SOUTHLAND NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3881, 31 July 1928, Page 24

SOUTHLAND NOTES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

July 28. The weather for the past fortnight has been such as to make one think we were well into spring, and stock of all kinds, whether on grass or roots, are having every chance of coming well through the winter. The fine weather is helping to spin out the supply of turnips, and though there is the usual pessimistic cry of a possible shortage, several lots have been advertised for sale in the local press. Ploughing is getting well ahead, and, given a continuance of fine weather, , spring cultivation will be well advanced by the time sowing should commence. Grass paddocks in some places are showing good growth now, but it is too early to count on them to stand much grazing. Lambing will be with us again in a few weeks, and the prospects are all in favour of good prices. The average lamb on a farm nowadays is worth £1 at dropping, yet the wastage through lack of. proper attention and want of shelter is enormous. On some of our plains the best shelter available is usually a gorse fence, and the bulk of the dividing fences are post and wire, which means a certain loss in stormy weather. An excellent idea adopted by one sheep farmer is to have at least one lambing box available for each paddock. These are merely cheaplyconstructed covered pens, shaped like a lean-to, on light six-by-twos for sledges. They can be made in either two or three divisions, and are placed, facing the north for preference, facing a fence, with a hurdle width between fence and pen. The man using these or seeing them in use is at once convinced of their utility not only as shelter in case of bad weather but also for the purpose of “ setting ” lambs on foster mothers. With lambs at present prices, owners should take every available means of- increasing the percentage, and there is no device can beat these pens for the purposes stated. Some time ago thg_local executive of the Farmers’ Union'was agitating to have a stock weighbridge erected at Wallacetown .to have fat cattle weighed before the sale, but, like many other subjects mooted in our farmers’ parliament, a discussion on the necessity of it was all that eventuated. In no other line of business is there such haphazard methods of selling as in the disposal of our fat stock, and while companies out for dividends control the yards there is little hope of reform. Yet it would only be the initial outlay that the company. could object to, as sellers would gladly pay 6d or even Is per head to have the live weight of their cattle, to be given out by the auctioneer when offering them for sale. The Farmers’ Union may with advantage continue to agitate for what has been compulsory by law for- over 30 years at Home, chiefly owing to the persistence of a Scotsman named -M'Jannett. Another matter at. present being discussed amongst farmers is why accommodation for selling pigs is not provided at Wallacetown. Scores of pigs are sold every Saturday in Invercargill, and vendors are charged 10 per cent, commission for selling. . It is very rightly argued that both at Burnside and Addington enormous numbers of pigs are sold annually, but it seems that they arcbarred at Wallacetown for want of accommodation. The directors of the Saleyards Company would be well advised to study more closely the wants of sellers, otherwise there is any amount of land available not only for pig pens, but for a whole set of yards adjacent to the railway line, and a threatened-opposition might lead to sundry very necessary improvements m the handling of stock in our metropolitan yards.

It seems as if unemployment, like the poor, is to be alwaj’s with us, and although the position here is not more acute than in northern centres, the Labour organisers have 'started a soup kitchen in Invercargill with a great flourish of trumpets. This is declared to be quite unnecessary by those who are qualified to express an opinion on the subject, including the secretary of the Charitable Aid Board. The press has been teeming with letters with suggestions of what should be done, but country correspondents show very little- sympathy with the Labour leaders, who continue to preach the doctrine that men must not accept work under union wages. There are many farmers who at this time could employ an extra man or two, but they object to be dictated to by Labour agitators as to what tVages they should pay for nonproductive work.

The marketing of our fat lambs is a problem which our farmers have been up against for over 20 years, but up to three years ago - sellers allowed matters to drift and just accepted , the best price offering, by buyers who .were, killing and shipping locally. Things came to a head when several farmers and dealers sent their lambs to northern freezing works. On« extensive dealer in the Eastern

buying round about Gore and Riversdale, was giving up to 3g per head more on the hoof than Western district breeders v ere getting for lambs of the same weight and quality. This roused the Western act ’ on » '’’’th the result that' in ■1927 many thousands (some estimates put it at half the total output) of lambs went to northern works. This meant the local works were idle half the time, which is bad business for all concerned. Tacounteract this the Southland Frozen Meat Co. during the past season ;.put on buyers 'and we were told by the chairman of directors that the company has paid out during the year somewhere about £300,000 for lambs. All through, the buying season their buyers were paying well up to Canterbury prices, leaving very little margin for railage. Even, with this keen competition buyers from the north got many thousands of lambs, so many, indeed, that sheep trucks for local traffic were for a time practically unobtainable. The disparity between Canterbury and Southland prices has been a subject for discussion amongst farmers at stock sales, shows, and public meetings, and while it is unanimously deplored, the real cause of the difference has been lost sight ;of. At a meeting in 1925 between members of the Farmers’ Union and a representative of the freezing companies, the latter argued that the farmers were to, blame, as they were breeding their lambs too heavy, and this in /face of the fact, that the freezing companies had steadily refused to open their works for killing until about February 1, when the. first milk'bloom is off the earlier-born lambs. I n that year Mr Adam Hamilton M.P. for Wallace, sent a consignment er fair average Southland lambs to be killed in Canterbury works, and the vast bulk of them were graded “ prime Canterbury.” and realised from 3s to 5s per head more than they would have done locally. The root of the whole trouble, therefore, lies not in the quality of our lambs but in the fact that the brand of a Canterbury freezing works enhances their value in the Home market to the extent of from Id to lid per lb. Therein lies the crux of, the whole question, this is a factor which the members of the Farmers’ Union will have to keep in view in making any arrangements with the Southland Frozen Meat Company to poo) their whole output of lambs. Except for fats, very little business is being done in the stock trade just now. Both sheep and cattle were up at Wallacetown this week, prime bullocks making over £2O and withers 50s. Store sheep continue to sell at extreme prices. At a clearing sale near Mataura this week two and four-tooth ewes made 50s and ewe .lambs 425. Buyers of this class of stock evidently have faith in the future prices of lamb and wool.