BRIGHT OUTLOOK FOR LAMB

Southland Times, Issue 23652, 29 October 1938, Page 19

BRIGHT OUTLOOK FOR LAMB

Prospects Of Light Shipments BUOYANT MARKET PREDICTED LONDON PRICES FIRM Altogether the outlook for lamb is exceedingly bright. Drafts for the Christmas boats will be very short from all accounts, and these should command a great price, writes H.A.S. in The Dominion in a survey of the prospects for the Smithfield lamb market.

The first new season’s lamb from South and West Australia was sold in London two months ago, about August 20. It was apparently killed early in July. During subsequent weeks, right through September and onward, steady and increasing supplies went Home. The Australian season is now in full swing and provides a good indicator for us.

The best gauge to be used is to compare this season’s with last season’s prices. Here is the comparison for the week ended October 6, prices quoted being exclusive of skin and offal values:—

Lamb 6fd, compared with 6d lb the previous season, and mutton 3?d, against 3>Jd lb. About 90,000 lambs were yarded that week at Melbourne’s great Newmarket stockyards. Exporters actively'competed. Up to 7d lb was paid, plus skin and offal value, as customary in Australian quotations, for choice milk-lambs, which were in short supply. Victorian reports tell of a very light lamb crop there this season. Dry conditions were the cause.

West Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales all suffered from drought. Only South Australia and Tasmania have enjoyed good pastoral conditions. The result overall will be a short export of Australian lambs this season.

Coming nearer home, I am assured that the Waikato lamb crop will be down 500,000 this season. Hawke’s Bay reports a light crop, and also Manawatu and Taranaki have suffered from eczema, so in New Zealand the supply will be likewise diminished. Even although ewe numbers have been increased, there would seem little prospect of our shipping more lambs this season than last.