FLOW OF WHEAT TO FLOUR MILLS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 7

FLOW OF WHEAT TO FLOUR MILLS

Millers reported this week that though ideal conditions have lately been experienced for harvesting there has been little delay in taking wheat into mills.

One or two mills reported that their quotas were already full, while several others expected to have their requirements by the end of this week or next week.

The biggest delay in accepting wheat at the mills was about a which was not very much, according to one miller, when it was compared with other recent seasons. Ashburton mills reported that their quotas were filling rapidly. At one mill there was a week’s delay in taking delivery. Because of the ewe fairs, which were clashing with the later harvest, some delays were expected in obtaining' delivery because of the pressure on transport. One Ashburton miller said that the extra burden which carriers and transport operators had to bear in the carting of stock, not only to the mar? kets at Addington and Tin-. wald, but also to the ewe fairs, meant that there were not the number of trucks available for wheat.

One Rangiora mill had purchased all its requirements by this week, At another mill

in Rangiora, there was a delay of about four or five days in getting the wheat in, but a spokesman said that this was about normal. He thought that about threequarters of the harvesting in his district was completed. There was about a week’s delay in deliveries to one Christchurch mill. This mill had not yet filled its requirements, and as it was using about 1000 sacks a day every day of the year, it was expected that it would be able to continue taking in about this much a day. At this mill about 25 per cent of the intake this season had been in bulk and about 50 per cent had been Hilgendorf. Early this week some difficulty was being experienced with a number of lines coming in with an excessive moisture content.

A spokesman at the mill said that this year there was an appreciable gain in weight. He estimated it at about an average of 201 b for the standard three-bushel sacks. With this weight increase, he said that his mill would require about 15,000 less sacks of wheat this year. The spokesman for another Christchurch mill said it was estimated that wheat was weighing ari extra 41b to 51b a bushel.