OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1943, Page 2

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

PRICES FOR BEEF CATTLE (To the Editor.) Sir, —I do not think we are getting a fair price for our beef this year. We have given from £2 to perhaps £2 10s per 1001 b. for our store bullocks, and we put them into the works and get about 33s a 1001 b. for them. It is absolutely rotten. I am an old man. When the war started I was breeding about 1000 fat lambs, and I thought to save labour troubles and worry. I sold about 700 ewes, and bought bullocks to save labour, but the way things are now, I do not think I will make anything out of the bullocks when I pay interest for 7 or 8 months and allow for a few deaths. Last year I buried 3 steers and sent 3 or 4 into the works. I got £5 to £7 for them. This year I have lost two so far. A 7001 b. bullock brings in about £ll to £l2. It is hard to get a 3-year-old bullock to go over 7001 b. They take off about 6s railage to Petone. It was bad enough last year, but this year wages are higher and wire and posts are nearly double. Now in Australia, in September, the buyers were giving 39s a 1001 b. in the yards and had to pay droving and take all risks. A Queensland newspaper states that in December- in the Cannon Yards, light steers were sold at the rate of 43s per hundred pounds, with heavy bullocks quoted at 41s. The paper points out that in the circumstances it will be realised why the export trade is quiet, and goes on to state that rump steak was selling at Is 5d per lb. The fixed price for British fat stock on September 28 last —and 57 per cent of the offering was classed as fat —was £7 per live cwt., which would bring the price to at least £5 per lOOlbs. This means £4O or more for an 8001 b. beast. For a similar beast we New Zealand farmers receive £l3 4s in the yards. The British farmers are getting thousands of steers from Eire, and in England in August 2-year-old l cattle were quoted at £24 10s and yearlings at £l5. Fair is fair the world over, and if Eire is reaping a rich harvest surely the farmer in New Zealand is entitled to more than he is receiving, especially for fats. We are using our best land for fattening bullocks and we are surely entitled to receive a square deal . The Government says it wants our beef, but is it fair that we should fatten the animals for nothing? If the Meat Board cannot do better than it is in regard to our stock then the members as a body should resign. —I am, etc., WM. RAYNER. “The Cliffs,” Masterton, January 11.