THE PRICE OF SHEEP.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13420, 18 March 1914, Page 8

THE PRICE OF SHEEP.

In the opinion of'-A well-known Wai<raM*l*; settler,. iiext i&etßoh .«ke^n>>ar^v -^oingiWbfeA'trein^dous price. } - v ;. . -. Asked what grounds h& had for^re-, dieting this, the settler said:

| "One has not to be extraordinarily I clear-sighted to' make r this deduction in jface of what is happening. The keen demand for 'fats' and the consequent 1 high prices at present ruling has i prompted farmers to go in heavily for j breeeding black-face lambs, and this ifact is bound to bring about a short- ! age in breeding ewes. On lop of this, ; buyers for certain Home market 3 are keenly operating for what they term thirdgrade freezers, and sheep which in the ordinary course would remain on the farms ares now being sold for slaughtering purposes. These particcular buyers are offering to within a shilling of the price paid for first-grade freezers, both sheep and lambs, and it is this tempting price which is causing ,our flocks to diminish in an astounding i manner, and is creatipg a position that .^rajl ;pw>ba3>ly be -serious eventually -from a cheep-breeders' point of view. .Earther, this wholesale demand is compelling farmers Ixvbreed from inferior ewes, and while prices are certain to go up, the quality cannot but recede. What I tell you is a fact, and I can name numerous farmers who are retaining ewes for breeding purposes that were in past years disposed of as "potters." Pi-ices, as I said before, ate going to go up and up."—Eketatuna "Express."