YOUNG BRITISH FARMER

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27564, 22 January 1955, Page 8

YOUNG BRITISH FARMER

IMPRESSIONS OF N.Z. „ METHODS SPONSORED VISIT TO DOMINION To find dairy cattle being fed almost entirely on grass has impressed a young farmer from England, who has arrived in Canterbury after spending three months in the North Island. “That is something rather amazing to us at Home, where we have to feed our stock inside for five or six months of the year,” said Mr Colin Thomson, who works on an 850-acre mixed arable farm in Cambridge, in Christchurch yesterday afternoon. His visit to New Zealand has been sponsored by Yourig Farmers’ Club organisations in England and the Meat and Wool Board in New Zealand. For two years before he began his trip he was chairman of the Trumpington Young Farmers’ Club. ’ Mr Thomson said that with a labour shortage on New Zealand farms the emphasis in this country seemed to be on production "per man, while at home it is per acre,” In Taranaki he said he had seen two men milk 104 cows in 104 minutes. It was a feat that he would always remember. Milking was nonetheless done just as quickly on English farms on the average as in New Zealand, he said, but toe time absorbing side of dairy cattle handling in England was the feeding. They could be milked in four minutes, but they could ,not be fed toe required quantities of concentrates in toe same b “ e ’ really think that farmers out here are very lucky with their farming,” he said. “They do not have toe same severe winters as we have, ana consequently they do not have to spend the same tune preparing for winter feeding. It means that taey can spend more time producing other things. Different Methods On toe whole, Mr Thomson thinks that differences in climate make toe employment of methods of farming he has seen in New Zealand rather difficult in the United Kingdom but he believes that some aspects of handling sheep which have been developed for large flocks could be as well used with small flocks in England. methods of treating footrot in sheep was something he felt could usefully be followed in England. Coming from a part of the country where mobs of sheep rarely number more than 500, he was impressed with the sight of 2000 sheep being handled by two njen and a team of dogs in the Rotorua area. Mr Thomson said he. had not heard in England,of shearing gangs like those employed in New Zealand. There, he said, shearing was generally done by the shepherd and because he never had.to handle more than about 260 sheep the shepherd did not develop a very great shearing speed. By comparison with New Zealand, sheep shearing rates were very much slower. “There are about 24,000,000 sheep back home,” he said, “but they are split up into a great many very small flocks.” In Mr Thomson’s view the small labour force on New Zealand farms means that young men have more opportunities to get on than in England. A young man setting out on a farming career in England with no resources might be an old man by the time he got on to his own farm, he said. “With share-milking and the like in this country you really have wonderful opportunities.” Mr Thomson has found the Young Farmers’ Club movements in England and New Zealand very similar, except that in England young farming women are admitted to the organisation. Mr Thomson considers there are advantages in having women in the movement.

Until the end of the month Mr Thomson will remain in the North Canterbury district. At the end of the month he will go to South Canterbury, and after visiting Southland and Otago will leave for Australia where he will spend a few weeks before returning to England after an absence of 10 months.