SERIOUS COMPETITOR

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20691, 29 December 1938, Page 9

SERIOUS COMPETITOR

FAT LAMB BUSINESS ARGENTINE PRODUCTION (Special to Times) PALMERSTON N.. Wednesday The likelihood of the Argentine being a serious competitor with New Zealand on the British fat lamb market is visualised by Dr. C. P. McMeekan, of the staff of the Massey Agricultural College, who returned last week after an absence of 2i years abroad. He said, when interviewed, that he did not want to go into details except to say that the Argentine could and would produce lambs that would compete successfully with New Zealand. Dr McMeekan spent 2\ months in the Argentine, igoing there at the request of the Argentine Social Rural and the Argentine co-operative meat producers with a view to suggesting to the farmers of the country how improvements could be made in quality. “The position roughly is that until the imposition by Britain of a quota on Argentine beef the country was not verjJ interested in the fat lamb trade,” said Dr. McMeekan. “But with beef production curtailed they are turning to other avenues. The Argentine has been allotted a quota of 4,000,000 fat lambs a year and they are endeavouring to fill it with a product that is equally as good as New Zealand turns out.”