A BEEF MENU

Southland Times, Issue 18927, 28 April 1923, Page 6

A BEEF MENU

AN APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC Aif appeal is being made by the Meat Producers’ Board on behalf of cattle raisers in the Dominion to all householders and others for the increased consumption of beef. The eating of a pound of beef, instead of other meat, a week, by each individual consumer in the Dominion, would represent the absorption by the New Zealand local market of 50,000 bullocks per annum. The consumption is estimated to be 2,500,000 per annum; If beef were now eaten in the place of mutton to the extent of a pound a week it would make 1,000,000 more sheep and lambs available for export. At £1 5s each these would return £1,250,000 more in cash to the country. These figures are but approximate, but they serve to show how important it is that the Dominion as a whole and how the individual can assist in what is a crisis in the cattle industry/ The only sacrifice entailed is one of taste. Those unfamiliar with the grazing and pastoral industry may wonder why, if cattle do not pay to grow for beef, that that phase of the industry should be continued. But in this country, owing to its natural peculiarities and especially its general abundance of feed, it is absolutely necessary to run cattle as well as sheep on most farms. The beasts act as pioneers for the sheep in clearing off the rank, coarse growth, and in other ways. A. simple adjustment of the family menu so as to include more beef than other meats would make an enormous difference to the returns of cattle raisers, and should entail no more expense for consumers.