Role Of N.Z.. Crops In Saving Exchange

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30156, 13 June 1963, Page 18

Role Of N.Z.. Crops In Saving Exchange

"If we leave sugar beet out of our calculations in the meantime and give little thought to soya beans and the export of processed potatoes, the only major saving of overseas exchange possible appears to be in increasing our wheat production," said Mr G. A. Nutt, of Motukarara, in his address as chairman to the annual conference of the Dominion agricultural produce section of Federated Farmers at Nelson yesterday. •‘lncreases in grass and clover seed exports are likely to be maintained, and the limited export of linseed appears to be worth examination,” Mr Nutt said.

“If, in September, the wheat acreage estimate discloses no steady upward trend, we can only conclude that the acreage curve has flattened out," said Mr Nutt. “If wool and fat lambs continue to sell at or near their present price levels, it would appear that any further substantial increase in wheatgrowing will come only as a result of Government decision. In decisions of this kind at governmental level the savings in overseas exchange must be balanced against the extra cost of the price incentive that will be required to attract greater acreage and the extra costs of transhipment of Sduth Island wheat to the North Island compared with the cost of direct importations from overseas. “As arable farmers we are vitally concerned in a decision of this kind, but since it involves the Government in various expenditures it is a decision that only the Government can make." Linseed

Mr Nutt said that in the last year enough linseed had been grown on 19,000 acres to provide for the whole of New Zealand’s.linseed oil and lin-seed-based paint requirements. and there was even a surplus to be exported. The export of unprocessed linseed was worth looking at. The surplus this year of some hundreds of tons • was likely to be disposed of without too much difficulty, and there appeared to be no doubt that had unprocessed linseed been available for export in any of the last three or four years it could have returned growers the ful contract price being offered today. There was however, no certainty that the export market returns available today would also be available next year. Of the prospects for soya bean growing. Mr Nutt said that about 200,000 gallons of

soya bean oil was imported for special-purpose paints at from 9s and 10s a gallon up to 13s and 15s a gallon. It was most unfortunate, he said, that much of the bean seed used in the most recent season's trials had arrived only in time for sowing in November and December. There was not yet a clear picture of yields, best varieties, need for inoculum for modulation, and types of soil best suited for high yields. There was no doubt about the value of the crop. The oil would find a ready market and the meal would be readily taken up by the poultry industry. Some areas had yielded 25 bushels to the acre under this season's late sowing conditions, but it was too soon yet to form general conclusions about the economics of soya bean growing. Sugar Beet Sugar beet was in much the same position as the soya bean proposition, said Mr Nutt, except that ’it was known that beet yielded reasonably well in New Zealand conditions and that it had a satisfactorily high sugar content. Would ttie farmers of Otago within range of the proposed factory take up the contracts at the proposed price? That was one of the main problems facing the company. Ln general, members of this conference knew very little of the background and the difficulties a commercial venture of this size must face, and they could only wish the undertaking well up to the point where the company's proposition went to the Government.

Otago had pioneered this project, and no district in the South Island would want to jump Otago’s claim to the industry. If the Government considered that the proposition was worthy of encouragement and insufficient interest was shown by the farmers of Otago, it could be that another district where arable farming was carried on more intensively might be interested in beet sugar production. South Canterbury was one that immediately came to mind and. there were others. Mr Nutt said that New Zealand had almost become self-sufficient in pasture and forage crop seeds, and with die greater acreages now being shut up for grass and clover seed New Zealand could well be on the way back to the position of the early fifties, when £lm to £2m worth of grass and clover seed was exported annually.