CANTERBURY BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 4030, 9 June 1931, Page 23

CANTERBURY BUDGET.

(From Our Owe Correspondent.) CANTERBURY CHEESE. CHRISTCHURCH. June 6. A silver cup presented by the Lyttelton Harbour Board for competition among Canterbury and Westland dairy factories for cheese quality was this week awarded to the Barry’s Bay Co-operative Dairy Co., the first factory to win the trophy. The chairman of the board, Mr H. T. Armstrong, M.P., made the presentation to the manager of the factory, Mr James J. Walker, and in complimenting the factory on its success, stressed the need for maintaining the highest quality in cheese and butter production. The conditions governing the competition are that the cup will be awarded to the dairy factory that attains the highest average grade for exported cheese for the season from October 1 to April 30 each year, each factory to send to the board’s cool stores for grading and storage at least half of its output fairly distributed throughout the season. The winning factory’s name is engraved on the cup each year, and any factory winning it three times, either in succession or at intervals, is entitled to retain possession. The possible number of points is 100, and in this year’s awards there were only decimal points separating the three leading factories, the awards being, Barry’s Bay Co-operative Dairy Co.. 93.961: Takamatua Dairy Co., 93.251; Little Akaloa Dairy Co., 93.17. ADDINGTON MARKET. What it lacked in numbers, the fat lamb entry at Addington this week made up in quality. The offering of 2100 head was just over half what it was at the previous sale, but there have been few yardings this season that have been so even in quality. There were again quite a few sales over the 20s mark, and there were few lambs that were not worth 16s and over. The proportion of heavy lambs was a little Jbigger than it has been recently, which is not surprising at this time of the year, and a pleasing feature of their sale was the competition from the export buyers, who. as a rule ignore this class of lamb and favours the mediumweight sorts. The works buyers and butchers between them made the sale a very keen one. and prices ’for all grades were firmer than they were at the last sale. ''

The bulk of the supplies of fat lambs in the country will have been absorbed by now, and the next few weeks at Addington will probably reflect this. Peninsula fatteners appear to have disposed of all their available lambs, or most of them, at any rate, so that the plains districts and North Canterbury are about the only sources now left from which to draw. Export buyers are not making very heavy purchases in the country. The works here could dispose of their requirements within the next fortnight if they wanted to probably, but it is expected that they will keep open until about the end of the month at least.

In many instances the new schedule rates for mutton were more than equalled in the fat sheep pens, butchers and export buyers making the sale throughout a very brisk one, at values that were from Is to Is 6d dearer for the betterclass sheep. Two-tooth wethers, which the butchers prefer to the heavy-weight lambs because of the better cutting, were in keen demand and showed the biggest appreciation in price, anything at all wellfinished selling round about 15s to 17s. Heavy ewes sold particularly well also. Considering the size of the entry, which numbered just under 5000, the sale was an excellent one. The evenness of quality had a lot to do with it. Nicely finished wethers sold at from about 15s to 20s 10d, the top figure. The proportion that sold under Cie lower price was very, very small. Good sorts of ewes were worth from 12s to the ton price of 16s lOd. wlvch was secured by Mr D. Gillnnders (Dnnsandel) for the best of his line of 47. Over two-thirds of the offering sold within this range, with a few nans of old and noorly finished sorts making round about Bs.

North Island graziers were again represented in the fat cattle pens, there being lines forward from two districts—one of 35 black polled steers from Palmerston North and the other a line of 27 cows and heifers from the Gisborne district. The steers topped the market, the best of them making £l5 7s 6d. and the line averaging . £l2 17s 6d. The cows and heifers, which were sold on behalf of Mr H. B. Williams, ave-aged £8 2s fid, the cows making from £6 7s 6d to £7 17s fid and the heifers £8 12s 6d to £lO 7s 6d. The yarding of 325 head was a good deal smaller than the previous week’s, but it was sufficient to meet requirements, and there was no quotable alteration in prices. Th? best of the beef was worth up to 32s a 1001 b, with good beef bringing over 255.

With the difficulties that arise iu trucking arrangements through the sale being held a day sooner than usual, it was not expected that there would be a great many store shefep penned this week. A little over a dozen pens were sufficient to accommodate the offering, which consisted of a mixed assortment of ewes, wethers, and two or three pens of lambs. The proportion of ewes was bigger than usual, and it consisted of one or two lines of fairly useful fine-woolled sheep that had been turned out with longwoolled rams. Most of them were in reasonably good condition, and the auctioneers had little trouble in disposing of them at satisfactory prices. The best of them wak a truck lot of four-year-old halfbredg from North Canterbury that had been served by English Leicester rams. They were serviceable-looking sheep, and at 13s 2d they were not above their value. A smaller truck; lot of three-quartterbred ewes with full mouths was passed in at 13s fid. They also had been out with English Leicester rams, and their appearance suggested that they would' be worth a little more than that to anyone with the right class of country, particularly in view of what buyers were prepared to pay for the fine-woolled sorts. A fairly big line of sound-mouthed balfbreds were forward from the Kaikoura district, and they made 9s Bd. Their condition looked quite satisfactory, but

the fact that they had been served by Corriedale rams militated against a better sale. Plains farmers nowadays are not keen on the Corriedale ram; they prefer the breeds’ that will give an earlymaturing; compact lamb. Moreover, the careless application of the name of Corriedale to various indeterminate types of fine-woolled sheep has done nothing to help the reputation of the breed. STUD SHEEP EXPORT. One side of sheep raising that stud breeders in Canterbury and in other parts of the South Island have found profitable since Australia has turned its attention more closely to fat lamb production has been the export of stud sheep to that country. During recent years a fairly big trade has been done, but this year the stringency of the times has curtailed it considerably. Probably not more than a fifth of the number sent last year has been shipped across the Tasman, and these have been to fill orders from private breeders. The decision, after much deliberation and argument on the part of the authorities, not to hold the usual July sales in Sydney—one of the big events of the sheepmen’s year in New South Wales—has, of course, been the biggest depressing factor, as hundreds of sheep have, in the past, been sent over on consignment to this fixture, and have realised excellent prices. The biggest part of the stud export trade from the South Island is done in Border Leicesters, the Australian breeders favouring the big Scottish sheep for crossing with the merino ewe to produce a good-carcassed lamb. Quite a number of English Leicesters, and a fewer number of Romneys, have been sent across, and during the last two seasons there has been a growing demand for Southdowns, both rams and ewes, particularly from Victorian breeders. Up to the beginning of June in 1929 no fewer than 674 Border Leicesters had been exported, the majority of them being sent to the July sales. Last year there was a fairly substantial drop, partly through their place being taken by other breeds, only 225 being shipped for the same period. This year the falling-off in numbers has been bigger than ever over all breeds. Shipments have been made recently by Mr Donald Grant, of Timaru, who usually sends a fair number of sheep away. This year he sent a shipment of Border Leicesters to New South Wales. A North Otago breeder, Mr T. S. Little (Corriedale, Windsor) sent two special Border Leicester ewes to the order of a Victorian breeder, and by the last boat to Melbourne the well-known Southland breeder, Mr R. J. Apderson (Kauana) shipped two stud Border Leicester ewes and a ram of the same breed. Mr J. E. P. Cameron, of Timaru, has exported a few of his stud English Leicesters. AGRICULTURAL CLUBS. Judging in the crop competition arranged by the North Canterbury Boys and Girls’ Agricultural Clubs Association was finished this week. Wide interest was shown in the competition, there being 766 entries in the district, which is bounded on the north by the Clarence River and on the south by the Rakaia River. The crops kown this year were potatoes and mangolds, the seed being supplied by the Department of Agriculture, Christchurch, and for purposes of judging, the entries were divided into groups, according to soil and climatic conditions. The judge of the crops was Dlr H. de O. Chamberlain, of the Department of Agriculture, and Mr J. Brown, instructor in agriculture to the Canterbury Education Board, judged the records. Their awards were as follow: —

Sutton’s Championship Cup—J. L. Stead (Ouruhia). Cup for best senior boy—lan Morten (Spencerville). Rose bowl for best senior girl—Venla Richardson (Kaikoura). Cup for best junior boy—P. R. Bayley (St. Andrew’s College). Pyne, Gould, Guinness’s Cup for best junior girl —Nancy Brown (Ouruhia). Group Prizes.—Group I—William Wood (Tai Tapu) 1, Nellie Wood (Tai Tapu) 2. Group 2—Marie Brown (Ouruhia) 1, A. Macmillan (Ouruhia) 2. Group 3— Nancy Hassall (Clarkville) 1, L. Stone (Ohoka) 2. Group 4—Vernon Lewis (Leeston) -1, John Taylor (Brookside) 2. Group s—Jean Payne (Yaldhurst) 1, J. Hamilton (South Malvern) 2. Group 6 —Dorothy Taylor (Meadow Bank) 1. Jean Lemon (Killinchy) 2. Group 7—Arthur Topp (Saltwater Creek) 1, W. Mather (North Loburn) 2. Group B—Lucy8—Lucy Wright (Hawarden) 1, Daphne Dickie (Rotherham) 2. Group 9 —Jovce Mathews (Springbank) 1. Ella Feather (Oust) 2. Group 10 —Allenby Harrison (Scargill) 1, Harold Dalzell (Glen Kowhai) 2. Senior I'oys’ group—S. Skurr (Oxford) 1. Mervyn Busby (Coutts Island) 2. Senior girls’ group—Kathleen Talbot (Cust) I, Nai Bailey (Amberley) 2. Special prizes for record charts were awarded to L. D. Hartnell (St. Andrew’s College). Myra Morten (Spencerville), and Arthur Mangels (Tai Tapu).

“USE MORE WOOL.” At a gathering of business men this week arrangements were made for inaugurating an advertising campaign to encourage the greater use of goods manufactured in the Dominion from N'"-land-grown wool. Mr W. Machin general manager of th e New Zea’and Farmers’ Co-operative Association of Canterbury, Ltd., presided, and various spec er... among them Mr H. D. Acland, president of the New Zealand Sheep Owners’ Federation. and Dlr W. R. Carev, manager of the Kaiapoi Woollen Co.. Ltd., discussed the value of such a scheme from various aspects. Dliss G. V. Howey outlined the scheme, whereby it is proposed to hoid a cabaret, at which a “golden fleece” pageant will be staged. A strong committee was set up, and it is to meet next week to make further arrangements.