various reasons why water consumed by dairy cows should bo pure. In the first place pure water promotes the health of all animals. Cows which aro compelled to drink impure water usually fall away rapidly. Impure water contains the ova of dangerous parasites. These parasites attack all kinds of farm animals that drink water, containing tho ova. 'Flic dangerous thing is that the cause of tho loss of animals by

parasites is unsuspected, and tlie prevalence of such a thing is unknown to many farmers.