SELLING STOCK BY LIGHT WEIGHT.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 84, 10 January 1885, Page 2

SELLING STOCK BY LIGHT WEIGHT.

The use of scales is daily becoming more general amougst live stock breeders in England. It is now generally conceded that the steelyards are a very valuable factor in the judging of \iv) stock, particularity cattle. The tap* in sometmies, although rarely, resorted to in judging cattle, and only when the merits of two competitors are considered equal. But a few inches of additional heart, girth may have the effect of destroying the symmetry of an ani.-na', whilst at best it is no test as to depth or (innness of flesh ; whereas weight, reveals the existence of qualities not easily discoverable either by the eye or tue hand. Thus it often happ**j'< tlio' fcue bulls of apparently the shmk 1 size, •" the same condition, and %>f equal merit, when weighed roister .s < ilfcrenoe of raany pounds, the ii t:r.ii Mini correct inference being that t.o luwvier animal has a greater wealth of flesh all over thpii the lighter. >So wilh heavy dr.inirht stock. It is not unV Iqn.'iitly the c si* that of twoJClyd-ai) li 3 oi equal size, age an i conditions, ono will »\cii.h a ton whilst the other will sc de 25cwt. Other things hem*? equal, weight is a great eonsideiatioii in h«a\y pulling, and breeders of that class <>f horses will prefer the heavier sire, ?<L G. F. Muntz, who some years atro f'"'ineil a herb of Scotch polled cattle near Birmingham, announces a sale and m the catalogue, the a.-iual li.c weight I each animal for sale is given, and 110 doubt, liis example will soon be extensively followed. At the 6rst exhibition of the National Association in Bowein Park, in 1876. all the aged and two j ear-old bullsand cows were weighed on a Fairbanks machine, and the judges furnished with the weights of each in the ring. The judges — two -well known New bonth Wales breeders — acknowledged the value of the weights in assisting them to determine the relathe merits of several animals. The live weights of an average pick of fat sheep would enable a bn tenor to estimate with tolerable certainty wnat he was buying, whilst it would afford equal facilities to the grazier when drafting his fat sheep for market. As market quotations aio now, they are very little guide to graziers ; whereas the steelyards — by enabling salesmen to quote with tolerable accurancy the price per lb of live weight at the chief centres of sale — afford grazers the moans of estimating tnii present market value of their fat stock. — Queenslander.