MILK SUPPLY FOR CITY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28800, 22 January 1959, Page 10

MILK SUPPLY FOR CITY

Winter Shortage Possible Milk may be in short supply in Christchurch this winter because of the serious shortage of feed for winter-producing dairy herds which has resulted front, persistent drought conditions during the spring and summer. Most dairy farmers on town milk supply have harvested only about half their normal hay requirements for winter feed, and even if rain comes soonit will be too late to provide a flush of growth to enable farmers to carry their herds easily through -the winter, or allow them to take late cuts Of hay. "The position of farmers with winter-supply herds 4s already very serious,” said Mr C. J. McFadden, chairman of directors of -Canterbury Dairy Farmers, Ltd., a producers' group which supplies most of the milk tor Christchurch, Kaiapoi and-Rang!* ora. ‘lf we strike our normal Canterbury winter, then things will be very serious indeed.” Since January 1, two farmers in his group h«d been forced to sell tltefr .®®fo-?Jtecau»e of lack of SSSk.and a third had given notice that'he would be doinglikewise at the end, of March— ‘and you can expect s few more to follow church would have to draw milk supplies from Dunedin or Wellington during the winter to augment local production, Mr McFadden said. As there was virtually nd dairy production north of the Ashley, or south and west of Christchurch beyond Templeton and Hornby, those two centres were the only other source of supply for Christchurch. Shortage of Hay Hay is in extremely short supply for local dairy farmers at the moment. Many depend each year on buying in enough hay to enable their herds to maintain production through the winter. ‘‘They have not been able to obtain their requirements this season, and they have little hope of doing so,” Mr McFadden said. One farmer at Allandale—an area hit particularly hard by the drought—was reported yesterday to have arranged for delivery of 700 bales of hay from as far afield as Queenstown in order to obtain feed for his dairy herd. Besides being scarce, hay is also expensive at the moment. Ryegrass hay is costing from 8s to 9s a bale, and lucerne hay from Ils to 12s a bale. In some areas, lucerne hay has been selling aS high as 17s 6d a bale. Buying hay at these prices makes feeding a dairy herd through the winter very expensive. While hay. is in shobt supply, chou-moellier, swedes, and other supplementary winter fodder crops for dairy herds are either very backward through lack of rain, or have made no growth at all. Some farmers have not even been able to sow such crops, as paddocks have been too dry. J to make drilling seed worth while.