GREATER USE OF IRRIGATION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 135, 19 March 1948, Page 2

GREATER USE OF IRRIGATION

Ashburton-Lyndhurst

Scheme

STOCK PRICES RETARD EXPANSION

With the return of the Mid-Can-terbury average rainfall through the summer, this'year has seen much greater use made of irrigation on the Ashburton-Lyndhurst irrigation scheme. All those farmers who have prepared land for border-dyke irrigation during the last three seasons have now reaped the benefit, and these men have not been embarrassed' by weather conditions’.

There has been some doubt as to the feed value of the grass grown under irrigation, hut the general opinion is that under proper management all stock can he successfully grazed and fattened. Some idea of tlie popularity of irrigating can be gained from the figures for last . week, 33 irrigators having irrigated 1008 acres with an average of five acre inches. Farmers as a whole now say there is no argument against the fact that grass can be made to grow with water, but the high price of stock to-day is a deterrent against rapid expansion. The Public Works Department’s land preparation units have had a particularly busy two months and are still preparing land for border-dyke irrigation for some belated farmers. The price per acre has been kept down to an abnormally low figure in spite of a steady rise in costs. This low price per acre can he wholly attributed to the speed and efficiency of the men doing the work. The final figure for land prepared for borderdyke irrigation this season will be well over 1000'acres, which makes a total acreage of more than 4000 bor-der-dyked on the scheme.