DAIRYING IN OTAGO.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20033, 15 September 1930, Page 16

DAIRYING IN OTAGO.

IRRIGATION AREA. REMARKABLE . DEVELOPMENT. [THE PEESS Sped*! 3«rvice.] DTJNEDIN, September 13. It is doubtful if in the history of Otago there is a more remarkable Btory of progress and development than that which can be told about the rise of the dairy industry in the semi-arid regions of Central Otago. It is some years now since the possibilities of dairy farming in Central Otago were first stressed by men of foresight and vision, but for the most part little notice was taken' of what were generally considered to be unreasonably sanguine views. " That dairy farming could ever be expected U) yield a satisfactory income off a small holding was frequently and vigorously ridiculed, but for all that an industry has been established now which may be expected to grow with the years until it becomes one of our most important provincial assets. The First Start. „ '{^ ve years ago the Galloway Flat, a 2000-acre expanse of low lying country, bounded by the Manuherikia river on the one side, and the rac?i. ran ?j °£ £ e other, formed part J 1 i Galloway Station. It pastured a few sheep and returned no more than they could yield. Its surtaoe was strewn with boulders disngured by scab weed and incapable °t growing anything except the scantiest of native grasses. The railway line ran through one of the most cheerless .and desolate looking areas in the interior of Otago, and season after season passed bringing little more than a few pounds of wool per acre and a carcass or two of mutton. To-day the picture is one of prosperity and progress. The transition t0 iacerne been effected, and thousands of pounds per year come into the district in payment tor the cream which is daily railed to Dunedin. The per cow butterrat average at the present time is approximately 2501b, which, considered as being worth Is 4d per lb, makes every cow worth about £ls per annum. c respect to this butter-fat yield, it should be remembered that Central SV S a . t a disadvantage with the regions m that it enjoys a very much shorter season. The dairying year commences late and concludes iTK atiTely r ly -- J** »»SSS3- « peTO nl *° m . ght mont hs. The L 6O ! 7 make it imposts & "i*? much ear Her W Jii last week in August o r the first week in September. Heavy Handicaps. A significant fact about the dairv %mer m Central Otago is that onl y Ae extreme of Pre^ls ' but by the the uenS 11 - ° f ° The extent of iSSI? re S?i rd to heat is his * J 3 ' per aero, while wintjiT i™ P a y for the cold climate in curtailing his producing wilf circumstances it average TSmS"! the bu^r " fat consiiWnW ■ P 6l cow > which is average isVver^f 58 ' ° f I>omi,lion . dSriot »"«"»««• i» "M& feto"jJSS* °l toe in use in t&o * J* a Jersey,

usual conditions Sheep profitable on such are the rule at the prcseot_faa^g^^^| the initial venturer in fruit 'wfflWl that wore made on the fafcffijjjjlMHaß from, promising. The result lore, a general change-cv«t lug, so that at ,1 he and pigs bold in «: reg^'^mjHHH characterised by the farming methods in OtegK' The most significant 80>{k9H|H tard to the uring the past 10 found in the changed the land. Before daiiyinrfUMMHH lished the capital value « way Flat could be 10s per acre. ,-To-diqr-jS lqftaflijHHH mate tfould be £3O has baen accomplished less than 10 years. , ,S|^l The industry has bees the: past threeyw*, season dairying