WAIKATO FARMERS HARVESTING WHEAT

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28802, 24 January 1959, Page 14

WAIKATO FARMERS HARVESTING WHEAT

“Th* Press” Special s«rt>le«

HAMILTON, January 23. Five acres of wheat have been harvested at the Ruakura Animal Research Station—the season’s first crop in the Waikato. Altogether 900 acres of wheat are waiting to be harvested in the Waikato and Thames Valley districts.. A year ago practically nobody in the Waikato was thinking of wheat growing, regarding it as a prerogative of South Island farmers. But the call to diversify farm crops, after the collapse of the dairy products market in England, focused attention on wheat grow.tog. ri -."Ot;/ ■:« ><’? jtawM The drive for a new type of crop ; has been led: by Government departments, farmers, and by a firm of farm Implement importers, which arranged for harvesting combines to operate in the area this summer. Five Varieties Mr H. A. Browning, of the field crop section of the soil research station staff, who supervised the Ruakura wheat experiment, said five varieties of wheat had been grown—four New Zealand types and the Australian “Gabo” variety. In two acres at the centre oi the plot there was one part oi Gabo to four parts of the New Zealand varieties—Tainui, Hilgendorf, Aotea and Arawa. The whole plot was estimated to produce 70 bushels of wheat to the acre, compared With an average crop of 40 bushels. Last year. Mr I. L Elliott, superintendent of the Rukuhia Soil Research Station, grew three acres of Gabo wheat purely as an experiment, and found it worth while. He has taken a keen interest in the harvesting of the Ruakura crop. At Te Awamutu, Hamilton. Cambridge. Matamata and Thame; a number of meetings were held at the beginning of the season and were addressed by Mr Elliot! and Mr C. Tebb. economic advisei of the Meat and Wool Board and former farm manager at Canterbury Agricultural College. Coloured films were shown oi harvesting operations, particularly of machines working under difficult conditions in the South Island Areas of Waikato and Thamei Valley wheat gradually grew t< 900 acres and rye grass and clovei

crops to 140 acres. It was then decided to import two combine harvesters, as there was a great deal of travelling between farms. Speaking- for the firm that is providing the harvesters, Mr D. S. Bisley said: “If the wheat, crops are of good quality— and * that appears likely—it could mean hard cash in the Waikato farmers' 1 pockets. . , • <. “Even if the Waikato wheat crop is not of a high enough quality - it could be sold as fowl food,'an4 there is a good market for that'" in the South Auckland area,” ha said. “One and a half millin bushels were used last yaar.’ 1 , < < Mr Bisley said that- grnffi« wb other crops’—such as oats, 'cfeHy - and ryegrass—would also triesn. farmers could boost their incomes. without substantially reducing file ' number of cows they carried- : “The crop used mainly In the Waikato and Thames Valley sow. ings was the Australian Gabo variety, but this type was, act as high-yielding as the Aotea the best kind for New ZedeM conditions. “There was only a small quantity of Aotea. sufficient only for experimental work, but this Is the wheat with the greatest possibilities for I Waikato farmers,” he said. Only the fact that the harvesting combines were available to travel from farm to farm made it possible for farmers to experiment with a wheat crop without entailing very high initial capital expenditure. ( Wheat harvested at Rugkur* will be stored for a few MH* J and during this period it wffl he inspected by millers, who will decide whether or not It 1* suitable for milling. If it is considered suitable, then ’ 1 North Island people who eat wholemeal bread may wet! be 1 consuming Waikato and Hames f Valley wheat