SEED PRODUCTION IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25609, 25 September 1948, Page 5

SEED PRODUCTION IN BRITAIN

DIFFICULTIES FACED BY FARMERS

The problems of the British farmer at haymaking and harvest times are many and probably the most trying is the indifferent weather, said Mr E. T. Beaven this week. Mr Beaven returned to New Zealand recently after a business trip to Great Britain and the United States. A farmer at Winchester, Mr John Rowsell, who was in New Zealand in February on a Nuffield Trust grant, was a young energetic man who had mechanised his farm to a stage where it compared favourably with, and was even ahead of anything in New Zealand.

Mr Rowsell’s grain and grassdressing plants were both modern, and probably worth between £BOOO and £lO,OOO, but dried grass meal was worth £3O a ton to the producer. This high capital cost for drying equipment for crop and hay was necessary because Great Britain’s weather rarely allowed him to harvest crop or hay under 20 per cent, of moisture. As far as he could gather, said Mr Beaven, the moisture often went higher. Occasionally in a dry summer, such as experienced in north-west conditions in Canterbury, the moisture would undoubtedly be lower. When it was remembered that the average moisture content of crop in New Zealand averaged about 15 per cent, it would be appreciated that anything that would lower the moisture content of crop and hay in the United Kingdom would save fuel and time in drying units. It was that aspect that appealed to Mr Rowsell when he saw films of the New Zealand patented and produced aerator, while in this country. The method of drying out a swarth in the field so impressed him that he promptly ordered one for his own farm.

In a letter to Mr Beaven recently Mr Rowsell indicated that bad weather had again affected the harvest and that the aerator had obviously been a saving grace. In his letter Mr Rowsell remarked that the harvest for seeds was the worst he could remember, except perhaps 1946. Difficulties were experienced with the Customs Department so Mr Rowsell sent his own lorry to collect the aerator and had it working the next day. In spite of the bad weather Mr Rowsell said he had managed to save most of the cereals and almost all the seeds.

Designed and New Zealand manufactured seed dressing machinery has been sent to the United Kingdom for many years and the report on the introduction of the aerator indicates again the premier position New Zealand occupies in the production of good seed and also in procuring and processing machinery so necessary to the industry..