STOCK AND CRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 8 March 1921, Page 9

STOCK AND CRAZING NOTES.

Weekly Stock Sales. Burnside, Wednesdays Addington, Wednesdays Waiareka Bailway Junction, Tuesdays Wallaeetown, Tuesdays Fortnightly. Biversdalc, Friday Ashburton, Tuesdays lleriot, Thursdays Win ton, Thursdays Wyndham, Thursdays Clinton, Thursdays Balclutha, Fridays Gore, Tuesdays Monthly. Palmerston, 4th Thursday Winton, 4th Tuesday

Monthly (continued). Dnntroon, 2nd Wednesday Woodlands, 3rd Friday Milton, 2nd Tuesday Balfour, 3rd Thursday Thornbury, Ist Friday Duntroon, 2nd Wednesday Otautau, 2nd Friday Biversdale, 3rd Friday Waikaka, last Friday Clydevale, last Tuesday Periodically as Advertised. Lumsden, Mossburn, Orepuki, Mataura, Waikouaiti, Riverton, Ngapara, and Otago Central Sales.

OTAGO. The weather has been dry and gusty in Otago during the week, and the outlook for feed has not improved, except that turnips in South Otago are doing well. Inland it is dry, and on the coast northwards conditions are not too good. As a lot of stock will probably be carried this winter, owing to the setback in meat export prices, it is most unfortunate that the rain holds off. There have not. been many sales during the week, but prices realised are much on a par with rates ruling rather over a dozen years ago. At a clearing sale stud fourtooth and six-tooth Romney ewes were sold at ligs, full-mouths |gs, two-tooth stud Romney ewes ljgs, rams lggs to sgs, mixed crossbred ewes 14s 9d, 2g-year-old Shorthorn heifers £6 12s 6d, a. five-year-old filly £sl. There has not been, so far, much of a demand for rams in Otago, but Merinos and Corriedales seem to have been most favoured, and odd stud Romney or Border lias been placed. BURNSIDE MARKET. The quality of a big yarding of fat sheep at Burnside was for the most part good. Prices were back very considerably compared with the previous week’s rates, owing to limits of exporters being very materially reduced. Operators were buying at a top price of 3Jd per lb for wethers, and at Id less per lb for ewes; and butchers, thanks in addition to the size of the entry, secured supplies_ at a shade above this.' At per head prices must be marked down at anywhere from 5s to 8s per head on last sale’s values, heavy prime sorts even more. The entry of fat lambs was a good one, and the demand bright at the reduced limits, the pick of the yarding moving off at up to about 8d per lb, all sunk; while unfinished and rape sorts receded in value in sympathy with fats, making from 12s 6d to 17s. The quality of a big yarding of fat cattle was good, but a dragging sale was experienced. Opening rates were very similar to prices obtainable at the close of last sale, but were not in evidence for long. Compared with the best values of the previous week, cattle were back £3 a head, beef making 35s to 40 s per 1001 b. Exporters secured a few head at round 35,s per lOOlb. . About 200 store cattle were yarded, 50 of them being fair to medium two to three-year-old steers, the balance cows, heifers, ; and young sorts. It was a “sick” sale, fat ! and forward two-year-old Shorthorn cross steers, £5 to £6; station-bred two-year-old Polled Angus steers, £6 2s; fat and forward indifferently-bred two-year-old steers, £5 2s; Shorthorn year and a-half steers, in good order, £3 5s ; medium year and a-half steers, £2 10s. Few dairy cows were offered, and those were but moderate quality, the best of them making to £ls. Over iOO fat pigs met with a fair demand, but prices were hardly as good as last week’s; while the demand for store sorts was not too keen, and some relatively cheap lots were secured. ADDINGTON YARDS. Fat sheep were yarded in fair numbers at Addington, fflie quality being about the average. There was an all-round decline in values, wether and ewe mutton selling at

4-id and 3d per lb, “all sunk”; or a fall of about 4s a head compared with the previous week’s prices. Another good entry of fat lambs met with a demand, but at a lower range of values, and prices were back 3s 6d a head, best lambs making 7£d to 8d per lb, “all sunk.” A big entry of store sheep was penned, over 20,000, and here, too, the fail in values was very evident. Prices were easier by 7s 6d a head compared with those ruling at last sale, and many vendors in the early part of the sale withdrew thensheep, but later on met the fall and parted with the best grace possible. The quality of a fair yarding of fat cattle was very fair, but bidding was weak, and sales were easier than at last sale, although a good many lots were passed in. In the store cattle entry there were a few attractive lines, but no one seemed inclined to buy unless vendors were prepared to sacrifice, which in many cases was what happened. Dairy cows, a good many being offered, also refused to move off at late high rates, and the best made up to £l6. In the pig section, porkers were readily taken, but many sorts were dull of sale; while, except for best stores, the large entry was only cleared at a reduction of 10s a head on the previous week’s prices. NORTH ISLAND STOCK SALES. Prices of store stock in the North Island, in sympathy with the rates ruling for “fats,” are tumbling in most stock centres. In the Auckland province at the Westfield market beef sold, at up to 50s, but good prime was saleable at 45s per 100 lb, forward wethers 22s to 27s 6d, forward lambs 14s to 19s. In Poverty Bay store lambs 12s to 15s, two-tooth ewes and wethers 235, young mixed ewes 225, thin sorts, but with teeth, to 16s, good four-year-old Romney ewes 375, two-tooth Romney ewes to 275, small twotooth ewes 17s 6d, Romney ewe two-tooth purebreds 23s to 31s 6d. In the Wairarapa two-tooth wethers made 14s to 17s, culls Ps to 10s. rare lamb 17s to 19s 6d. cull shorn lambs 2s to 4s, cull woolly lambs 5s 6d to 9s, fonr-ycar-old ewes 14s, aged 7s 6d. yearling steers £2, two-year-old steers to £5 ss. In Hawke’s Bay mixed sex lambs 10s to 15s, small 7s fid. four-year-old ewes 17s to 20s, four-tooth wethers 15s to 19s 6d. Springing heifers to £9. small dairyreared two and a-half-year-old steers £4 ss, store cows from £2. STOCK NOTES. The position in Otago, so far as stock is concerned, may bo summed up “nothing doing.” The freezing works are certainly busy killing fat stock purchased at the reduced limits announced, and which seem fairly general throughout New Zealand' Farmers have been about knocked sideways, and wish for time to consider the position. Freight charges are deadening all enterprise, and producers, failing relief in the immediate future, may well consider whether it is possible to secure a few ships or the Government might ax-range to man some of the scores of ships we are told are hung up. and which maybe could be purchased for the price of an old Stetson hat. Scan the balance sheets of some of the shipping companies, and when yon get your breath get into the business which has paid the companies so handsomely in the past. If producers owned but a few boats, or moved in the matter in earnest, some abatement in freights might te achieved. Very probably the buying power in the Homeland is x-esponsible in the main for the undoubtedly weak demand for our meat, but this “hard up” condition would not, we opine, be so detrimental to the frozen meat trade as other meats, as after all there must be a demand for the cheaper grades of meat if not for the best and more expensive article. People must eat. The present state of the stock market must be causing some concern t,o farmers, especially those recently established who stocked up on high markets, says the Mataura Ensign. Some idea of the fall in prices during the past six months may be obtained from the price realised at last week’s sale at Gore for a pen of 75 four and six-tooth owes, which made 10s lid. They were purchased in the spring time for 28s. and produced a crop of 100 lambs, which were also sold and realised 6s 3d. The wool from the ewes netted about 6s, bo that they show a loss of about 5s a bead, without taking into consideration what it has cost to feed them. A Taranaki firm is sending a shipment of three Frie.sians (one bTtll and two heifers) to Fiji, where an effort is being made to establish the dairy industry. As a result of the spread of the foot and mouth disease in England cattle have been excluded from Scotland. Birmingham’s 30 years’ immunity from the disease has been broken, says a Home paper, by an extensive outbreak at the Central Meat Market. The disease developed rapidly, and some 400 animals were slaughtered. Many large areas in England have been scheduled, and stringent measures are being taken to stamp out the disease, and there Is likely to be great dislocation in the oattle business. In recent years milk recording in Scotland ha* had a remarkable effect on the

prices of good milk record cows and their progeny at both public and private sales. Auction sales of young bulls and other milk record stock at the instance of well-known breeders, say* the Scottish Journal of Agriculture, have now become common, either at the farms of the owners or at special sales at market centres, when the milk records or the milking pedigrees of the animals are stated in the catalogue of sale. Something still depends on the appearance of the animal, but if, in addition to good appearance, there is a good milk record for the animal, or for the dam and granddams, the prices now obtained are almost fabulous compared with pre-record days. UNITED KINGDOM'S BEEF IMPORTS. Ihe official returns of the imports in the United Kingdom of frozen and chilled meat are now available for the first 11 months of 1920. Examining the beef figures (says the Pastoral Review), we note that the imports for chilled beef show a big increase both for the month and for the 11 months as compared with last year’s figures. Argentina’s share of the imports last month totalled 205,124 cwt., thus bringing her figures for the first 11 months of this year up to 845,119 cwt. This total is, of course, much below her pre-war figures of imports of chilled; in the 11 months, JanuaryNovember, 1913, the imports from Argentina of chilled beef amounted to 4,676,214 cwt. Uruguay’s figures, however, show 15,610 cwt for the month of November, 1920, as compared with nil the same time last year. This total brings the export from Uruguay to this country for the period January-November, 1920, up to 53,796 cwt, as compared with ITOOcwt in the same period of 1919, and is not far short of double the pre-war quantity of 31,933 cwt in the first 11 months of 1913. Frozen beef imports are on a great scale, being practically double the quantity imported last month as compared with November last year, and more than four times the quanaity imported in the month of November, 1913. The figures for the 11 months, given above, show a notable increase as compared with last year; in the 11 months January-November, 1913, the impoits totalled 3,741,281 cwt. Of the imports last mouth the greater proportion came from Argentina, the figures being 568,351ewt, bringing her total lor the year so far up to 5,27i,852c\vt. Uruguay’s contribution amounted to 63,009 cwt last month, making the 11 months’ total 729,845 cwt. The imports from Australia last month, 48,605 cwt., show a heavy reduction —more than 50 per cent. —compared with the imports in November last year; the imports for the 11 months this year amount to 709,771 cwt, nearly 250,000 cwt more than for the same period last year, but comparing with 1,236,797 cwt in the corresponding period of 1913. The New Zealand total, 125,434 cwt, shows an increase of more than 100,000 cwt, when compared with the figures for November, 1919, and brings this year’s imports up to 740,844 cwt. This compares with 378,216 cwt last year, and with 243,367 cwt in the Janu-ary-November, 1913, period. The imports from the United States 197,067cvvt, in the 11 months of this year, show a heavy reductioa from last year’s figures, 837,547, but a notable increase as compared with the figures for the corresponding period of 1913 —viz., 1462 cwt. THE SEASON IN AUSTRALIA. Seasonal conditions continue favourable over the bulk of pastoral Australia (says the Pastoral Review). There has been little rain in the south since last writing, and the old feed in the paddocks is retaining its nourishing qualities well despite the high temperature experienced. A few grass fires have ivten reported, but in all cases they were checked before doing much damage. This is providential, as with an abundance of dry grass everywhere a fire that once really got out of hand would cause most serious losses Queensland and the Northern Territory recorded more or less heavy storms the middle of January, and the country right through is described as in good order. Live stock generally are in good to prime condition. —Current Operations.— As far as the southern States are concerned the trade is quiet in the extreme. The selling price of mutton on tho other side, and the market for wool, skins, and tallow here are such that sheep must drop considerably before shippers can operate to any extent. Lambs, owing to tho control price in Great Britain being much higher, are in a different position, although even these are mostly above export level. The country, ho vever, is in such good heart that graziers are able to hold on to their stock. Practically all the wheat is now safely garnered, and, judging by all reports, the yield has turned out a good deal better than anticipated a couple of months ago. It was then estimated that the total production for the Commonwealth would be about 130,000,000 bushels. Everything now points to the aggregate being in the region of 155,000,000 bushels, which, if realised, will bo the second highest ever obtained. The

1915-16 season holds the record as regards quantity, and until this year, yield per acre. Production in 1915-16 was 179,000,000 bushels, but then the grain area waa 12,484,000 acres, compared with 9,100,000 for the current season. The average for the whole of Australia in 1915-16 was 14.34 bushels per acre, while this year it promise* to be nearly, if not quite, 17 bushels. The current satisfactory yield must be attributed principally to the favourable weather experienced during the growing period. No doubt the fact that the previous harvest, owing to drought, was largely a failure contributed to the exceptional average this year. The same thing happened in 1915-16, which followed a drought. Teams ate now being used for carting wheat to the railways, and, where conditions are favourable, for summer fallowing. in respect of wool, the past month has, in the absence of sales in Australia, been an uneventful one, with, however, the usual exception, which in this case is the approval of the British Australian Wool Realisation Scheme by the Imperial Government. The association has now been duly registered in Victoria, and tho necessary machinery, which will presumably be provided by a selection from the Central Wool Committee and various State Committee staffs, will sc ,r "i Im working order. So far no indication has been given as to tiie policy to bo pursued, but a recent cablegram points to the fact that it is proposed that a selling basis at London auctions of two bales of the carry-over to one of the current season is to be adopted; whether this extends also to Australian sales remains to he seen. The policy of not holding sales during January on this side does not, at the moment, appear to have been a success, as in the face of the present demand for America, it seems as if it would have been possible to have got rid of at least as much wool as will be disputed of this month, and still have sold the suitable wools passed in out of earlier catalogues. Doubtless, however. everything was done for the best, and this is no time or place for post mor terns. That New Zealand growers approve of the association is shown by the fact that the executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union has approved of the decision reached at tho recent Woolgrowers’ Conference, that in the event of stocks of Imperial wool being in danger of forced »ale, New Zealand should accept ihe opportunity of becoming a.-sociated with the Australian Wool Control Committee. AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS. A substantial drop in the price of beef took place at Westfield fat stock sales on Wednesday (wires our Auckland correspondent). The decrease all round was about 7s per 1001 b, compared with last week’s prices. This represents a drop in the price of over £2 per head on all grades of cattle. Extra choice ox realised 43s per 1001 b; prime and choice, from 39s to 425; plain and ordinary, 30s io 375; cow and heifer beef, 20s to 40s. Mutton prices also showed a decrease, prices for all grades of sheep being from Is to 3s lower than last week’s rates. Wethers realised from 19s to 30s 9d; ewes, 16s to 17s; lambs, 14s to 16s 6d. Prices for pigs were equal to those received last week, baooners fetching from £4 12s 6d to £5. The chief reason assigned for a fall in the market is the suspension of operations by export buyers. Prices of meat for export have steadily declined during the last few weeks, owing to the disturbed condition of the Home market, and it is said that instructions have been received by export buyer* throughout tho dominion to suspend operations. The increase in freight rates, and the uncertainty of the shipping position, owing to the waterfront trouble, have also had a depressing effect on the market. Mould growth has developed to suoh an extent on Australian butter destined for export that steps have been taken by the Department of Trade and Customs to inform managers of butter factories of the best methods of combating the disease (states the Melbourne Age). In a circular issued by the Minister the causes of the appearance of the growth are explained, and it is urged that the disease should be stamped out with tho same thorough measures as a medical officer would employ in daaling with a serious epidemio. The greatest source of the trouble, it has been ascertained, lies in the timber used in making butter boxes. Defective and unseasoned timber reoently inspected showed signs of having been affected by the growth before being manufactured. Tho importance of discarding all doubtful boxes is, therefore, stressed, and It is recommended that boxes which are to be used should be placed in the sunlight or. previous day. As mould cannot grte w low temperature, those factories wbjj!*l butters have been affected are advised tff

take care to keep their cold rooms as low as possible, and immediately the butter has been packed to place it in the cold room until removed for shipment. Instructions have been issued that no mouldy butter may be exported. Prices at Burnside broke badly on the 2nd, all classes of stock, with the exception of pigs, easing very considerably on rates ruling a week earlier. There was an excellent entry of fat sheep, which met with indifferent competition at rates fully a penny a pound under values bid at last sale, and in certain classes values were even further back. Butchers even were commiserating and aghast. The yarding of lambs quite a good one, and the bidding first rate, on a reduced basis of fully a penny a pound, lamb making over all up to Bd, as compared with rates a week ag'o —an easing of 3s a head. A pen of fair halfbred ewes, with lambs (the forme- not guaranteed as to age!, made 6s a head, all counted. A capital yarding of fat cattle met nothing but a slack demand all through; the further the sale progressed the cheaper the meat. Opening at 40s per 100 Tb, sales were later on made as low as 325, 6d per 1001 b, despite some lots being passed in. Exporters secured a few lots at round 36s per lOOlh. Considering the quality of the store cattle entered, prioes bid were poor indeed; yet here again, as in all other sections, farmers faced the music, and clearances were effected at the following values: Two-year-old shorthorn cross steers made from £5 to £6; year-and-a-half steers, similar crosses, £3 ss; fat and forward two-and-a-half-year Bteers of bad colours made £5 ss; fat and forward coves, 20s 1001 b. The sale was reminiscent of the bad times of old. The serious slump in the price of meat was referred to by Mr W. J. Poison, Wellington provincial president of the Farmers’ Union, at a meeting of the Fordell branch of the Farmers’ Union on the 28th (says a Press Association message from Wanganui), when it was resolved that the Government bo asked to confer with the freezing companies of New Zealand with a view to some arrangement being made as to the price of meat held in New Zealand until the whole of the Imperial meat shall have been shipped, and the congestion at the English end removed. Rabbits are reported as exceptionally bad all round the "Wreys Bush district this season (says the Otautau Standard). The dry summer and the gorge along the river have proved favourable to breeding and protection. Mammitis in dairy herds has caused serious loss to some dairy farmers (reports the Feilding Star). In one case a herd of 40 became infected through one diseased cow being milked wit!) the same machines as the rest of the herd. Probably the first effect of the waterside workers ’“hold up” will bo felt by the farmers in the price of grass seed four immediate sowing (says the Waipa Post). At anchorage at Auckland are vessels carrying consignments of seed for Auckland m«rlianta, who, owing to the delayed deliveries,

are out of stock and are making frantic efforts to buy locally to meet country orders. Cocksfoot for spot delivery wholesale has already risen to Is 6d per lb net, whereas, if these ships could bo unloaded, this would easily be the retail farmers’ price. This strike precludes the immediate prospect of the hoped for reduction in grass seed prices this autumn. CANTERBURY CRAIN AND PRODUCE MARKET. (Lyttelton Times, March 4.) There has been no change in the grain and produce market warranting any change in quotations, little of the new season’s produce having been placed on the market so far. Tile oats market has again weakened, both for forward and prompt delivery. A’s being quoted at 3s Id, and BN at 3s per bushel, f.0.b., s.i., for prompt

delivery. There is no demand for Algerians. Ae regards chaff there is also no demand, owing principally to there being no North Island market. There is little or no inquiry for seeds, the market being practically dead at present. The following are probable prices for new season’s produce, to be paid to farmers ok country stations, free of commission, sacks extra except where otherwise stated: Milling Wheat —'According to Government prices: Tuscan, 7s 3d, f.0.b.; 7s 6d; Pearl, 7s 9d (subject to adjustment). Oats —Gartons, nominal. Chaff—£3 to £3 10s: Perennial Ryegrass—3s 6d to 4s 3d. Italian Ryegrass—3s 6d. Cocksfoot —7d to Bd. Barley—7s. Potatoes —£4. Onions—£4 to £4 10s. Bran —According to Government prioe, £7 15s per ton, f.0.b., main ports. Pollard—According to Government price, £7 15s per ton, f.0.b., main ports. Local prices, bran £8 ss, pollard £lO ss. Oatmeal —25’s £25, 7’s £2B. Flour—Government price, £l6 10s.