WOOL SUPPLIES AND THE DEMAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3673, 5 August 1924, Page 12

WOOL SUPPLIES AND THE DEMAND.

It appears to be firmly held by those, who have most to do with the Empire’s wool supplies that production has smalt chance of overtaking consumption lor many years to come. Still, one never knows, and it may be that users will do with less should a general hard-up-ness be the lot of the big majority of consumers in the years to come. We look around the world for new territories capable of supplying wool, and must confess that the output could be vastly increased if sheep-growers tackled the matter whole-heartedly. It is not suggested that acres should be given over to sheep that are now growing dairy cattle, etc., but the sheep-breeding industry might be enormously developed under proper organisation within the Empire simply by pasturing better woolled sheep and wise fertilisation of our scattered acres. Would it pay? Well, that is a question to which no satisfactory answer can be given. Judging from a paper contributed by the British Wool Federation, entitled “Wool Supplies and Consumption : the Requirements of a British Empire Industry,’’ it would seem that, provided growers produce a sound commercial type of fleece, they may he assured of very remunerative prices for many years. Canada is mentioned as offering boundless opportunities for development with less than 5,000,000 sheep at the present time in the whole of that vast country. The opening of new territories, it is stated, is too big an undertaking to be left entirely to private enterprise. This is a matter, however, which no oversea Government would care to face, in view of the antagonism which sheep-owners the world over would offer. Here is a pregnant passage from the article mentioned: “At present the British Empire is the world’s universal provider for wool, hut unless provision can be made to meet the increasing requirements of foreign countries, those users will themselves be compelled to take steps to increase their own supplies. Already efforts are being made by the French Government to introduce sheepbreeding on a commercial scale in certain of the French colonies, and the Japanese Government is also keenly alive to the necessity of making the Japanese wool textile industry less dependent upon foreign supplies of raw material. The most promising field for development lies, not in Japan itself, but in those countries in Asia, which Japan controls or over which she exercises a dominating influence.”

It is pointed out that in dealing with the production of wool of the most useful and especially of the finer grades it is obviously necessary that there should be a closer understanding between growers and users. Under existing conditions, the sheep-breeders, more often than not, have no clear conception of what wool users require, and, on the other hand, it may just as readily be conceded that the majority of users fail to realise the complexity of the problem with which pastoralists are confronted. In the United Kingdom sheep-farmers have consistently bred for mutton and lamb, wool in most cases being regarded as of secondary importance. In the colonies and in South America the extraordinary development of the frozen meat trade has completely changed the viewpoint of sheep-breeders, and during the last 25 years the tendency has been more and more in the direction of breeding what are known as dual-pur-pose animals—that is, an early-maturing sheep that will produce a good carcase for the freezing works, and one that will carry a fleece as heavy as is consistent with the production of marketable mutton. Moreover, the popular taste is for comparatively small joints with a minimum of fat, so it happens that the Lincoln and Leicester rams, which in the early days of the crossbred trade were the principal types employed by breeders, have in recent years been largely superseded by rams the progeny of, which are more suited to the needs of the mutton trade. Just how important the frozen meat trade is from the breeders’ point of view will be realised when it is mentioned that 25 years ago the United Kingdom imported from all sources 6,869,000 carcases of frozen, mutton and lamb, whereas last

year the imports totalled over 15,000,000 carcases. It is manifest, therefore, that the pastoralist is not entirely a free agent in the matter. He has a twofold object in view—(1) the production of a good carcase for the freezing establishments; (2) a heavy fleece of wool for the woolbuyer. The point that really calls for elucidation is whether these two objects are mutually destructive, or whether bv exercising greater care in the selection of rams the pastoralist can satisfy the buyer of the mutton and the buyer of the wool as well. Graziers are cautioned against the continued use of Komney Marsh rams carrying fleeces of irregular quality. This matter has come up before, and although the trouble alleged to the Romney of perpetuating coarse fibres in the staple of the fleece (these fibres being many counts in quality below the remainder) is a serious one, we take it that anything detrimental to this famous breed is evident in the crossbred Romney flocks only when carelessness or lack of skill Las been displayed in the selection of the rams to head some of the ewe flocks of the Dominion. The remedy would appear, if remedial measures are contemplated by offending graziers, to lie in the more careful selection of their sires, or to change over to the Corriedaie type of sheep if hill country or to the Lincoln on the lower levels. That, however, is a problem which may safely be left to the sense of the practical sheepbreeder. It is enough that Home users of some of our crossbred allegedly Romney wool are disturbed at the present position and call for a remedy. The position of wool to-day is such that manufacturers throughout the world draw the bulk of their supplies of raw material from the British dominions beyond the seas, that the world’s wool production has declined enormously during the last 15 or 20 years, and that the world’s consumption of wool has been steadily increasing during the greater part of that period, and rapidly increasing during the last three or lour years. When, therefore, our customers or buyers of raw wool point out any demerits in the wool supplies it is incumbent upon sheep-breeders to rise to the occasion, and produce more wool certainly, but of the character desired by the manufacturer. Failing to meet the specific wool demand must mean a reduction in the use of wool and the greater use of substitutes—a matter to be deplored.