Swing To Cash Cropping In North Island

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29994, 1 December 1962, Page 7

Swing To Cash Cropping In North Island

With the impact of low wool and lamb prices over the last two seasons North Island sheep farmers are definitely turning towards cash cropping. This trend is reported by Mr H. E. Garrett, reader in farm management at Lincoln College, who recently returned from a North Island tour with college students.

“An interesting development, one feels full of impUoation ior the South Island, is in the field of potatoes,’’ he says. “The Pukekohe growers, formerly confined to first earlies, are now spreading their activities to crapping potatoes in other periods of the year. This is in response to improvements in their own technique and to the closing down some 18 months ago of a canning factory in the area. “The increased and greater spread of production in Pukekohe has definitely had an effect on the Manawatu growers. Manawatu formerly grew wihat is known as midseason potatoes in the main

—that is they harvested in January, February, March, April and perhaps in May—leaving the South Island a moderately free hand in the main crop division. With Pukekohe putting more pressure on the Auckland market, Manawatu is moving more towards later picking and one feels that South Island growers will be pushed into shipping at least one month later. One cannot help but feel that if this trend is taken to its ultimate conclusion the Manawatu growers may push South Island still further back, into a position where it is producing seed potatoes, plus a much smaller export of main crops.

Incidentally Mr Robinson’s variety, the Dam Hardy, would perhaps be the most popular potato in the Manawato at present.

“The freight advantage that North Island growers have over South Island would be about £6 a ton and they are starting to appreciate this sort of advantage in these days when sheep are so much less profitable. There are areas in the north Manawatu suitable for production of seed and one cannot but feel that sooner or later some enterprising and more energetic operators will exploit these advantages to produce seed m the north. Most North Island growers speak very feelingly about the high costs of South Island seed potatoes.

“Cropping in general in the Manawatu is on the up-and-up—for instance, 800 acres of garden peas were grown for seed in the Manawatu area last season. Barley and wheat cropping are becoming more important and will continue to do so because of the relatively high prices—14s 6d for wheat and 9s to 9s 6d for feed barley. The fact that 60 bushels and more of barley can be grown by ploughing out of grass in the third week of September and putting the same area back into grass in March, is something of very great value, to say, the Manawatu sheepfarmer. “There is a prejudice amongst North Island poultrykeepers against South Island wheat. This is possibly because of the surplus feed wheats produced two years ago, when the yellow dwarf virus outbreak was so serious. The idea is fairly fixed in the minds of many North Island poultry-keepers that they have to feed selenium with South Island grains. Accordingly some of them are showing a preference for Australian wheat as against South Island and it looks as though there could be a certain amount of prejudice, if and when we South Islanders produce a surplus to go to the north. This situation might not be very far away.”