SHEEP TRANSPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 March 1943, Page 2

SHEEP TRANSPORT

DIFFICULTIES INDICATED ANIMALS IN BARE HOLDING PADDOCKS. SOME CHANGES IN METHOD SUGGESTED. “The situation appears to be purely and simply rotten,” stated Mr R. W.' Kebbell, chairman of the Wairarapa Primary Production Council, yesterday morning, when he, with Mr D. B. Curry, secretary of the Masterton Goods Transport Control Committee, and a “Times-Age” reporter, inspected several thousand sheep in holding paddocks near the Masterton saleyards. The sheep, which are stated to be in a state of semi-starvation, are yarded in stony paddocks, which do not appear to carry a blade of grass. A local farmer complained that the situation was largely due to a shortage of drovers. He said he had a mob of 800 2-th sheep, of which 200 were ewes, which had been in a holding paddock in Masterton for several days. There was, he said, hardly any feed in the paddock and the sheep were in no condition to travel the 25 miles required to reach the farm to which they had to be taken. As the ewes had to be driven, it was probable that they would receive such a setback that they would not be suitable for lambing this season. That meant a considerable economic loss to the farmer. It was observed by the farmer that 2-tooths did not have the stamina to stand such trips as had the old ewes. He suggested that the position could be met if farmers were allowed to transport ewes by lorry to holding paddocks which carried plenty of feed, a few miles out of town. Then the ewes could be held until drovers were available and the sheep could be driven under more favourable conditions. Mr Curry said that under the regulations sheep could not be transported by lorry. The chairman of the transport control committee, Mr R. H. Taylor, said the railway was handling large numbers of sheep satisfactorily. As many as 3,200 sheep were trucked and railed away yesterday. Mr Kebbell said that a big burden vyas being placed on the drovers at present. He suggested that farmers could ease that burden by making arrangements themselves to have sheep driven, perhaps by their own men, to holding paddocks out of town for moving later to their destination. Mr H. McGuinness, a representative of the local drovers’ union, said there was a waste of manpower in Masterton owing to lack of co-operation on the part of stock firms. He said the firms were in competition with each other instead of working together.