A WARNING TO PRODUCERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 177, 28 July 1944, Page 4

A WARNING TO PRODUCERS

MEW ZEALAND is fortunate to have the expert advice, at first hand, 1 ' of Dr. I. Clunies Ross, dean of the faculty of veterinary science at the University of Sydney and one of the foremost authorities in the world upon primary products and their use as food supplies and in industry. He has taken a prominent part in research work both in the Commonwealth and abroad upon all problems associated with dairy produce, meat supplies, < and especially wool growing and its subsequent manufacture. He has unfortunately been able to pay but a short visit to the Dominion, but he has seen enough to offer us sound and sage advice, which cannot be too seriously considered and discussed, both in Departmental circles and in every farming and dairying organisation in the country. He reminds us that there will be no assured or protected markets for our products after the war, and that they will stand or fall by their own merits. That there will be early markets is, as Dr. Ross said, inevitable, because of the poverty of supplies in a war-torn world. But those immediate markets may not last, will not unless we take steps to hold them.

The first steps must be improvement of our supplies, so that we may be able to face the fierce' competition Avhich is certain to arise from other productive areas, areas which may be much greater than those available before the war. For instance, the rubber growing countries will now find their markets gravely restricted by the use of synthetic rubber; some of them may turn to butter, wool or meat, and they may be able, because of cheap labour, to undersell us. Wood and glass fibre fabrics will be ever-increasing competitors with wool, and the natural product must keep pace with the artificial in both price and quality. That can only be assured by research and experiment on the farm. These are costly, but a recognition of the effects of the displacement of a great industry will ensure that the necessary funds are forthcoming, provided that the recognition is general and that the men engaged in the industry are prepared to make a fight for it.

The gravest warning which Dr. Ross has issued is nearer and more insistent than future markets; it is one that must have the immediate attention of the whole dairying industry. He was fascinated by the tremendous productivity of New Zealand's pastures, but he was startled by the complex mass of disease problems which must be overcome. Here and now, he says, we must take measures to increase the efficiency of production and to lower costs, so that our butter may stand up to the competition of substitutes, and to this end we must overcome the -'appalling losses suffered from disease." The gravity of these conclusions, coming from an unprejudiced, sympathetic and informed inquirer, cannot be over-estimated. We have our scientific investigators, who are doing their work with a devotion and capacity which are admirable, but we have not enough of them. We have not a tenth of the number of veterinary scientists that we require on the standards of other enlightened producing countries, not nearly enough to maintain the health of herds throughout the Dominion. Something js being done to increase the number by offering bursaries abroad, but progress is slow, and while the few are training we have the large and complex mass of disease to which Dr. Ross has referred. What are we going to do about it?

The warning could not be more explicit or more emphatic, and the future of primary production in New Zealand may be imperilled unless we heed it. Healthy flocks and herds are essential to cheap production and to assured markets. .We have already done much to.increase production. A quarter of a century ago a 10,0001b of milk cow was Regarded as an animal to be desired; to-day there are many cows yielding twice that amount, and even 30,0001b is a not uncommon production. This increase is one of the. most effective means of lowering production costs, but it cannot be maintained either from unhealthy herds or from those which are not receiving properly balanced food supplies. That balance can only be arrived at by research and inquiry, and by expert attention to the health of every herd. We cannot provide that now. We are, in fact, increasing disease by the greater facilities which now exist for the transfer of stock, thus inviting the spread of epidemic diseases, while such outbreaks as that of facial eczema a few years ago indicate a lack of nutritional, values. City and country alike are concerned with the problems mentioned by Dr. Ross, and, now that the warning has been sounded so clearly, they should unite to ensure that definite steps are taken to abate the danger.