DECREASE IN LAMBING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19805, 6 December 1938, Page 15

DECREASE IN LAMBING

DOMINION RETURNS NORTH ISLAND DECLINE INCREASE IN SOUTH (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this clay. Estimates of lambing for the current season were announced last evening by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon W. Lee Martin.

These show a total of 3(5,645,105 lambs for the Dominion, compared with an estimate of 17,149,517 lambs for last year, a decrease of 504.352.

The poor returns in the North Island were solely responsible for this drop in the figures. The estimated number of lambs for the various sheep districts in that island is ,3,600,625, compared with 9,145.849 last year, a decrease of 545.224.

The estimates for the South Island show an increase of 40,872 lambs over the figure for 1937.

In releasing the figures, the Minister said the annual lambing estimates had, in the past, provided a reasonably accurate forecast of seasonal lambing but. in view of the incidence of the so-called facial eczema, this would not be so this year. The .estimated number of lambs was based on the number of breeding ewes in each county as at April 30 and. though in the estimates of the percentage of lambs due allowance had been made for the effects of facial eczema, it had not been possible to make any adjustments for the losses of breeding ewes subsequent to April .30 last, owing to the varying duration and severity of the epidemic in the different districts.