Storage Silos For Timara Proposed

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29798, 14 April 1962, Page 8

Storage Silos For Timara Proposed

The Timaru Harbour Board yesterday announced its willingness to set aside land for wheat silos near its new berthage at Timaru.

The chairman of the board (Mr W. H. Hall) told the committee of Inquiry into the wheat, flour and bread industries that his board believed bulk storage and drying of wheat at Timaru would serve the whole of South Canterbury, and the saving in shipping costs in one year would pay the capital costs of erecting silos that could handle 2 million bushels in a season. Mr Hall asked the committee to consider this proposal to overcome difficulties of storage and driers. To encourage farmers to grow more wheat continuous driers were needed. The requirement that farmers store wheat on their own properties until November, if necessary, was a deterrent to many when examining the economics of’ changing to growing wheat. Bulk storage at the port could also handle surplus production from all other South Island areas, said Mr Hall. A schedule attached to the board’s submission noted that railage costs from Dunedin, Oamaru and Christchurch to Timaru were all less than the extra cost of shipping wheat in bags compared with bulk shipments.

“Within a radius of 60 miles is the greatest wheat-growing

It recommended that millers be encouraged to replace plant and keeip abreast of modern milling methods in order to meet future requirements.

.The statement discussed the transfer of milling quotas from the South to the North Island when wheat production in the south was at a low ebb The expectation that the quantity of wheat grown in the South Island would increase to make it economic to mill it in <he South for supply to the North had been fulfilled with the last two wheat crops, it said.

district in New Zealand and this area, by the provision of suitable storage and drier facilities in a central position, could produce far greater crops of wheat,” said Mr Hall.

A further schedule put the estimate of savings on handling wheat in bulk from Timaru to Auckland at Is 5d over the handling of bagged wheat. On 2 million bushels this saving would be £141,666 a year, said Mr Hall. The schedule also showed that a bagged shipment of 5000 tons handled by five gangs at the rate of 10 tons a gang each hour would take nine days to load and nine days to discharge. The handling rate at Auckland of 31 tons a gang-hour ivould discharge the 5000 tons of bulk wheat in three days. At an average ship-day cost of £3OO, the saving’ with the bulk shipment would be £4200, according to the schedule. Cost Of Silos Based on the cost to the Timaru Milling Company, Ltd., of £40,000 for erecting silos to store 90,000 bushels, silos to store say 250,000 bushels would cost approximately £125,000, he said. These should be sufficient to handle at least 2 million bushels in a season.

The schedule on shipping costs showed that labour costs on bagged wheat shipped from Timaru to Auckland were 40s 6d a ton, and those for bulk wheat would be 5s 2d for ship labour at Auckland.

In reply to a question from a memtier of the committee (Mr R. G. Compton), Mr Hall said that he believed the labour costs for loading at Timaru would be infinitesimal.

A supporting submission was made by a member of the board, Mr G. C. Craig. The change to bulk handling had been slower in South Canterbury mainly because of climatic conditions, he said. Storage and drying facilities would encourage the change.