FARM AND STATION

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20334, 5 September 1931, Page 8

FARM AND STATION

ADDINGTGN MARKET. WEDNESDAY'S SALE. ] Flocks arc now in the lambing season, , and entries in the store sheep section ] at Addington market do not attract a great deal of attention. On Wednesday j the supplies "were small, and with the j exception of a proportion of two-tooth ewes in lamb, were of very nondescript appearance. These ewes penned up well and interest in their sale was keen. They were April-mated, from Darficld, and were a very even and attractive line of 177, and sold at 17s. The price indicates that the ewes have come through the winter well, and that there is money about for lines of good quality. Good two-tooth ewes at the figure are probably the best buying proposition offering, for the farmer knows that ho has secured an asset that will las£ for some years. In regard to the market otherwise it was dull and dragging for all inferior or doubtful consignments, but there was no easing in values. Prices have retained an even basis for the last few sales, although there is a great deal of cautiousness in the bidding, the general tone is one of confidence in the present values. The almost complete absenceof ewe hoggets from recent markets is an indication that there is plenty of feed available to enable them to be carried along. The following range gives a comparison of values ruling this week with values ruling at the corresponding market last year:— Sept. J. Sept. 2. 1930. 1031. j. «. s. s. Ewes — Ex. good '.Mli Corriednlo .. - to iHu ~ Good 2-th *bd 24 to 35* 15i to 17 Ord. 3 and 4-th &b<2 . . to 22i • Good 6 and 8-th £bd .. 232 to 2*5 Ord 6th jjbd . . to 18 Good B.in. ibd . . ■— Ord. B.m. ibd . . to 14J 9 to 13 Good 3-th Sbtl to 2«5 -- Ord. 6 and 8-th 3bd . . to 18 to 142 Ex. good s.m. Roinney .. to 24 -■-■ / Good hoggets .. to 202 . Ord. hoggets .. to 17 J - Wether* — „. . ~ Forward 6-tb . . to 21 t" 1* Hoggets .. 12 to 15 There was a normal entry of fat sheep-r-4700 head—but it appeared to be slightly more' than was required. The market was a fairly keen one, there being no quotable change in values. Heavy types and light-weights were not so keenly.sought, most attention from buyers being concentrated on med-inm-if eigh'tß. Wether a — . ' , Ex. prime heavy to 41 ~-. to --} ■Prime heavy' .. 31 to 35 16 to ITS Medium •• "<• *» 3<J ' 3 *° iif Light . ■ to SC 10 to 135 Eves — , . ... ¥,x. prime .. lo 33* Jo 103 Prim© .. 24 to 28 16 to 17J Medium .. 20 to 28 14 to lob Light • • 16* to 19 101 to 13J Aged ' • ■ 18 * t0 16 Si t0 10 Fat Cattle. There was an easing in beef values of up to a head. The entry was

quite in excess of requirements, a total of 380 head being yarded. A feature of this year's wintor markets for beef has been the falling off in the buying power of butchers, due doubtless to their businesses being seriously affected by the difficult financial situation. In 1929 and most of 1930 the average size for a normal beef entry was about 430 head. At the present time the supply to satisfy trade requirements can be assessed at 330 head. A factor in the depression of the market here this winter has been the consistently heavy supplies from the North Island, which have created a surfeit. On Wednesday there was a consignment of over 60 head forward, which included a few cows ana a splendid line of heifers. The average price secured for them indicates that the proposition of bringing them down here wolud not show much of a Teturn to vendors. This seems especially so in view of the repor.t that beef values in the North have advanced. The quality of Wednesday's entry was not as good on the average as has been the case at recent markets. The inferior and pooriy finished sort's met with a very (fragging sale at reduced prices.

By "Straggler."

RURAL RIDES, j THE SBFTON DOWNS. THE 1932 WHEAT SURPLUS. , Bv H.A.M.) i ■ " i .NO. XLVII. A wheat-growing district which doos not come much into the limelight, but which, nevertheless, is a consistently good producer, is the Sefton Downs. Hurling by car along the Main North road in the springtime, there are few more appealing agricultural districts than these green downs, with their background of hills and flanked away in the distance by the snow-covered ranges. At this early stage of the Benson there is not much green to bo seen, but the high country stands out in a solid white mantle, and one is left to speculate on the effect the apparently hard conditions up there liavo had on flocks. However, the Sef lou ilut. :uut the downs are looking well for this stage of the season. Wheat has come through well, and there are enough evidences of the recent liberal rain to ensure that crops should make good progress. Though not as far forward as they might bo, th6y are looking healthy and vigorous, and it needs only a little of the weather that prevailed yesterday to bring them along rapidly. A few small patches of depressions have retained the water, and the crops in these instances bear the appearance of being drowned out. However, these are ouly patches. The clay subsoil is indisposed to absorb more than an ordinary precipitation, and to. farmers who have bad experience of drain ploughing in the south on similar class land, the Sefton Downs appeal as suitable for the same process. Possibly, however, the excess rainfall in the district is not a worry and the drainage is ample. Generally there are various signs on a roadside of the quality of the land adjoining. One is the growth of the better grasses, but in the downs district another indication is provided by the sod fences, which the old hands built "40, 50, 60 years ago," as the old Jong has it. When the fences stand solidly without any wearing away it is a fair indication that there is body in the land. When they crumble away it is an' indication of the reverse. There is a substantial area in crop in the district, and a good deal of land is turned over. Ordinarily it would be assumed that a proportion of this land is destined for linseed, but growers had a rather unfortunate market experience of this crop last year, and it is possiblo that most of the area being worked will be devoted to some other crop. Through the Kaiapoi, Woodend, Waikuku, and Eangiora districts the young wheat is looking healthy, if somewhat backward • in some cases. 1932 Wheat Surplus. | There is a general fear amongst wheat growers that the, largo acreage in crop for 1932 will result in a heavy

carry-over, which may help to depress | prices below the Government's minimam figure of 4s 6d or 4s 9d, and generally embarrasß the marketing of the crop. With an ordinary season, there is every likelihood of a surplus. The writer's visits to various districts point to him the soundness of this conclusion. Land has been turned over that has been in pasture for years, and no other cereal is attractive enough to encourage farmers to grow it. Oats have been, and are practically unsaleable when they should be in demand —-in winter for feed, and in spring for seed —and barley is not wanted. Various estimates of the wheat area sown and being sown range up to 800,000 acres, or 07,000 acres more than last year. Possibiy this estimate may be somewhat' extreme, as in some cases the position of farmers is such that they have difficulity in securing seed, to complete their cropping programme." This disability conceivably may affect the sowing of a few thousand acres. There are causes that may operate against the production of a surplus of the magnitude feared in some quarters. One is that when the wheat area is extended over 250,000 acres, it brings in a good deal of the lighter land, on which the average yield normally is nearer 20 than 30 bushels to the acre. This would reduce the general average. Another point is that there has not been the same amount of fertilising this season as last. Actual farm pradtice has shown this last two years that superphosphate secures an average increase of four to six bushels to the acre, and as the" proportion of the total crop fertilised in Canterbury last season was 80 per cent, it can be seen that a reduction in yield per acre, from tho

SOUTH AMERICA. SHEEP-FARMING IN j CHILE. A NEW- ZEALANDER'S | EXPERIENCE. I i Mv R. Matheson, an ex-Neiv Zealander, who has been employed for a number of years on a Chilean sheep farm, writes to a Santerbury friend of his experiences in that country. Quite a number of young New Zoalanders arc employed on sheep stations in the Eepublicß of Argentina and Chile, and interest should attach to the big scale methods in vogue there. Mr Matheson writes: To begin wit'i. the company I work for has something like 1,200,000 sheep, besides 15,000 head of cattle and some 9000 horses. These } animals are divided between 11 different j farms ranging somewhere about 946,000 hectares, which multiplied by three will give you an idea the amount of land in acres. Of course, these figures are only approximate, but you will see that it i 3 no small concern. In fact, it is supposed to be the largest sheep-farm-ing company in the world. To give you an idea of how sheepfarming is carried out here I will mention a few instances about this farm, which is now only half its original size, owing to subdivision two years back. For all that it still carries about 80,000 sheep, which are mostly all crossbred Corriedale and Romncy Marsh. The farm has about 125,000 hectares of pasture land, with no bush on i t, and nearly all hilly country. ; Generally speaking, about 40,000 ewes are kept for breeding purposes. Lambing takes place during the early days of October, and marking, which lasts about ten days, is carried out in November. Marking time is a time of longhours for all those doing the work, which begins at daybreak or 2 a.m. and continues until the flock is finished; each flock ranges from 2000 to 5000 ewes, according to the size of the camp (paddock). Each camp has three or four marking pens sufficiently large enough to hold, about 2000 sheep at a time, which may have been driven a two hours' journey before reaching the pen (corral). The Mustering. The mustering gang will consist of about eight men on horseback, who out here are called shepherds, but believe me the majority of them would not be allowed to do shepherding out your way. Before the last war, all the shepherds were from tho Old Country, and consisted of English, Scots, and Irishmen, but during the war, many left to fight for their country, never to return again. Through this the Chilean managed to work his way into jobs that were formerly held by foreigners. The pens or corrals are, as a rule ; V-shape with a large mothering pen at the far end, and may be 50yds long in all. The gang generally marks a fresh camp every day, and of course, the whole outfit is transported from oue camp' to another with horse-waggon or bullock carts. The horse teams are six to a team. The bullock cart is made up with three or four yokes, and is of the Spanish style, such as the wooden yoke strapped to the animal's horns. Prom lamb-marking until shearing. i which begins in December, and lasts from four to six weeks, there is not a lot of movement in the stock line, and the shepherds do little else but ride around their camps, skinning any dead sheep. If the sheep are too far gone for skining the wool is plucked off the carcase by hand and brought into the settlement. Besides skinning, the shepherd must keep a look-out that the fences ara in a sound condition. Should they not bo too badly broken, he mends them himself, otherwise, he advises the main

cause stated, is probable. However, taking the area at 300,000 acres, an average of 30 bushels would return 9,000,000 bushels. Even with a reduced fowl feed consumption of wheat, which is probable on account of the importation of foreign feed, this would leave less than half a million bushels as a surplus, and millers in the normal seasons of the past, even when prices were high, have not been perturbed with this weight. It is improbable that 1933 and subsequent wheat prices will be lower than those of 1932, so that under the more stabilised price condition* that should rule in futuro a moderate carry-over should not cause much con.* cem. A Useful Rain. The rain over last week-end was of immense value in the southern end of the province and in I\orth Otago. Across the Waitaki the autumn and winter have -been the driest for years, and there have been instances of crops sown in May that are only through the ground. A farmer friend who was in the district at the beginning of the week told the writer yesterday that a really good rain on Saturday with further falls on Sunday and Monday completely altered prospects, which were commencing to look serious. The limestone country of North Otago is quick to respond in the spring to favourable conditions, and normal prospects have now been re-established. As [in South Canterbury there appears to bo an increased area in crop. Fowl Feed. I reader questioned the writer wi an in the Rangiora district yesterday regarding the fowl feed proportion of the wheat crop, reference to which was contained in an article on wheat supplies, in the Commercial Page of The Puksb on Thursday. As stated in the article there is no direct method of ascertaining the proportion of wheat devoted to poultry. The indirect method is to take off the milling and seed requirements and the balance presumably goes to stock feed, the great bulk of it to poultry. Worked out under this principle the figures for a number o£ years, after deducting the milling and seed requirements from the supplies of wheat, shows the following balances available (presumably) oaa 1925, 1,685,198 bushels; 1926, 1,427,288 bushels; 1927, 364,673 bushels; 1928, 1,813,300 bushels; 1929 (when there was again a very heavy crop) 3,188,846 bushels. Tho estimated carry-over at the end of February, 1929, was H million bushels, loaving for other purposes than milling and seed 1,188,846 bushels, or something over the average of the preceding four years. Under the altered conditions of the poultry industry, however, it would be unwise to calculate on such a proportion, of the crop going to poultry feed in the future, even if tho practice of feeding undergrade wheat to other stock extends. The Jersey Bull. Sonic time ago the writer inspected a Jersey herd which was lorded over by an imported bull not long from the Jersey Islands. The owner of the herd was inclined to be facetious at tho writer's obvious conc-ern at the relative dis- : tancos between himself and the fence, the bull and himself—and the bull and the fence. The writer had an experience on one occasion when he had lost some of his youthful form. It is rather remarkable that whilst the

most docile of animals is the Jersey i cow, the most treacherous is the Jersey : bull, particularly the imported gentle- : man. The placidity of the Shorthorn, the Friesian, and even the Ayrshire is ' notable in comparison. These observa- ' tions are recalled by the tragic occurrence in Hawke's Bay the other day,. : when a herd-owner was frightfully ; gored by a Jersey bull, which, we are stupidly told, "never before showed any viciousness." Of course these bulls never do. Once is enough. In the absence of dehorning, to which there seems an objection by breeders of stud cattle, there is one useful protection—a long-handled pitchfork. It instils a lot of bovine even if it docs appear unsporty by some of our goodmeaning people. .— \ HEALTHY COWS ARE PROFITABLE. 4 —__ Cattle diseases, if unchecked, eat up all the profits. Stop this unnecessary waste by frequent drenching with Sykes's Drench, particularly at calving time. Keep your cows healthy and tone them up after calving. Sykes's Drench used successfully by the leading breeders of New Zealand and Australia for more than 30 years, hao proved its worth. Give it a trial. May bo given in a bran mash. Sold everywhere Is 6d pkt.; 17s dozen, —5 Cluulif (Jbaplin is not bo funny as tho limn who buys wood to chop when ho can <4«t "cut and dried" kindling for ~a yd per bag of full measure! I , G. McClati-'iie and Co., Ltd., 160 Herelovd street. —1

settlement, and a couple of labourers are sent out with material to effect the necessary repairs. Each shepherd generally has a troop of six horses to ride around his flocks. One horse is not expected to work more than one day a week. These animals are not stabled >. or hand-fed, but let go in the paddock at the end of the day, and may be during that day they have been on the go from eight in the morning till three in the afternoon, and covered, say, 50 miles. It is only in the winter time that the riding horses get a little dry feeding of oats or hay, and that generally applies to the horses in the main jottlement. Out at the shanties, they do not grow oats, but if their camps have a good grassy valley they may cut a little hay for the winter feeding of their horses, otherwise the poor animal must look for himself, even if the ground is covered with snow, which very often happens in the higher country during the winter months. The Shearing. Shearing begins about December lSJth, and at this time of the year the farm will employ about a hundred hands. The number of shearers is always in accordance with the number of sheep shorn. They are paid at the rate of 17s 6d per hundred, with free food and sleeping quarters. For rams they are paid double. As a rule the number of sheep to be shorn works out about 3000 to a man, but very few shear more than 2500 in the season. This year we had 24 shearers and the best of them did from 150 to 200 sheep a day. The shearing sheds are all large enough to hold a day's shearing, which 1 ranges between 3000 and 4000 sheep a

day. To each shearer is a fleece boy. This company brings its woolclassers out from England each year. After shearing, the driving to the freezers of surplus stock takes place. These drives generally last five days to i a port, where the animals are shipped aboard a steamer to take them to the freezer. On the mainland, of course, the sheep are driven all the way by | road, and may be on the journey any- j thing up to a month. During the winter months shepherds are put out in shanties. These are generally two-roomed shacks; but in some places they have four rooms, and can be made fairly comfortable. The farm supplies the shanty, pots and pans, but the men buy their own ; provisions. Meat, of course, is free, up to a reasonable amount, say, half a sheep per man per week, which is a very large allowance. If the shanty man is married and is in the place the whole year round, he can generally get a cow on the farm, and if he is a worker in most places he can make quite a good vegetable garden. Ib the winter time very few hands are kept on the main settlement and sub-sections —only those necessary to run the camps where there are no shanties and a few labourers to do odd jobs about the settlements. The climate is too severe and will not allow for any other work to be done. On some farms there is bush, and on these places some men are given winter jobs to fell trees for firewood and posts for fencing purposes. LIME IN FEED. INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. Stockowners who lime a patch of pasture do not require to peg it off to know it again. The stock will identify it. It is remarkable the avidity with which the limed parts are grazed, indicating that there is some quality there the stock need. The use of powdered limestone and lucerne hay (a lime plant) were points investigated in recent experiments by the Animal Husbandry Section of the Kansas Agricultural Experimental Station. With regard to the use of lucerne hay, ten years ago the Kansas Station compared a ration consisting orf silage, (maize) and cottonseed meal with the standard ration, consisting of lucerne hay, silage, corn and cottonseed meal. The silage, corn and cottonseed meal ration was inferior in every way to the lucerne hay, silage, corn and cottonseed meal ration. I These results prompted further study of the value of lucerne hay in cattlefattening rations, so another test was conducted in which four lots of good-quality range-bred calves were fed 195 days. Each lot was fed silage, corn and cottonseed meaL In addition, lucerne hay was fed different lengths of time in the four lots'. L6t 1 received no lucerne hay at anytime during the test and made a profit of Bijd per head. Lot 2 received lucerne hay at the rate of 21b per head per day during the last seventy-live days of the feeding period and made a profit of 21s 3d per head. , Lot 3 received lucerne hay at the rate of 21b per head per day during the last 135 days and made a profit of 29s 3d per head. Lot 4 received lucerne hay at the rate of 21b per head per day during the entire feeding period of 195 days and made a profit of 4Cs 3d per head. This experiment demonstrated the very great value of feeding even a small amount of lucerne hay t;o cattle that are being fattenod'for market. The results secured caused us to wonder why it was so valuable (writes Mr C. W. McCampbell, Principal of the Animal Husbandry Department at Kansas State College). Its chemical analysis shows that adding lucerne to * ration adds protein.

Adding lucerno hay adds a large amount of lime. This may be emphasised by directing attention to the fact that lib of lucerne hay contains as much lime as 1001b Of shelled corn. The large amount of lime in, lucerne hay made us think that possibly the lime in lucerne hay was a major factor in determining its value in cattle-fatten-ing rations, particularly when we noted that all the other feeds in the rationsilage, corn and cottonseed meal—are low in their lime content. This speculation resulted in a test having for its main purpose a study of several different forms of lime suitable for live stock feeding purposes. Taking everything into consideration, powdered limestone containing a high percentage! of calcium carbonate (98 to 99 per cent.), proved to bo the most satisfactory. . v ,

reeding Powdered The tests up to this the possibility of replacing t&gaH lucerne hay with the lime iufl limestone. The next step imH of testa to prove or disprovfrfjflH cability of s-.ch a series was started in thqs§9|H 1925-26 and repeated dur-'g fMHH of 1926-27 and 1927-28. compared the standard of grain, cottonseed lucerne hay, with a rationygHMj o£ grain, cottonseed meal, cdljiaflH hay and ground limestone.' ' - IMjjSßj ard ration gave slightly the first two years, but theftjgjHH gave better results the The average for the favoured slightly the meal, silage, prairie hay limestone ration. , i.faMM

Steers — ,- Ex. prime, heavy Prime heavy .. — to 25J 101 to 2 2 — to 151 HI to 13 PrUne medium : Ord. quality .. Light 16 to 19 12i to 15 9J to 12 81 to 11 "61 io 81 41 to 61 Heifers^Show ■ r- .1 "Ex. prime Prime JCedium Light — to 211 _ to lOi ■ 14 to 161 111 to 13 8 to 101 " to 123 9 to 11 61 to 81 4 to 6 Cow* — to ITS — to 12 Ex. prime Prime • • Medium Lifht ,-*A 13 to 151 3 Oil to 121 7 io 10 8J to 101 6 to 8 31 to 51