OUR WOOL CLIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 321, 7 September 1932, Page 2

OUR WOOL CLIP

MARKETING BOARD REVIEWS WORLD TRADE POSITION. THE EMPIRE CONTRIBUTJON. The Empire Marketing Board, in its wool survey which has just been issued, gives the sheep population of New Zealand at around 3 million. This total is double the total forty years ago, and is equal to the sheep population of the United Kingdom. The wool clip is now o ver 200 million pounds. A much higher proportion of the total export goes from New Zealand to the United Kingdom than goes to Great Britain from Australia or South Africa. But the proportion taken by the United Kingdom is not so high as it was, and the quantity re-export-ed has risen. France has now replaced Germany as the largest continental importer of wool from New Zealand. The World's Wool. Nearly one-half of the world's raw wool, and over two-thirds of the wool entering world trade, is produced within th'e British Empire. These facts are revealed in this new report on the production of, and trade in, wool. The world's sheep population is estimated at nearly 600 million head, of which about one-third are in the Empire. They produce between 3500 and 5000 million pounds of wool per annum and of this amount about 1500 million pounds, including much of the best wool in the world, comes from the British Dominions of Australia, the Union of South Africa, and New Zealand. Among the other important producing areas, consisting of South America, the United States of America, and Russia, only South America has a surplus for 'export. The United States of America is largely self-suf-ficing as regards merino and crossbred wools, but imports carpet wools; Russia produces almost entirely carpet wools, and imports both the finer wools and wools of the carpet type. Neither of these countries seems likely to assume any importance in the near future as an exporter of raw wool. No Over production. There has been no exeeptional increase in the sheep population or the wool production of the world in recent years; indeed, between 1928 and 1930 there appears to have been a small decrease in wool production, and although the year 1931, aceording to the: partial estimates at present available, probably witnessed an increase in production over' 1930, it is not anticipated that the record level of 1928 will be appreciably exceeded. British Empire countries have ihaintained their share of the world's population at about onethird, and their share of the world's production of raw wool at about onehalf. In the export trade, in which the share of Empire countries is over twothirds of the world total, there has been, on the whole, little variation since 192$ in the consignment of raw wool for producing to manufacturing countries, and there would appear to be no abnormally large aecumulation of stocks of raw wool in the principal exporting countries. Again, management will assist the farmer, when it comes to feeding the stock during the winter months. A good food supply can be easily wasted to a large extent by haphazard methods of feeding. Those farmers who have found themselves with a short supply of winter feed this season will do well to consider what would he; their required quantities for the next winter, as successful winter feeding of stock is a big factor in the sueeess of dairy farming in the Rotorua district.