BOBBIES AND BONELESS.

Wairarapa Age, 18 July 1934, Page 4

BOBBIES AND BONELESS.

Although it was set aside for later consideration by the Wairarapa Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union at its meeting on Monday, the idea of paying a subsidy to dairy farmers as compensation for the loss suffered on account of the embargo on the export of bobby calves has something to commend it. One of the resolutions passed at a meeting of dairy representatives at Hamilton on the same day was that, in the event of the complete prohibition of the export of boned cows and bobby calves, the loss be spread over the whole moat-export-

ihg industry. Since it is for the good io£ the industry as a whole that the exportation of the lower-grade meat products is to be prohibited or restricted, it is- not, on the face of it, unreasonable to suggest that all sections of the industry should share the loss. Looking a little ahead, the industry must, of course, accommodate itself to whatever marketing conditions are established, but the immediate emergency for the dairy farmer is serious. No doubt it is true that the amount receive-d by the average dairy farmer for bobby calves and cull cows is not very large, but in these days even a comparatively small sum may mean a great deal to many men engaged in dairying industry. As a matter of principle, subsidies are nearly always to be condemned, but this is a case in which a small subsidy, provided by the total industry concerned, may relieve appreciably a situation that otherwise would be intolerable. Every effort should be made to find new uses and new market outlets for the classes of meat now threatened with rejection. So far as bobby calves are concerned, it is a margin that has to be dealt with, since the hide and some other parts of the carcase are marketable in any event. The immediate question, however, is that of affording som6 relief to dairy farmers in the difficulties into which many of them will be thrown by the closing or narrowing of a market, even though it be a market for minor and secondary products.