MEAT AND SHIPPING SPACE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1941, Page 4

MEAT AND SHIPPING SPACE.

JN existing war conditions, the need of conserving and making the most of shipping space available for export produce is emphasised very plainly and this no doubt accounts for the interest taken in the proposal that mutton and lamb carcases should be trimmed prior to shipment. Demonstrations have been given of savings in weight to be effected in this way, but as Sir William Perry has pointed out in some observations reported in our news columns, there are other aspects of the position that need to be considered.

.Under instructions given by the British Government, lamb and mutton carcases are already being telescoped to conserve ■shipping space. Although a. good deal of space is saved in this way, there is no loss of ’weight and the meat suffers, it is said, little if at all in quality. The reduction in weight by trimming, on the other hand, has its important bearing on the price! received by the producer. According to Sir William Perry, the weight lost in trimming a 341 b lamb carcase would entail a reduction of from 2s Io 3s in the price paid to the producer, and the trimmings in themselves would be of little value.

Accepting this'estimate, it would seem that the trimming method can hardly be regarded as advantageous. No proposal appears to have been made that the price'paid for export lamb should be raised to compensate the producer for lhe loss incurred in the trimming process, and in the absence of an equitable adjustment on these lines it is difficult- to see what is Io be said, at all evpnts from the standpoint of the farmer, in favour of the adoption of trimming.