STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3613, 12 June 1923, Page 13

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Weekly Stock Sales. Burnside, Wednesdays. Addington, Wednesdays Waiareka Railway Junction, Tuesdays. Wallacetowu, 'Tuesdays. Fortnightly. Riversdaie, Fridays Ash burton, Tuesdays. Heriot, Thursdays. Winton, Thursdays. Wyndham, Thursdays. Clinton, Thursdays. Balcluthn, Fridays. Uore, Tuesdays. Monthly. Palmerston, 4tb Thursday. Wiotou, 4th Tuesday.

Monthly (continued) Dnntroon, 2nd Wednej day. Woodlands, 3rd Wednesday. Milton, 2nd Tuesday. Balfour, 3rd Thursday. Thornbury, Ist Friday. Dnntroon, 2nd Wednes day. Otautau, 2nd Friday. Riversdaie, 3rd Friday. Waik..ka, last Friday. Clydcvule, last Tuesday. Periodically as Advertised. Butnsdeu, Mossburn, Orepuki, Mataura, Waikeuaitl, Riverton, Ngapara, and (at age Central Sales

OTAGC A capital week as regards the weather was experienced last week throughout Otago, with generous sunshine and nippy frosts at night. As “all the world’’ were at the Dunedin Winter Show, business in stock in the country was at a standstill, and farm work at its minimum. There was no sale held at Burnside last week. The Lake County Dairy Factory secured second prize in a class for cheese manufactured from non-pasteurised milk against eleven competing factories. Xot bad for the Central at, the first time of exhibiting. The Lake County exhibit was half a point behind Milton. ADDIXGTOX YARDS. There was a large yarding of fat sheep at Addington. 'The quality of a fair proportion was good. Values eased Is to 2s a head, but soon recovered, and sales were made much on a parity with those of the previous week, wethers selling up to 6J<l per lb “on the hoof.’’ The entry of fat lambs was small, and the quality only medium. The demand was keen, and up to lOd per lb was paid for best lots. There was a moderate entry of store sheep, a good many consignments from the south and the Chathams. Best grades of all sheep sold well until well on towards the close of the sale. Another large entry of fat cattle of medium quality for the most part evoked a fair demand for best grades, some improvement on the previous week's prices being secured towards the end of the saie, beef making to 27s 6d per 1001 b. The entry of store cattle was- not large, but some demand was evinced for well bred cattle at a shade better rates than has been ilie case recently. All good dairy cow's sold well at £l2 to £lB.

Fat pigs were in fair supply, and values unchanged, with stores and small pigs rather better than a week ago. NORTH ISLAND STOCK VALUES. Values of stock in the North Island are much about the same as they were a week ago, the offering at the various stock markets being small. In the Poverty Bay district wether hoggets made to 17s, in-lamb, four-year-old ewes 255, fair wethers 235, forward sorts 25s 3d. Cattle are dull of sale. 11l the Taranaki district forward wethers made to 275, young, in-lamb ewes 28s to 30s 3d, hoggets 17s, Jersey heifer yearlings £4 11s. In the Wanganui-Feilding areas values are maintained, but there is not much business transacted at present in store sheep. In the Wairarapa two-tooth wethers made 21s, four-too-ths 265, year-and-a-hatf steers 255, springing heifers to £9. In Hawke’s Bay fair mixed hoggets made 14s to 17s 6d, good four to five-year-old ew'es inlamb to 325, 2£-year-old station steers £4 Bs, station weaners £1 7s, dairy cows and heifers £5 to £7 12s 6d. STOCK NOTES. Owing to the Winter Show at Dunedin the usual country stock sales were not held in Otago last week. The weather Raving improved there is good prospects of stock being carried through the winter in fairly good condition, and the outlook is much better than was the case last month. Agriculture is ousting stock raising from many parts of Entre Rios, says The River Plate Observer. The department of La Paz, which was in former years a cattle raising centre, has now gone under the plough. This year's sowing covered 6200 hect areas whereas last year it did not reach 3000. The first specimen of the Duroe-Jersey breed of pigs to reach \ ictoria arrived in Melbourne recently from Brisbane, to the order of Captain Hildyard, of Chatsworth Park, Tabillc. Town and country buyers competed keenly for fat cattle at Elemington on May 16. As sales progressed a pronounced advance took place, especially in best descriptions, prices generally improving from £3 to £5 per head. The excellent average of £27 10s was obtained for 32 Shorthorn bullocks bred and fattened by Messrs Boyd Bros., Tarrone Estate, Koroit. Six Friesian cows were recently sent to South Australia by Air John Donald, of Kestrnere, Wanganui, and' a Hereford bull calf to the same destination by Air G. F. Moore. the importance of maintaining the quality of our purebred stock in the stud farms of the Empire can be judged from the following:—-There are 167,686 registered Shorthorns in Argentina, and only 60,936 in England and Wales. There are 31,639 -Hereford cattle in the Argentine, and only 12,894 at Home; and there are 16.999 Aber-deen-Angus registered in Argentina, and but 2119 head can be found by die Ministry in England and Wales.

Wonderful butter-fat tests were given bf cows in the Jerseyhofin herd of Air Trevor Harvey, of Boisdale (Vic ioria), under the official herd-testing- scheme. r lhe following ar ® some of ihe iesfs: —Lady Marge, 7.71 per cent. ; Sparkle 11, 7.11 per cent. ; Kmpress, 6.92 per cent. ; Tlluebell, 6.47 per cent. ; Graceful Countess of Lester field. 6.44 per cent

In i he May Journal of Agriculture the Director of the Dairy Division (Mr \Y. M. Singleton) supplies a list of the herd-testing associations in operation during the 1922-23 dairying season. Fifty-seven associations testing under tho control of the dairy division and 80 associations under private control comprise, it will he admitted, a fair total. Eight herd associations test over 2000 cows, while 17 test over 1000 cows, other herd-testing associations varying trom 13 cows per association upwards. The total number of dairy cows in Xew Zealand is I, of which 274,372 are in the South Island, of which only 2134 or 0.78 per cent, of tins *s under test. WINTER STOCK SALES. hhe usual sale of show stock was held early on Thursday, tfie 7th inst., at the Otago A. and P. Society’s Winter Show, Dunedin, some capital prices being obtained viz.—Fat Bullocks. -New Zealand Doan and Mercantile Agency Company sold: For J. Stevenson (Wendon), 1 bullock £47, 1 £32. Donald Reid and Co. sold: For Executors late W. Kirk (Alosgiel), 1 bullock £27. Todd Bros. (Ltd.) sold : For Mrs Wm. Kirk (Alosgiel), 1 three-year-old bullock £26, 1 two-year-old bullock £l6 10s. J. C. Renton (Alosgiel), 1 four-year-old bullock £23. Fat Sheep.—Stronach, Morris, arid Co. sold: For W. Moynilian (Ngapuna), 5 wethers £4 11s. Xew Zealand Loan anti Mercantile Agency Company sold: For J. Stevenson (Wendon). 2 pen wethers £3 16s. 3 wethers £3 Is. National Mortgage and Agency Company sold: Tor Jas. Smith (Greenfield), pen wethers 475, pen 465, pen 425, pen 525. Dalgetv and Co. sold: For Clifton Settlement (Waiwera South), 6 wethers 37s Fat Lambs. —Dalgety and Co. sold: For Clifton Settlement (Waiwera South), 3 lambs 735, 3 575, 3 50s, 3 48s; Vv. G. T born peon (Middlemarch), 3 51s, 3 41s, 3 345. Stronach, Morris, and Co. sold: For Clifton Settlement (Waiwera South), 2 575, 3 565. National Alortgage and Agency Company sold : For Jas. Smith (Greenfield) o 4?s 3 40s. SHOW COMMENTS. The show of roots was quite a feature of tlie exhibits at the Dunedin Winter Show, an entry of over 60 in swede turnips warranting one would think more prizes than at present allocated for ibis section. In tlie class for lambs tbrecl and fed by exhibitor) netting the most money for carcase, skin, and fat, it was apparent that interest is not being sustained, although the quality of the placed pennings was quite as good as previous exhibits in this class. We suggest that the killing of these pennings might well wait until the show is over and so avoid empty pens. After all, the final platings can be seen later on in the daily papers, while as it is it is well nigh impossible to determine from the score card attached to the pens the particular list of points allotted by the judges---that is without glasses. It would be as well in the present demand for quality lambs to formulate a class for lambs weighing under say 42!b, or not more than 801 b live weight, as we must encourage the “commercial” class. So, too, in the class most suitable for “freezing” wethers. It- would be, we think, advisable to foster the carcase demanded by Home consumers, and limit the weight to around say 601 b, or say 1401 b live weight. In regard to fat cattle, the society would do well to encourage early maturity by allotting bigger money prizes for the three-year-old and two-year-old classes, and also offer a champion prize in this section. In the class for bullocks of any age the society had eight entries and only three in the classes for younger cattle —a ridiculous thing in view of the market demand for small joints. The wool section is one which is, perhaps, unmatched anywhere in the world; travelled sheepmen have so declared, but—it is our foible, perhaps, to look for weaknesses in any section —there would seem to be good reasons why breeders of Corriedale studs in flocks cf under 2000 sheep, should be debarred from competition in the half bred classes, their place being in tlie stud classes in fairness t.o competitors grazing ordinary flock sheep. Filially, the. presentation of a gold watch and chain to Mr H. V. Fulton, secretary of the society for so many years, was a happy thought on the parts of his many country friends and members of the association, m token of their appreciation of his past services on behalf of the society. FREE SUPER—THINK OF IT! In order to encourage top-dressing experiments of grass pasture by agricultural societies in Victoria, it has been decided to arrange through the Chamber of Agriculture, that; free supplies be made available to those agricultural societies who undertake to conduct these experiments on the lines specified. In order to encourage the keeping of a comprehensive record of every phase of these experiments, prizes of £6 6s and £4 4s are being offered by the \ T ictorian Fertiliser Association for the best reports on these demonstrations. Ihe reports are to be submitted to the next convention, which will be held at Benalla next year. BRITISH FRIESIAN SALK. The sale of British F liesian cattle at Slough on April 5, under the auspices of the British Friesian Cattle Society, was well attended and trade was active at good prices. The top price for a bull was 520 guineas, paid by Mr Andrew Hamilton, Bearsden, Glasgow, for Mr Holt Thomas’s young bull Northdean Hollander. The thirty-nine bulls averaged £lO3 12s 3d, and the twenty-one heifers £159 17s. the general average being £123 3s 3d for sixty head. The highest price for a heifer was 620 guineas, for which Mr E. B. Hall bought Mr Holt Thomas’s Northdean Saake 2nd. This sale, it is worth noting, was restricted to sons and daughters of ICOO gallon cows of 800 gallon heifers. Tlie special prize of £SO for a bull out of a 1250 gallon cow that calved again within 14 months, and by a bull out of a 1250 gallon cow, was won by Mr G. T. Eaton’s Thurston Karel General, a handsome bull that later won the championship for the best bull in the show not exceeding 2? years old. The special prize for a heifer bv a bull out of a 1090 gallon cow in-calf to a bull out of a 10CO

gallon co'.v, and out of a 1000 gallon oow that calved again within 14 months, was won 1 v Messrs A. and J. Brown’s Hedges Dutch Peggy, that later secured the female championship of the show. THE WORLD'S SHEEP. Figures revealing a world-decrease of 25 per cent, in the number of sheep in 1922 as compared with the years before the war, were submitted to the conference of Ministers of Agriculture, and their principal officials, who im-t in Melbourne recently. Iho figures should encourage the belief that# high prices will continue to be realised lor Australian-grown wool, says an Australian paper. Following is a comparative table, showing the number of sheep in the principal meal exporting countries, prior to 1914-, and for the year 1922.

*1921. It will be rioted that, the iigures reveal a decrease of 34,i29.876 sheep, equivalent to 25 per cent. MEAT PRICES. WELLINGTON, June 8. The New Zealand Meat Producers' Association advises that the following prices were being offered on July 7: Auckland.—Wethers, 641 b and under, 3id; prime woolly lambs, tillb and under, Hill. Poverty Bay.—Wethers, Glib and under, 5Jd; prime woolly lambs, 421 b and under, Bid; 431 b and over, 7J-d; second quality lambs, 7Jd. Hawke's Bay.—Wethers, Golb and under, s<d; prime woolly lambs, 4‘2lb and under, 9d ; 431 b and over, 8d; second quality lamba Bd. Wanganui —Wethers, G4ib and under, 3ju ; prime woolly lambs, 421 b and under, Od; 431 b and over, 8d; second quality lambs, Bd. Wellington.—Wet hers, Glib and under, s;d ; prime woolly lambs, 421 b and under, Od; 4.31 b and over, cd, second quality lambs, Bd. Canterbury.—Wethers, Glib and under, CM; prime woolly lambs, 421 L and under, lUd; second quality lambs, Oil. Southland.—Wethers, 561 b and under, 61; prime woolly lambs, 421 b and under, . , second quality lambs, B£d-

Con n l rv. 1 nor to 1914. 1022. Xew Zealand (1913) .. 24,191,810 22.222,250 Australia (1913) 85,057.40*2 80,000,000 United Kingdom (1912) 28,907,195 23,761,021 Canada (1912) South A-i'rican Union 2,084,594 3,262,020 (1911) .. .. Argentine Republic 30,636,059 *20,288,060 1911) .. .. 80,401,483 40,000,000 United states (1913) 52,362,003 36,018,000 Uruguay (1908) .. 26,286,296 12 000,000 Brazil (19lii) .. .. 7,206,000 9,500,000 Patagonia 12,003,000 12,000,000 340.212,742 265,0-2,806