FAT LAMB TRADE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21377, 21 June 1939, Page 3

FAT LAMB TRADE

QUESTION OF GRADING SUPER-GRADE NOT CONSIDERED NECESSARY In a vigorous defence of the grading in operation in connection with the export of fat lambs, Mr T. A. Duncan, chairman of the New Zealand Meat Board, when addressing the annual conference of sheepfarmers at Massey College stated that the present system was framed with the highest net return to the farmer. In the course of a very lengthy discussion, in which the adoption of a super-grade for lamb was urged, the Meat Board’s policy of grading was subjected to considerable criticism. The opinion was expressed by several present that the present system did not provide the English consumer with the type that was desired, and that it favoured the practise of adding excess fat for the purpose of adding weight. Mr Duncan held that the various grades which were well established, were giving the retail trade in Great Britain complete satisfaction. The careful grading of the carcases and the insistence on a high standard of quality had helped New Zealand mutton and lamb to the foremost position in the consuming markets. A super-grade had been tried by many freezing works, but it had not been universally adopted on account of the small premiums of id per lb that the trade in England was prepared to pay above the price for the usual first grades. In the Board’s opinion this premium, said Mr Duncan, was not sufficiently large on the small percentage of super-grade lambs to warrant an alteration in the present grading methods. The Meat Board was fully alive to the fact that there was room for general quality of many of the lambs, which could be best achieved by better breeding and feeding. Mr Duncan said he was opposed to any system of subsidies and considered that the industry should be content to stand on its own feet.