WHEAT PROSPECTS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22081, 1 May 1937, Page 10

WHEAT PROSPECTS

EFFECT OF MERCHANTS' APPEAL

The Ministerial promise that if production costs should increase there will be a revision in the fixed price of wheat for next season has appealed to some farmers, who have expressed their intention of increasing their acreages. The merchants' appeal, however, should add strength to the Minister's request. It is rather a pity that the prospect of a decreased area was not more patent to the authorities a month or two earlier, which would have enabled the full weight of the merchants' appeal to be secured. Witn their assistance in the providing or seed and in finance generally the nrospects of a better acreage would have been much brightened. In snme districts in North Canterbury there will be a better sowing than intended. "Straggler" has heard of one farmer who intends sowing 100 arres where no wheat has been for some years. In several cases an increase cf 50 acres is contemplated, and there an? reveral cases where an extra paddock is being considered. It is to be feared that in the pggregate the increase will not offset the areas which are reported in South Canterbury, and also in Ashburton, to be going out of wheat. It is claimed that the reduction in Ashburton County was intruded recently to be quite substantial. One close observer, however, told the writer the other day that he believed the latest appeal wo"ld have a good effect. There is a fair amount of land turned over in the Culverden-Hawar-den diftrict. The last few weeks of good weather have helped tillage. The beginning of May brings with it a demand for seed, and probably in the course of a fortnight there will be a better idea of. the probable area. So far there is no line on which to base an ooinion except the varied opinions of farmers. There is no "wheat belt" in Canterbury, but the acreages in the various counties last yoar—the crop of 1936 should be interesting:— Acres. Cheviot .. .. 1 *l4 Amuri .. .- 5.542 Wainara .. •• 7.540 Ashley. .. •• 2.719 Oxford .. • • 3.311. Kowai . • • ■ 6.522 Rangiora .. • • 8,160 Eyre .. -• 10.280 Waimairi .. • • jjii ' Panarua .. •• 6 820 Malvern .. •• 15.830 Tawera .. • ■ 1.389 Heathcote .. • • I 4 Hslswell .. -• 522 Selwyn .. •• 4,694 Springs .. . • 3.982 Ellesmere .. • • 12,187 Mount Herbert .. 51 Wairewa .. .- 53 Akaroa .. • - Ashburton.. .. •• 65,996 Geraldine .. . - 12,152 Levels .. .. 14 057 Mackenzie .. . - 2,386 Waimate .. .. 20.041 206,041 Dominion total .. 248.639 The figures show that more than half the Canterbury area was grown south of the Rakaia river, or 114,632 acres in a total of 206,173. Anything like a movement towards reduction in this block of country would seriously affect the yield as a whole.

RUGGING SHEEP

EXTENSION IN AUSTRALIA

A number of stud sheep breeders in Canterbury have expressed interest in the practice of rugging sheep, regarding which there was a good deal of publicity last year. An Australian exchange to hand by this week's mail states that the practice, which has grown so extensively since its introduction in South Australia, has spread to Victoria and New South Wales, with results justifying the rather surprising claims made for the practice in South Australia. Quite a number of breeders of stud sheep and careful woolgrowers in Western Australia are now following the lead set them, and as a result of conversations with a number of prominent growers in the Great Southern and the Eastern wheat belt, it is evident that they regard the results as having been so satisfactory as to encourage more widespread rugging. Those farmers who have rugged a portion of their flock for- experimental purposes have been very pleased with the result, and as it has always been claimed in South Australia, they have found that rugged sheep maintain their condition better, and naturally their wool keeps cleaner, but more surprising, the experience has been that the wool grows more freely and is better nourished. One experiment in particular in the Eastern wheat belt has been a most interesting one, for conditions there have been abnormally dry, with a marked shortage of feed. Rugged sheep have been run in the same paddock as unrugged sheep from the same mob, and under the very dry, dusty conditions, the result has definitely been a payable one, and there is little doubt that more and more farmers will follow the lead set them.