CONDITIONS IN HAWKE'S BAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 285, 2 December 1925, Page 20

CONDITIONS IN HAWKE'S BAY.

I DROUGHT CAUSES ANXIETY. CATTLE EAT WILLOWS. Hawke's Bay is badly in need of rain. The East Coast province can manage i successfully with considerably less rainfall than is needed in Auckland, but even the smaller requirement is not always available. Writing in Saturday's "Manawatu Standard," a contributor states:— ' j "Up to about two - months ago things in Hawke's Bay were booming. Stock was, as usual,' excellently conditioned and prices were at a high level. Then came the long dry spell when Palmerston North j and district were yet experiencing the heavy rains and cold weather which so marred the early spring here. On heavilystocked stations the stock began to go back, and, in some cases there were to be seen lambs which were positively fit for nothing, and which would in all probability die in large numbers before long. That, of course, is an extreme, for in the main the lambing season was good and the lambs were well conditioned, but it is one patent example of the risk of overstocking in a climate subject to droughts, nor is it an isolated case. I Hiwke's Bay was liberally drawn upon | for cattle by buyers from Palmerston North, Wanganui, and other outside districts, hut of late the cattle markets have .been flooded with entries from farmers who cannot afford any longer to hold their cattle, so short is the feed. Despite the certainty of securing excellent pHces for the beasts, could they hold on till the winter, they must sell and cut their losses. Thus it was that recently the Waipukurau market, at which some 2000 cattle a week are being yarded, dropped f 1 a head at two consecutive sales. On one 3000-acre station on the coast some 30 or, 40 cattle had died as the result of. weakening from the shortage of feed, and this in early November—another example of the risk of ■ overstocking. Here, again, the result is j a rush in the markets and a drop in ' prices, while the outside buyers a week ago appeared to have more or less satisfied their demands for the present. "In quite a number of cases farmers are contemplating cutting willows to keep j the stock going, although they are reluctant to take that measure so early in the season. | "Hawke's Bay is a wonderful farming district, but there is omnipresent - tlie element of a gamble in the event of a very dry summer, and the outlook there at present is most unpromising. Rain is eagerly awaited, and a fall of two to three inches would mean many thousands lof pounds to sheepfarmers."