BOBBY CALF TRADE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4190, 29 May 1939, Page 4

BOBBY CALF TRADE

SUCCESSFUL FEDERATION OF POOLS. PRODUCER CONTROLLED BODY. A remarkable achievement in the co-ordination of the bobby calf trade in the Waikato has been brought about in the past two seasons through the voluntary efforts of farmers’ committees plus the protection given to the pools by the Internal Marketing Department having resulted in the building up of a producer controlled federation of pools, which this season will handle 170,000 calves. The initiative in the project, of forming pools was taken by Mr R. A. Candy, of Ngarua, when in the 1937 season several pools were launched in the Morrinsville district with the object of undertaking a co-ordination of effort in overcoming the wastage of transport and the general uneconomic basis upon which the trade has been conducted.

The effort belied the generalism that farmers would not co-operate, for the system was taken up enthusiastically and operated throughout the season so efficiently that the results were more successful than had even been anticipated; where three or four lorries had been travelling an area only one was required, the animals were more in line with what the trade desired and the price especially satisfied the producers because all were on an equitable basis. RECORD NUMBER HANDLED. Sixteen thousand calves were handled on the system in the Morrinsville district the first year, but last season practically the whole area federated its efforts and was joined by Cambridge,- Putaruru and several pools in the Hamilton district in the formation of a federation which handled over 100,000 calves. Last season most other dairying districts in the Waikato commenced operations on the pooling system and the advantages have become so apparent that practically the whole area is now in line with the pooling system. The federation has this season been joined by the districts of Te Awamutu and Otorohanga, and three other districts adjoining Hamilton, and now covers the handling and marketing of fourfifths of the calves in the Waikato. It seemed impossible two years ago that farmers’ committees could so cooperate their efforts in building up and keeping under their own control a workable system of co-ordinating a part of their business which through lack of system had become a vexation to the meat trade and Government Departments, but it says a great deal for those who tackled the task that it has been a job well done.