Leather profit nipped
29 June 2001
Leather profit nipped
DAMAGE to leather hides, caused by biting flies during July and August, is indirectly reducing producer profits when selling cattle to abattoirs.
The BLC Leather Technology Centre says tanners are reporting a rise in summer lightspot damage – shallow craters – on hides, at a time when leather is usually relatively free of quality problems.
BLC corporate services director Paul Pearson says that the value of a damaged hide decreses by about £5.
Schering-Ploughs Stewart Hall says studies also show biting flies can cut weight gains by 0.9kg/day over a 100-day period.
BLC advises using an insecticide against biting flies in ectoparasitic control regimes. *
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