Report / Economic Advisory Council. Committee on Slaughtering of Livestock.

  • Great Britain. Economic Advisory Council. Committee on Slaughtering of Livestock.
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report / Economic Advisory Council. Committee on Slaughtering of Livestock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/112 (page 65)
    | slaughtering authority should be empowered, subject to appropriate safeguards against condemnation of the carcase, to make an advance of part of the sum that it was anticipated would ultimately be received for an animal at the time it was brought to the slaughterhouse and should be free to vary this sum having regard to the state of supply and demand in the market in question. This method of trading we shall refer to in the remainder of our report as “‘ receiving animals for sale as meat upon a grade and deadweight basis.”’ 167. In order to avoid the disadvantages of the Adelaide system which we have noticed, the slaughtering authority in case (b) above should be free to take over at a flat rate such offals, either edible or inedible, as experience may show to be desirable, and also to make such differentiation between slaughtering charges on different days of the week as would lead to the most even distribution of killing throughout the week. 168. Finally, the slaughtering authorities, both private and public, should be free to organise their own services of delivery along the most suitable lines, including therein the delivery of meat to sub- depots throughout the areas served. 169. It is clear that if the system of receiving animals for sale as meat upon a grade and deadweight basis is to be developed, the habit of buying meat on description will have to be carefully fostered. A necessary: preliminary to this is a further extension of grading under the National Mark scheme. Hitherto this scheme has been applied only to beef. We understand that its extension to mutton is contem- plated. We welcome this extension and trust that this policy will be energetically developed in the future. (e) The special case of bacon factories. 170. Bacon factories present a rather special problem. Already some factories are organised upon the lines made familiar by American practice, although on a smaller scale, and there seems little reason to suppose that further centralisation would be desirable in so far as it affected the production of bacon alone. The question which concerns us is whether economies could be secured by the combination of bacon factories with slaughterhouses in which other animals are killed. The evidence we have received on this point is to the effect that so far as slaughterhouse equipment goes, there is little or no advantage in such combination. On the other hand, steam and cold storage, &c., would be required in both departments of a combined slaughterhouse, and a certain saving could thus be obtained. It is also possible to utilise Isbour that is under-employed in one department in the other. There is. therefore, no need to force the existing bacon factories into a national scheme designed to deal with rather different problems. Hlasticity, however, in this, as in other directions, is very desirable, [8282] : D