FREEZING SEASON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20104, 24 March 1928, Page 22 (Supplement)

FREEZING SEASON

REVIVAL OF BEEF TRADE HEAVY LAMB KILLINGS Most gratifying of many satisfactory features attaching to the present freezing and meat export season is the increase in the number of lambs and pigs dealt with to date. It is confidently anticipated in responsible quarters that the number of pigs which will be sent overseas this season will easily constitute a Dominion record.

Following heavy killings of lambs at district works, mutton is coming forward freely and the slaughter of cattle has indicated a revival of the beef industry, although, unfortunately, the sorry depletion of herds which has taken place progressively in recent years due to the low prices occasioned by the Argentine ‘'meat war” will take a long while to overcome. The whole Dominion has shared in the increase in the number of cattle passed through the works now that export values arc better, while the local market, at present retail prices, is in itself an incentive to the farmer to kill. According to a return issued a short while ago by the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, the total killings in the Dominion for the current season up to January 15 were 17,000 head, compared with a mere 800 head for the corresponding period of last season.

Probably the dry spell in a measure forced a certain number of cattle through the hands of the butchers, farmers experiencing some difficulty in

carrying The quantity of stock customary in times pf more normal pasture growth. Now, however, the rainfall will cause such an increase in feed that rhe cattle will be in greater demand for pasture control, while another factor calculated to decrease killings from now onward is the holding of stock for the winter market. Still, there has been a noticeable revival in the beef trade this season, although it accentuates anxiety on the score of depleted herds and their relation to efficient farming, especially on sheep country. A big contract made in England fur the supply of beef to the British Admiralty has had its reflex in the Dominion, and, altogether with a drought in Paraguay and unfavourable conditions in some other beef-producing countries, adds firm conviction to forecasts of a firm market for beef for some time to conic.

It has been estimated that the increased killings of lamb in the. North Island alone, this season, will amount to 200,000 carcasses, which, valued at 25s each, represents a gain of some £250,000 to the sheep farmers in this department of their activities when compared with last year. Very shortly now. a valuable index to the position of the lamb trade this season, will be available, and it cannot be otherwise than pleasant reading. The development of the fat lamb trade in the Auckland province, particularly in the Northland, has been rapid in recent years, and the current season is expected to set another high standard. T hat efforts by the Government and others interested in promoting pigrearing as an adjunct to dairy have not been without result is indicated by the heaxy killings to date this season. While the State bounty on exported pork has probably come into operation too late this season to materially influence farmers, the fact that pig farming has already shown such an impetus augurs well for the volume of export next season. Experts share the view that, on a tonnage basis, the aggregate exports of meat this season will be substantially above what they were last year, and on a sound basis of market values.

Generally speaking, the dry spell was welcomed by sheep farmers except in the latter stages of its severity, when it began to have an appreciable effect on stock, but in the main it did not do a great deal of harm. The rains are expected to be followed by a healthy autumn growth which will serve to fortify stock against the w’inter and carry them through in good heart for next spring.