The Farm.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 6, 6 May 1893, Page 11

The Farm.

WEIGHING LIFE STOCK. Public opinion on the “ block test ” question, ;as gauged by the discussions in the British -agricultural press, is evidently becoming conflicted, and the advocates of selling live stock by weight are claiming a hearing. “At the time,” the Agricultural Gazette permits one of its contributors to say, “when values are unusually and unnaturally depressed for all but the very best qualities of beef and mutton, not to mention other articles ■of produce, it is of the utmost importance to sellers of fat stock to know whether or not they obtain full market values. In the light of an experiment to this end conducted by the agent of the Duke of Portland in Ayrshire, it would seem that, as a rule, they do not. The details of this “block test” guessing competition at Ccssnock Castle have been published, and the lesson they taught was unmistakable. From these and other trials of similar character it is plain that the present absurd system of selling both fat and store cattle by mere guesswork must result in a great and altogether unnecessary waste and loss to the producer.” The facts referred to may be summarised from elaborate reports given of the tests. Thus two fat beasts, a cow and a bullock, were chosen to represent the classes of stock usually fed and marketed by the Duke’s tenants in Ayrshire. Thirty-five farmers and others guessed at the weight of the cow before the animal was put on the weighbridge. The live weight was 12cwt. Oqr. 101 b., and the dressed carcase weighed 7cwt. Iqr. 261 b. The estimates of the carcase weight as written down on the cards ranged from scwt. 2qr. 10lb. to 9cwt. Iqr. 121 b., equal to a difference of 3cwt. 2qr. 21b., which at 6Jd per lb, it is reckoned, would amount to £ll 8s 7d. In the case of the bullock 24 estimates were made ; the live weight was llcwt. Iqr. 101 b., and the dressed carcase weighed 7cwt. 2qr. 141 b. ; the estimates ranged from scwt. 3qrs. to llcwt., a difference of scwt. Iqr., equal to £ls 18s fid, at fijd per lb. Both the animals were ripe for the butcher, the carcase of the cow being 6189 per cent, of its live weight, and that of the bullock 67'24 per cent. In an agricultural pamphlet upon the agricultural depression, Mr Wesley Richards, also directs attention to the subject. Included in the pamphlet are the records of 31 block tests, held for farmers, and on the average 90 farmers competed on each occasion. There was a difference of 24st. 61b. between the highest and the lowest guesses, and a difference in the money value of £9 8s 3d. Tnere arc also the figures collected at 11 trials in guessing made by butchers alone. These varied from one another only by list 41b between the highest and the lowest, and a variation in the money value of £4 8s lOkl. By comparing these two sets of figures together, it is seen, of course, that the average farmer is more than twice as liable to overlay or under estimate a beast as is the average butcher; which means that the latter is a good deal the more likely, in a competition with the former, to have the advantage. Mr Richards sums np the matter thus ; “ Farmers are good judges of the quality and breed of stock best suited to the land they occupy. This their experience teaches them. But they want more accurate knowledge of the weight they arc buying and the weight they are selling ; or, in other words, the quantity to be bought and sold —which is a distinct question from quality, and one to which the only answer to be given is that of the scales. A weighing-machine is as necessary an implement on a stock farm as a plough on an arable farm, if any accurate knowledge of the size, growth, and value of stock is ever to be obtained.” It is a notable fact in connection with the discussion (remarks the Melbourne Leader) that the enormous cattle trade of the United States is all conducted on a weighing basis, and the Americans arc generally admitted to understand their business.