Southland Lamb Supreme

Southland Times, Issue 23774, 23 March 1939, Page 4

Southland Lamb Supreme

'EIOR the eighth successive yeai’ ■*- this province has gained the first award in the Meat Board’s annual district fat lamb competition for the South Island. The prize exhibit was made up of lambs from the western and southern districts which, under the name “Southland”, have won the competition for seven of the eight years. In 1937 Southland unaccountably fell to third place, but the shield was retained for the province by Eastern Southland which had closely challenged the winner for several years previously. The Southland producers, however, were spurred to fresh efforts by their defeat: in 1938 they regained the shield and in 1939 they have held it. In each of the last two years Eastern Southland has been runner-up, and the other South Island provincial districts have been restricted to the lower placings. The rivalry between Southland and Eastern Southland has been a healthy development and no doubt the exhibits of both districts have benefited from it. It is hard to believe that Southland lamb, which is today recognized at Smithfield as the finest from the South Island, was at the bottom of the grade only nine or 10 years ago. It was then quoted £d a pound below Canterbury. That its quality could have been so rapidly improved and then maintained at the highest level, year after year, is a splendid tribute to the efficiency of farming methods in Southland and to the care with which the special requirements of the London market have been studied and fulfilled.