THE BEEF INDUSTRY

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2147, 21 April 1928, Page 3

THE BEEF INDUSTRY

PEOSPECTS IN DOMINION. The immunity, which New Zealand enjoys from the scourge of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle is a matter for which farmers jnay well be thankful when it is realised how serious are the consequences in countries where the disease is established. In Britain, where it has assumed serious proportions during the last few years, the suppression of outbreaks has involved the destruction of thousands of cattle, while farming activities in the districts affected are seriously hampered by the stringency of the precautionary measures against its spread. "Stand still" orders are immediately issued and no cattle can be taken to market or from one form to another. Apart from the major losses of the stock destroyed, the hampering effect upon the industry is very considerable. An aspect of primary importance to New Zealand, revealing a poo*"-.--asset in New Zealand's freedom from foot-and-mouth disease, for which the vigilance of the Department of Agriculture must be given due credit, was raised by the recent statement of Sir William Haldane, in a letter to the Times that the disease is being continually introduced into Britain in the carcases of chilled beef importd from the Argentine. Sir William recommended a very serious review of the sources of Britain's beef supplies and drew attention to the desirability of drawing supplies from Australia, Canada and New Zealand where the utmost care has been taken, regardless of cost to exclude the disease, which is now sweeping South America.

However, any hope of immediate benefit to the Dominions mentioned is removed by an announcement which Lord Bledisloe, Parliamentary Secretary to the British Ministry of Agriculture, made while on a recent visit to the Argentine, that no embargo was contemplated. Lord Bledisloe asked Argentine beef producers to submit to reasonable regulations for the exclusion of infcted beasts from the chilling works, and appealed to them, as a matter of honour, to refrain from sending such beasts to market for conversion into chilted beef.

Before the war New Zealand's beef export trade was very substantial, one Auckland firm alone consigning some 50.000 carcase's to Britain annually. To-day, in spite of prices that compare favourably with those of former times, the raising of beef for export has fallen to a low level, and the numbers of cattle of beefproducing type have diminished accordingly. There remains, however, the nucleus for building up again a flourishing industry. The means adopted by the Department of. Agriculture to guard against the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease into New Zealand had sometimes been regarded as unduly rigorous, but the recognition in Britain of the Dominion's immunity and the possibility of its practical appreciation at Home was a tho w ""*h justification of the department's policy, said Mr T. W. Collins, senior officer of the stock division of the department in Auckland. No relaxation of the vigilance was likely, and the fact that no stock was imported from Europe, with the exception of the Channel Islands, and that only after extensive quarantining, should be sufficient protection against the introduction of the disease. In spite of the research work that had been carried out at Home little was as yet known of the disease, but it was generally considered that the exclusion of susceptible stock and the instant destruction of all fodder arriving from overseas would continue to prove effective. The organisms were supposed to have a very short life away from the known and the isolation of New Zealand was an added factor which would tend to make the appearance of the disease in the Dominion unlikely.