LAMB RETURNS
DECREASE EXPECTED
THIS SEASON'S ESTIMATES
A slight drop in the lambing returns foi the current year is expected by the Department of Agriculture, according to estimates released last night by the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. L. Martin). These show a total expected crop of 16,645,165 lambs, as compared with an actual crop of 17,149,517 last season, a difference of 504,352. Poor returns in the North island are solely responsible for this drop in the figures. The estimated number of lambs for the various sheep districts in that island is 8,600,625, as compared with 9,145,849 last year, a decrease of 545,----224 lambs. Estimates tor the South Island show an increase of 40,872, lambs more than the figure for 1937. In releasing the figures, the Minister said that the annual lambing estimates had in the past provided a reasonably accurate forecast of the seasonal lambing, but in view of the incidence of the so-called facial eczema this would not be so this year. The estimated number of lambs was based on the number of breeding ewes in each county as at April 30, and, though in the estimated percentage of lambs due allowance had been made for the effects of facial eczema, it had not been possible to make any adjustments for losses of. breeding ewes subsequent to April 30 last, because of the varying duration and severity of the epidemic in different districts.1 The figures for the Auckland Province, and, to a lesser extent, Wellington district in Taranaki and Manawatu,' were, therefore, likely to prove inaccurate and unduly optimistic. The following table gives the estimates of the current season's lambing for the several sheep districts:— Number Estimated Estimated of arerage per- number breeding centage of of District. ewes. lambing. lambs. Auckland .. 2,307,831 , 67.80 1,625,774 GisborneHawke's Bay 1,210,877 81.39 3,427,641 Wellington\f. Coast . 4,127,121 85.94 3,547,210 NelsonWestland . 836,217 83.16 695,469 Canterbury - Kaikoura . 3,884,593 90.80 3,527,287 Otago-South- v land .... 4,207,227 90.83 3,821,784 Dominion ... 19,663,866 84.64 16,645,165
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1938, Page 5
Word Count
326LAMB RETURNS Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1938, Page 5
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