H—3o

SURVEY OF SEASON The killings of meat returned to the Department during the 1945-46 season as available for export totalled 338,417 tons. On account of the weather and pasture conditions prevailing in the North Island during the early part of this year, and after consulting the United Kingdom Ministry of Food, it was decided to accept for export, stock below normal export standard. This resulted in the purchasing of third-grade lambs, wethers, and ewes. Porkers down to 40 lb. weight were also accepted for export. In spite of the adverse climatic conditions, the lamb and ewe mutton killings both exceeded the previous records by a substantial margin. Lamb and mutton average weights were considerably lower than last year. The comparative figures being —

Details of killings for export month by month throughout the season are shown in the following table.

Frozen Meat Killings for Export, Season 1945-46

SHIPPING AND STORAGE Although, peak killings were earlier than usual, no serious storage problems were encountered owing to the excellent shipping programme during the period of heavy killings. The following table shows particulars of frozen-meat shipments to the United Kingdom Ministry of Food month by month during the twelve months ended 30th September, 1946, together with a record of the shipments each season from 1939-40.

30

North Island. South Island. Dominion. 1944-45 1945-46 1944-45 1945-46 1944-45 1945-46 lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. Lambs 34-20 31-39 35-05 34-61 34-59 32-81 Wethers 59*18 54-32 51-02 49-67 58-40 53-86 Ewes 57-14 52-51 53-13 52-83 55-68 52-61

— Lamb. Wether Mutton. Ewe Mutton. Quarter Beef. Yeal. Boneless Bobby Yeal. Boneless Bull Beef. Boneless Cow and Ox Beef. Baconers. Porkers. Choppers. Edible Offal. Total. 1945 Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. October 9 17 100 65 909 137 309 1,009 165 18 212 2,950 November 3,175 381 517 515 372 267 303 1,549 197 25 284 7,585 December 21,855 955 1,211 1,099 191 370 455 1,712 224 20 834 28,926 1946 January 45,737 2,614 5,584 3,157 73 665 555 2,193 837 42 1,866 63,323 February 33,197 4,603 15,041 5,405 '56* 41 741 1,147 810 1,514 28 1,777 64,360March 22,873 4,706 19,160 4,918 204 28 637 1,817 498 1,162 15 1,560 57,578April 14,600 2,304 7,685 3,029 206 33 518 1,723 227 579 15 1,109 32,028 May 23,136 2,257 7,561 6,455 371 70 719 2,953 242 696 13 1,455 45,928 June 8,213 1,016 2,789 5,056 143 87 344 1,577 58 145 4 651 20,083 July 1,094 559 575 2,416 50 1,104 147 678 12 27 2 422 7,086August 371 105 293 698 58 2,482 58 422 19 8 5 389 4,908 September 38 122 352 528 5 1,731 78 448 85 30 13 232 3,662Season total 174,298 19,639 60,868 33,341 1,093 7,121 4,681 12,387 8,414 5,584 200 10,791 338,417