LAMB AND MUTTON TRADE.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 21, 27 June 1911, Page 4

LAMB AND MUTTON TRADE.

SOME CANTERBURY OPINIONS. For some time past the Home meat trade journals arid the circulars emanating from the various firms handling and dealing in frozen meat have contained critical remarks with reference to the quality of the mutton sent during the last few years from Now 7fealand, and one big firm of meat salesmen in their weekly report for the New Zealand mail, dated April 14th, stated that “ the

efforts to increase the sale of New Zealand mutton and get back

; some of the trade that had been j taken by the River Plate com- | panics continued to have a deI pressing effect upon prices. \ Canterbury mntton, which at one | time had a class of buyers pecu- ) liarly its own, had so entirely i changed its character' that very j few customers would now pay the ! price asked for that article.”

| Reluctant as they naturally | won Cl be to confirm altogether j such a statement, several gentlemcii prominent in the frozen meal trade, when seen by a representative of the Press, admitted that there was a substratum of truth hidden under these rather sweeping allegations. At one time the term “New Zealand,” when applied to mutton, was a name to conjure with at Home. Other less-favoured brands of imported meat were relegated to second place, almost as a matter of course. Very gradually other brands of meat from Australia and South America crept into favour. New Zealand meat still held its own so far as prices went, but the strictures referred to above show that opinion even regarding “prime Canterbury” has altered, and although it still retains its premium we read that “very few customers will now pay the extra price asked for that article.” The natural deduction is that either Australian and South American mutton has greatly improved in quality or that Canterbury mutron has deteriorated. There seems some grounds for supposing that the latter is the case.

A'point'in favour of the Australian and River Plate trade is the regularity of supplies from these quarters, while the New Zealand supply has for some years been notoriously unsteady. The effect upon even the staunchest supporters of the New Zealand article at Home has been/ naturally enough, to make them look out for some more stable source from which to draw their stocks, and their attention has been directed to the supplies of our competitors who send forward, no doubt, a very fair article. Latterly Canterbury has been particularly uncertain in sending out mutton, and the cause is not far to seek. With the cutting up and the subdividing of the big estates much more attention has been paid to the production of fat lambs as against the older animal, with the natural result of producing a much greater range of evenness and quality. The decrease in the uumbers of the merino and halfbred flocks has also, undoubtedly, had its effect, and appears likely to yet have more. The smaller sheep farmers go in almost exclusively for the coarse and more early maturing breeds, their object being, of course, to get fat lambs, and if, as is often the case, these lambs “ missfire” (so to speak) and fail to fatten, they do not make nearly so good mutton. Of course there are still breeders who make a speciality of young mutton as against lamb, and it may be taken for granted that they have no difficulty in disposing of their produce. The huge increase in the fat lamb trade of Canterbury overshadows completely the comparatively small loss occasioned by the less ardent demand for its mutton, and there is litde doubt that has gained and not lost by the exchange.