LIVESTOCK POLICY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21573, 8 February 1940, Page 3

LIVESTOCK POLICY

GUARANTEE TO BRITISH FARMERS

EXPANSION OF SHEEP POPULATION

A statement issued in November by the British Minister of Agriculture in regard to the Government’s live-stock, policy during the war should be of interest to Dominion producers. British farmers, said the statement, were to be guaranteed a market for cattle, sheep and pigs which would be bought by the Ministry of Food when food rationing commenced. Cattle would be purchased at fixed prices on a scale j varying according to the estimated killing out percentage. The initial rates had not yet been fixed, but provision would, be made for a seasonal rise in the spring to cover the higher cost of winter feeding of animals in yards, and adjustments would be made as and when necessary in the event of a substantial rise in the prices of feeding stuffs or other costs of production. It was too early yet to frame a definite policy in respect of pigs, poultry or eggs, in view of the large amount of cereals required for these forms of production, a large proportion of which had in the past been imported. It was clearly necessary, as an insurance against a reduction in imported supplies, to take all possible steps to increase home production of meat Since no substantial increase in numbers of fat cattle could be expected within the next two or three years, the best means of achieving this end quickly was by an expansion of the sheep population, bearing in mind that sheep need not consume any appreciable quantity of imported feeding stuffs. Farmers were being asked, therefore, to increase their flocks by retaining old ewes and ewe lambs fpr breeding this winter. Prices would be raised, when the Minister of Food took full control, to an initial figure of 11 id per lb. dressed carcase weight for fat sheep t<\ the end of December. The average fixed price over the year, however, would be 1/- per lb, a figure which should also make it worth while to bring lambs to mutton weight and thus increase the weight of meat per animal.