CURRENT TOPICS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19863, 26 February 1930, Page 14

CURRENT TOPICS.

NORTH ISLAND EWE VALUES. At the FeUding annual Ewe Pair last week iirie.es compared with twelve months ago were down by only 2s to 3s a head for two-tooths, 2s for fourtooths, and by about 5s for aged sheep. The values, nevertheless, were reported to be 3s to 5s a head better than the paddock prices ruling for some weeks, and over the whole range, according to the report, were probably 5s to 7s (id better than vendors expected. This would seem to indicate some mißJudgment of the position. However, good mixed aged ewes sold about 28s 6d to 30s 6d, goed four-tooths 27s Id to 30s 2d, good six-tooths to 30s, good i'our-year-olds, 25s to 275, good five years to 245, and mndium 20s to 225. Top price for two-tooths was 43s Gel, but outsid<> the fancy prices the good two-tooths made 31s to 365. The entry at the sale comprised 24,000 head. At the Mangaweka Fair, about 50 miles further north in the Upper Rangitikei, the yarding comprised 6300 head. One or two big lines of 400 and over of good four year ewes made from 22s up to 24s 7d, one line of 914 making 25s 6d. Best two-tooths sold to 355, and four-tooth maiden ewes to :Ws 6d. From these figures it would appear that there is little margin for export to the South Island, although the older ewes submitted at the Fairs in question arc of a better stamp than those which come to the South Island as a rule. LAMB TROUBLES. A Northern report is to the effect that a good deal of trouble is being experienced with lambs this year in the Manawatu, owing to the condition of the pastures after prolonged wet weather causing rank, sappy growth. One successful flockmaster has found a great advantage is gained by weaning the lambs early. On examination he discovered that a large percentage of the ewes have little or no milk by the end of December. Ewes with lambs are given the choicest fields to graze over, and if the ewe is dry, or nearly so, she is actually competing with the lamb for the best feed. For instance, a flock of 500 ewes with 100 per cent, of lambs will mean that by delaying the weaning there will be 1000 sheep competing for the best feed, whereas if they were separated the lambs could be given first choice, which will be to their advantage. This proce'fluTe allows lambs that are to be fattened late or to be kept through the winter to build up stronger constitutions to enable them to resist troubles which cause mortality. The latter part of the foregoing opinion coincide.B with many instances of successful practices to which reference has been made from time to tmie. A good deal of the hogget troubles in the winter of which we hear are due to the poor condition in which the sheep enter the lean period. STATION CATTLE AND DEEE. It is rarely that a good sized lino of straight coloured young cattle can be bought at the saleyards. Last Wednesday at Addington there was one such —of Herefords —and the prices they made leave little room for complaint. They were back-station cattle, »nnd made for three-year-olds £l2 7a 6d and for 2J-year-olds to £ll 2s 6d, the lower conditioned Hereford crosses selling at £lO 10s. These prices imply that where possible herds could profitably be increased on the bigger stations, but it takes longer to rebuild a herd than a flock. Another difficulty to the recovery of the back-country herds is the damage being caused by the deer. The" evil is growing rapidly and some hack-country runs to-day could not carry 40 per cent, of the cattle they did 10 or 15 years ago, even if the owners decided on the lines suggested. With wool down at bedrock values there is every encouragement for runholders to go in for more cattle, but the uncertain sized herds of deer that they may have to carry are something that they cannot ignore, and they cannot afford to overstock at the expense of their flocks. Over most of the South Island, it would seem, our beef herds cannot increase unless some radical steps are taken to bring the deer pest within some sort of control.

PROFITABLE DAIRYING. A southern report states that a farmer on MatauTa Island holding 190 acres drew over £BOO for milk in the months of December and January. "This will take some beating in Southland and will even make North Island men realise Southland is not the benighted forsaken place some of them seem to imagine it is,'' aggressively, but quite excusably, adds the scribe who records the achievement. The figures are certainly astonishing, and they provide a useful line of thought for the Government in its land settlement policy. Whilst wool, lamb, mutton, beef, and practically every other farm product have jumped in all price directions, butter and cheese nave maintained a profitable and reasonably steady range of prices ever since the influence of the war disappeared. There is no "looking on" in dairying even for the careless or lazy farmer—the cows have to be milked whilst the gheep can remain to starve where they are if the individual is a slacker. Bo in its land settlement schemes the Government would do well to concentrate on the small dairy farm, where there is less capital involved, where the returns are more stable and regular, where expert knowledge js more easily acquired, and where "slacking' 1 is more quickly detected—every month, as a matter of fact, instead of, at best, once a year, as on a sheep prqperty. Many of our best dairy farmers fire men who came out of offices and shops The Southland lnnd on which the production referred to was secured was valued in the days when the Edendale Estate alongside was cut up at'about £l2 to £ls an acre. Possibly it is worth four times that much to-day—on its production figures it is really worth much more.

Mr C. G. Bloore quoted figures at the annual meeting of the Gisborne Chamber of Commerce to show that the average size of the holdings on Poverty Bay flats is 39 acres, this being the result of cawful tabulation from a largescale map supplied by the Government to the Chamber, Mr Bloore'a aim being to disprove the Government's assertion that it was impossibly for a man to make a living off less than 50 acres of the flat land in this district.