Farmers Holding Back Lambs From Works

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 3

Farmers Holding Back Lambs From Works

I housands of new-season lambs are being held back from freezing works by farmers, the Press Association reports. An excess of feed as a result of lush pasture growth during the damp spring and the present high price of store sheep are reported to be making farmers reluctant to sell lambs for killing. In Southland freezing works are having difficulty finding enough lambs to operate at capacity; and in the Auckland district freezing works reported today that lamb killings this season were down on last year.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture in Auckland said the present rate of growth was exceptional. It was being boosted by the prolonged period of wet weather, he said.

He expected the rate to be maintained until at least the middle of February. In Hamilton the chairman of the Silo Association (Mr R. Woolerton) said the present excess of grass in the Waikato was “a colossal waste.”

“It is time we woke up to the fact that this annual waste of our most valuable asset is costing New Zealand a lot of money—and not only the farmer,” he said. MARKETS HELD

Auckland freezing works officials said that although there was a shortage of lambs for killing, markets were not being seriously affected.

But in Southland one works manager said that the season had been the worst for 20 years for intake of lambs, and a stock agent said he could not remember previously having to look for lambs in midJanuary. Usually the works reach a lamb-killing peak in January.

Indications this year are that the season will be steady until it ends in June.

At this stage the kill at the four works in Southland is down about 250,000 lambs on the corresponding period last season, but it is expected that the previous season’s tally of 5,000,000 will be exceeded by 250,000. FOUR DAYS BEHIND

The works have a killing capacity of about 65,000 a day and are only about four days behind.

A spokesman said kill numbers would catch up with last season’s by Easter. Meanwhile, the bulk of lambs was not expected at the works until February. Only one works will kill on Saturday. Southland officials say wet weather in the province towards the end of last year is the main reason for the shortage of lambs. The shortage cannot be blamed on a poor lamb season: indications are that Southland's lamb population this season is greater than ever. More sets of twins were born, and these take longer to develop than single births. Farmers weaned earlier than usual, indicating that the greater number of lambs will not come into the works until February. SHEARING DELAYED To compensate, ewes could have been killed this month, but wet weather delayed shearing. This in turn has held back a supply from the works. A spokesman for one works said he expected lambs and ewes to come together next month. Works managers differed on the effect of the season on labour. One manager said he could lose 10 per cent of his work force when students and others left just as the season built up. Others said they were not worried about a shortage of labour; but one works has already advertised for labour for the end of this month. “LAWNMOWERS” In the Waikato farmers were being forced to pay exorbitant prices for store stock to act as lawnmowers to deal with a rapid flush of grass, Mr Woolerton said. This feed could be cut,

stored in silos and used when feed was scarce, he said.

At present in the Waikato store stock was fetching prices almost as high as fats and farmers were unwilling to purchase. “I shudder to think of how much grass I have wasted in this way,” Mr Woolerton said. “For years we have applied fertiliser to boost the grass, which in a good growing year like this is nothing but an embarrassment to us.

' “We simply have not learned to utilise our feed to the best advantage.” STOCK SHORTAGE

Another serious factor in the present situation was the shortage of stock.

Farmers had not been breeding as much stock as was needed because of the heavy losses from metabolic diseases, he said. This could have been over come by feeding silage and hay instead of grass at the time of the year when these diseases were prevalent, he said. Grass could be cut and stored in silos almost regardless of the weather, but a wet season like the present one made haymaking difficult and a lot of grass cut for hay was wasted, he said. “It is high time research priority was given to this matter of utilisation of our surplus feed and to metabolic diseases. “There is no doubt whatever we could be producing much more than we are.” Mr Woolerton believes that the silo could play a large part in storing excess feed within the framework of present methods of farming. “It was this awful wastage of grass that encouraged me to get a silo. 1 can always keep topping it up as insurance against a bad year and against metabolic diseases.” TOPPING PASTURES

Many Waikato farmers are at present topping their pastures with mowers to cut down the seed heads and keep the grass leafy. Farmers who have grown summer feed crops, such as turnips, are finding that tasted of supplementary feed, for which they were intended, the crops have become excess. The Department of Agriculture advises the feeding of these crops in spite of the large reserves of grass.