NOTES BY THE WAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22340, 2 March 1938, Page 15

NOTES BY THE WAY

THE EWE FAIRS The impression that prices at the Amberley ewe fair would be better than most farmers expected was definitely borne out at Monday’s sale. Few expected such a pronounced advance for older sheep. The general opinion, indeed, was that any pronounced rise was more likely to concern twp-tooths. for the apparently good reason that fewer were advertised, and it is an accepted fact that there are not so many two-tooths about this season. The Japanese purchases accounted for a matter of 8000 from the province and Otago. This in itself is not a, great number,, but it is believed that the Japanese buyers are coming again this season. a greater influence than this in the ewe strength is that high-country losses were heavy last winter, and replacement with younger sheep is necessary. The preponderance of old ewes is undoubtedly due to a cause previously mentioned—that there has been little forward buying this season. As a result, farmers who generally supplied their wants from the ewes bought at the northern fairs and reoffered further south, realise the risk of not attending the earlier fairs and securing their requirements. The possibility of being “left” perhaps had an influence on the buyer of one-year ewes. A cause of the heavy entry of old sheep, no doubt, was that the high prices last year caused the retention of more old ewes on the farm. These have now got to be sold. Fortunately the excellent feed season has allowed these ewes to come forward in much better order than usual. “Straggler” has rarely seen a better conditioned lot in the years he has been attending the fairs. The twotooths did not impress to the same extent. It would be a rather disagreeable reflection if this is due to the deterioration of the younger sheep. Their smallness and moderate condition on Monday may be put down almost solely to the hard winter. It is rather remarkable that the margin between the top prices of the last two fairs should be the same for both two-tooth and four-year sheep—los a head. On an average, however, the actual difference was little more than half this figure. Whilst the classy pens of two-tooths on Monday were competed for very strongly, there was no disposition to pay fancy prices. With wool and mutton at the prices ruling last year, there was more encouragement for buyers to go to the extreme of commercial limits. In addition to the lower prices for produce this season is the general uncertainty and the higher farming costs and taxation. Ewes, however, are a farmer’s capital, and no matter what the price of wool and lamb may be. he has got to have them, or *0 out of business. This is the determining factor in prices, and the farmer has simply to accept the position. If there were some assurance that internal costs would cease their upward swing, a point on which farmers, like most other people, are in the dark, they need not fear that Monday’s prices are uneconomical, unless, of course, prices of lamb and won' should drop heavily. The fear with ni-nv is not from without, but from within. . BACK COUNTRY TOPDRESSING

It is fairly certain that, insufficient consideration is given to the value of top-dressing in the improvement ot the pasture on many of our backcountry stations. One should hasten to explain, though perhaps unnecessarily, that this'observation does not apply to rugged country or even com* parativfely easy faces. It applies to the cultivable land of which most stations accessible by road contain a proportion. An Illustration of the possibilities in this respect was provided “Straggler'* the Other day in the pasture establishment methods being pursued on Mr H. El. Jessep’s Peak Hill station, situated about 18 to 20 miles up the Hakaia river irom the Gorge bridge The station comprises about 4000 acres, of which 400 to 000 acres ore cultivable flats, the altitude of the property ranging Irom 2000 to about 5000 feet. A start was made about 16 years ago with grassing the flats, but the pasture reverted back to sweet vernal and similar more or less worthless plants. About six years ago Mr Jessep, having a few bags of super left over from the turnip sowing, spread it in strips over one paddock, and the response was marked, particularly of white clover. The difference between the top-dressed arid tile native could be picked out a long distance away. A start was then made with top-dressing annually with Ucwt of super to the acre. In the second year the grasses commenced to come In, and the sward of feed on the 130 acres treated so far has gone a long way m carrying the stock of the run and improving their wool and lamb production. It is in this latter respect rather than that of numerical carrying capacity by which the improvement in the property is measured. The run has carried 1300 ewes, from which 1100 lambs were reared this season, 600 being ewes, previously all lambs were sold as stores. This season, for the first time on record, about half the wether lambs were got away to the works off their mothers and the remainder are in good forward condition for putting on to rape. There has been a marked improvement in the condition and constitution of the ewes, and in the six years the Wool weight has increased from a 6lb to 7lb average to B*lb to 91b. The caste ewes have been sold at a correspondingly bettfei price. In addition there has been an Improvement, in the lambing of up to 10 It P has C to n be remembered that all this improvement has been secured oh the 130 acres top-dressed. This seasoh, at the beginning of October. 600 ewes and thelt lambs were put on the area, and since the beginning Novenmar the remaining 700 ewes and their lambs have also been put on, and .have been carried to date. For that period of more than four months the carrying capacItv works out at 10 ewes with their lambs an acre. The ewes had a riverbed 1 run off, but nothing additional. This works out at about four sheep an acre. This year 200 extra sheep will be carried. Mr Jessep s experience is that it takes two annual dressings to achieve definite results. It was after the second dressing that the ryegrass and cocksfoot .commenced to show up with the clover. He has top-dressed with Ucwt annually since. Thp i results have decided Mr Jessep toerass all his cultivable land, and bring it under ton-dressing. b The value of this illustration is that many station properties mclude flms ariri valleys which could be subjected to similar treatment, and so improve ihpir productivity as a whole. In the matter of the economy of the process, ?hp e«tra weight of wool or the addi£3l lamtog would considerably more than pay the cost. CHILLED BEEF ! The high price of forward steers at the Addington market in relation to the values for fat, cattle has been a feature for some time. However, the ocsition in Hawke’s Bay indicates, n j Still stronger store market, due there however, to the demand for chilled I

beef. For grown young cattle up to £ll 8s was paid for two lines at the last Stortford Lodge sale. Two year dehorned Heretoras were sold In straight lines at £lO Is, and breeding cows with calves at foot at £9 Bs, These lines were apparently all dehorned, which is worth quite 20s of the price paid. Empty cows in good store condition were sold at £7 4s. The fat cattle prices in Hawke's Bay are moving in sympathy with those for stores, and the best of the beef was sold at up to 37s 6d per 1001b last week. , The dearth of both fat and store bullocks in Exwke’s Bay, the Bay of Plenty, and the Waikato, is due to the steady encroachment in the last few years of the chilling industry. Station lines of Hawke’s Bay store cattle are better bred than those that generally come into the Addington market. In the north these big lines come direct irom the stations on which they are bred, whereas only a proportion of cattle offered in the south possess this advantage. Another point worth repeating is that the great bulk of the northern cattle. are dehorned. It was expected that chilling for export would be commenced in Canterbury this season. Apart from the payability of catering for it, which the position in the north has demonstrated, the development of the Industry would do much to ensure the practice of general dehorning. The Meat Board’s report of killings from the beginning of October to mid-February shows that 83,120 quarters of chilled beef were shipped compared with 67,157 for the corresponding period last year. This represents for this year more than 20,000 head, and at the moderate price of £lO a head the value represented in this side line of North Island production is . more than £200,000. In addition the export of frozen carcases from the North Island in the period specified was 10,678 as against 8463 in the corresponding period the previous year. Not one cattle beast has been killed in the South Island so far this year for export. It is recognised that if the export of chilled beef were seriously undertaken in the south there would not be a great number of the class of cattle available to supply it. The reproach is being removed by who are now obtaining better bulls, but quality cannot be established in a day. The North Island chilled beef export is increasing so rapidly that any doubts as to Its payability and permanency should be dispelled. South Island breeders should benefit from knowledge of these facts and dn a certain amount of “getting ready.’’ RED POLLS dairying performances

Red Rolls were exhibited to excellent advantage at the two great dairy shovs held recently in London* one at Islington, which is the Old-estab-lished fixture of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association, and at the new show organised at Olympia. At Islington the Rea Poll breed had two eight-gallon cows, the only others to reach this quant'ty being the British Frieaians. Furthermore. Red Polls, as hitherto, maintained their reputation for high-quality milk of the cows and heifers, wh'ch averaged 4.13 per cent, in butter-fat and 0.4 ucr cen'. in solids other than butter-fat. On - ? of the Inler-breed cups was taken bv a Red Poll, namely, by Mr Stuart Paul’s five-year-old cow. Kirton Sundial. which had Been winning at the summer shows. This wealthy and heavy milk oroducer. which yielded 2130 gallons last year, averaged 83.71b of milk, with 4.14 per cent, butter-fat. Besides winning first prize and silver medal, in the butter test, she won the cup open to all breeds for the cow paining the highest points on inspection in milk and butter tests for three consecutive years. Her nearest rival was the nine-year-old Morston CRH 14th. belonging to Colonel H. E. Hambro. another Suffolk exhibitor, that produced within half a pound of 801b of 4.17 per cent, butter-fat milk. AMBBRLEY EWE FAIR In the final sales of the Amberley ewe fair oh Monday the top price of the day—3Bs—was equalled for twotooth ewes sold by Inkson Bros. fWa)paraV. The ewes were halfbreds and there were 73 in the pen.