THE CALF MARKET
A GROWING DANGER. Sir,—You were good enough last year to publish a note of mine on the above, but tlie conditions this season are bo mucfc worse that public attention 6hould be very seriously directed to them. Tho enclosed cutting shows that between 30,000 and 10,000 calves have been killed in tho Waikato this spring, while tho report of one Taranaki firm alone stated that, for their November sale, 5100 calfskins were catalogued, and the stock inspectors estimate the killings in Taranaki at -10 per cent. Now, does anyone wonder at this, with good mixed Shorthorn weancrs selling in Cambridge a month ago at 10s. each (their skins were worth 9s. to 155.), and hero in Taranaki, a week ngo, for good, well-bred weaher heifers 255. was bid, So many freezing works are now operating (many of them overlapping one another), fctiafc the-slaughter of calves, is suicidal, for jn two to three'years beef will be unobtainable. With milk and meal at such high values the rearing costs of calves at five months exceed M 10s. (which is tho absolute minimum), and, as there is not a Ihope of getting this, indiscriminate slaughter must continue. The New South Wale* Government has tackled thi.s calf-killing question, and when townspeople have to pay 2s. to 2s. 6d. per lb. for steak, then the cry will go up, "Why didn't Massey see to all this?' I control upwards of MX) dairy cows, and next season only heifer calves and any bull calves dropped from pedigree. Holstciu cows will bo reared' on my places.—l am, etc.,. W. R. WRIGHT. Ealiotu and Matangi. (Enclosure.) The inspector of stock at Morrinsville, Auckland, reports that between 30,000 and 40,000 calves have been killed in the Waikato this summer. He states, that farmers find it does not pay to rear calves and pigs whilo present high prices for butter-fat continue. New country is not being opened up quickly enough to absorb all young stock, and Iho predicts a tremendous shortage of beef.
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 105, 28 January 1920, Page 8
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336THE CALF MARKET Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 105, 28 January 1920, Page 8
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