Demand For Beef.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 95, 13 October 1915, Page 4

Demand For Beef.

deferring to the article on ' Beef Production" written by Mr J. L. Bruc?. as istant Director of the Live Stock and Meat Division ot the Dairy Department, for the current issue of the "Journal of Agriculture," and reproduced in these columns last week, tbe "Canterbury limes" says:— Recent development in the meat supply business, all more or less directly due to the extra ordinary demands of the great war, must have suggested to many New Zsalacders the question whether, the Dominion cannot do rrore to meet tbe wants of beef consumers in the Old World. Ihe prime requirements of tha vaH armies, commissariat is beef. An enorm.us quantity uf this staple, fresh, :anns3 frozen, i 3 used by the millions of men of the Allies in (raising camps and in the trenches, and supplies cannot keep pace with tbe demand. But the increase is by no nraus confined to the troops. Beef consumption is mounting upwards everywhere, and tbe cattleraising countries find sure markets at exceedingly profitable prices. The exceptionally high tates due to the war will not last, nevertheless there will be a permanent and always increasing call for all the beel that the. newer lands can produce. Durmi the last year or so the quantity of beef exported from New Zealand has largely increased, but this is a spurt due directly to tbe Imperial requirements for the war. The production ot teet here has always occupi.d a secondary position to that of mutton and lamb; in Australia and the Argentine tbe prime bullock occupies a much more important^place in the country's sala of live stock. Mr J L. Bruce advances the opinion that in consideration of existing prices and the results to he derived from improved breeding and feeding there is sufficient inducement to warrant the most vigorous encouragement of beetproducing cattle. In determining this question consideration must, of course, be given to the great dairy industry which absorbs the best of tbe fattening country, and which has attained an annual export cf 645,000 tons of butter and cheese, with further increases close ahead. So far the aheap and dairy industries bave so largely occupied the field that New Zealand has not developed into a great cattle raieing country. Tha determining factor was the relative degree of profit. Our farmers, it may be sai<), have every reason to be satisfied with the prices they have secured lor their wool and mutton and ihe product uf their dairy herds; nevertheless tbe beef industry seems well worth their attention. In the North Island particularly there are tracts of country peculiarly well adapted for cattle raising. The South Island plaios and downß and tussock hills cannot be bettered for sheep depasturing, but tbe newly broken bush country is particularly suitable for fat beef raising, and it is there we may expect the cattle business to assume large dimensions in tbe future.