ARGENTINE MEAT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 415, 27 December 1932, Page 2

ARGENTINE MEAT

IMiyiENSITY GF INDUSTRY Nf)T REALISED IN N.Z. Argentine's great meat industry was investigated by Mr. Rohert San- , ders, who represented New Zealand 1 at the Sixth International Congress ! at Buenos Aires. Miv. Sanders had splendid, opportunities to guage, the ' immpnsity of the beef industry. He visited the Anglo freezing works out- ' side Buenos Aires, where 6000 hui- ! locks and 10,000 sheep are killed every day, and th'e Smithfield, Armour and Swift works, each killing 4000 hui- J locks and 6000 sheep a day. . A feature of the killing operations was the employment of electricity to ' stun animals before killing. As the sheep filed past they were hooked j by the legs to a huge steel plate,'; charged with electricity, which ren- ! dered the animals unconscious. A re- j volving plate hoisted them pn toi a | chute, which conveyed them to the killing department. The electrocu- 1 tion was admitted by all authorities to be the most humane method in operation in the world. Enormous Paddocks1 An estancia, or estate, which' runs 60,000 bullocks all raised from pedigree English stock was one of the interesting places visited by Mr. Saunders. He travelled by motor-car for 10 miles across p'addocks and then did not reach the end. Production costs were wonderfully low,'' he said. The beast was ready for killing in only 2 years, and alfalfa land cropped five or six times in the course. of a year, and from six to 10 years could elapse before another sowing was needed. Labour was ridiculously cheap farm laborers living under most primitive conditions. On one estancia he found 12,000 bullocks under the eare of only six men. "I cannot see how it is remotely possible for New Zealand to compete with' Argentine under these circumstances," said Mr. Saunders. "Farming costs nothing like it costs 'in this country, and the handling of meat in enormous freezing works along the River Plate is done with the utmost economy and dispatch. The only comfort is the knowledge that the Argentine is in just as serious difficulties as New Zealand. Land could be bought to-day with all improvements cheaper than it could he bought 25 ; years ago." '