THE PEAK YEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 222, 19 September 1929, Page 16

THE PEAK YEAR.

1 PRODUCTION FROM PASTURES I SOME REMARKABLE RESULTS. HIGH STANDARD OF EFFICIENCY. ! HUGE demand for fertilisers. j (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) i WELLINGTON, this day. Many progressive features in the Dominion's farming methods are detailed in the annual report of the Department of Agriculture. The Minister, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, points out that the marked development in agricultural research and education last year has gained further impetus, and the effective co-ordination of the practical and scientific 6ides promises to be of steadily increasing benefit to primary producers. Growing appreciation of this aid by producers themselves is a valuable contributing factor, a "With increasing competition and an 9 outlook on tho world markets, which has ■ lately become rather less assuring at some points, it is essential," says the report, "to still further promote efficiency, lower working costs, and higher quality in production. The Government fully realises the position and its requirements, and is making liberal provision within the country's resources for the building up of a good scientific foundation, combined with effective agencies for conveying the best knowledge to all sections of our men on | the land. In this work the Department I of Agriculture will continue to take a u leading part in co-operation with allied 9 bodies."

Ratio of Increase. Some remarkable figures of increase! production from pastures are given. Th ratio of annual increase in 1924 was 1 per cent, and rose to 23 per cent ove the previous five years' average, whil last year's grassland production was "! per cent higher, and is described as th Dominion's peak year. At the rate o progress now being maintained, th value of our grassland products i increasing at over double the rate it dii in the first two decades of this century The grassland farmer is to-day producinj over 40 per cent more products per acn of occupied area than he did eight o nine years ago. Butterfat has doublet during that period, with an increase o only 40 per cent in the number of cows and with no increase worth mentioniu; in the area devoted to dairying. During the past two years well ovei three million sheep have been added t( the flocks of the Dominion, and tin potentiality of still greater expansion through the fact that breeding ewes ar< now increasing by nearly a millior annually, becomes sufficiently apparent. Use of Fertilisers. A huge demand for fertilisers, sounc live stock husbandry, and better pasture management are the factors involved and, in the opinion of the DirectorGeiieral of Agriculture, the most outstanding feature in the increasing quantity and quality of the grass crop if the application of fertilisers. The large increase in the acreage of land topdressed in 1927 and 192S has been fully maintained during the past 12 months, A very, considerable- proportion of our rapidly expanding pastoral production is directly due to this practice, which up to recently has been mainly applied to dairying land, but which during the past three years has increased at an even greater rate on sheep country. Statistics are given of areas topdressed, showing an increase of nearly two million acres in two years. "Large as is the area now annually topdressed, it represents only 13 per cent of the sown grasslands of the Dominion, and," says the report, "it is 6afe to 6ay that there are not less than six million acres of grassland in New Zealand where payable increases, due to topdressi could be secured. At the rate of topdressing progress of the past two years this acreage would be reached within the next decade, with fertiliser tonnage reathing the million mark, and an annual topdressing bill of approximately £0,000,000 or more. Almost the whole of the 315,000 tons of topdressing fertiliser used last year was of pliospliatic nature." Apart from the great expansion in the U6e of phosphates, the time is rapidly approaching when more consideration will have to be given to nitrogen, potash, and lime in the topdressing of grassland. This is particularly true of those farms on which the practice is being applied to almost the whole of the pastures, and where the saturation point of high profits from phosphates alone is being reached, nitrogenous fertilisers, it is predicted, will play, an increasingly important part. Stock Management. The report contains advice, strongly stressed, that stock management practice must be modified to suit changed conditions due to topdressing". "A. close study of the whole of the problems involved in what may be termed modern.grassland-live stock management is demanded," concludes the report, "and until that • has been done, and until management methods attuned to new conditions are in operation, top-:] dressing development will be in danger of serious retardation, with a possibility of monetary loss resultihg'frdm inability to efficiently utilise excess feed, and con? sequent ina'dequate returns from money and labour expended in topdressing." ?