BRITISH STOCK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 April 1938, Page 3

BRITISH STOCK

VIEWS OF AN AUSTRALIAN FARMER Australian fat steers can be improved by importing the best types of cattle, so as to get an early maturing type, and giving the stock more feed in winter, when growth is scarce, according to Mr A. J. Tanner, manager of the stud stock department of the Commonwealth Wool and Produce Co., Ltd., who recently returned to Australia after inspecting herds and studs and methods of fattening steers in England, Scotland, and United States and Canada.

“Great Britain is the hub of the stud stock industry,” Mr Tanner said, “and possesses better herds of all breeds than any other country I have visited. Cattle in Great Britain are more suitable for Australia than those bred in America, with the exception of the Canadian Aberdeen Angus, and it would definitely pay Australia to import from Great Britain. Mr Tanner said that at the Chicago International Show he had inspected the greatest collection of steers he had ever seen, both in numbers and quality. There were 400 car load lots of the animals, each car containing 15 head, and 1700 single steers. “They make a strong feature of their steers,” he said. “In Australia there is nothing to approach them. The animals are better handled and store-fed —largely by experts—and more uniform.” At the Toronto International Show, Mr Tanner saw 2000 head of cattle, a similar number of sheep, and 1500 horses exhibited. The horses were chiefly Percherons, Belgians and light types. Clydesdales were not nearly as prominent as either of these breeds.