asked the Minister for Agriculture the percentage of the total sheep population which is exported annually; and how the exports affect prices on the home market.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sheep Exports.
47.
The percentage which exports of sheep (including lambs), alive or in carcase form, represented of the total number of sheep in the country on 1st June of the year of export varied over the past five years from 11.6 per cent. in 1957 to 19.8 per cent. in 1960.
The export of sheep surplus to home-market requirements serves, of course, to keep up the price of sheep on the home market, particularly in the case of store sheep which account for most of the live sheep export trade and which, when fattened for 3 months in Britain, qualify for guarantee payments under the British Fatstock Price Guarantee Scheme at a differential of ¾d. per lb. dressed carcase weight below that for British homebred sheep.