PRIME BEEF SUPPLIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16895, 27 November 1925, Page 12

PRIME BEEF SUPPLIES.

IxTLUXG OK ,STKKR CALVES. SHORTAGE NOW APPARENT. Scarcity of prime beef lias bet n very noticeable in tin; Pukekolie district ibis season, and it is considered that an improvement is not likely, the position being primarily attributed to the discontinuance of the rearing of .steer calves by dairy farmers for some seasons past. “1 have lost £2OO during the past winter in handling ox beef,’’ said a Rower Waikato butcher some days ago. “The public want flic best beef, but are not willing to pay more for it than for cow beef. They make no distinction. Ox - beef is scarce, and costs much more. There are not tlm steers in the country to supply the demand, nor, with the slaughtering of steer calves still continuing, is there likely to be.” “Tbe time is past when the dairy farmer will rear steer calves for the grazier, who will now have to look out for himself,” said one authority in Pukekolie. “The dairy fanner's business is the production of Juttlcr-fat. <*>•() it pays to concentrate on that. Tor tbe utilisation of the skim milk the pig offers a far more profitable and less troublesome channel than tbe rearing of steer calves.” The truth of this is evidenced by the fact that this spring-at Pukekolie record yardings of pigs have been handled, the numbers running over 1.000 at more than one sale. A line of steer calves nowadays is a rarity.