Farm Labour Now Scarce In U.K.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30626, 17 December 1964, Page 8

Farm Labour Now Scarce In U.K.

Farmers in England had now reached the stage where they were finding it difficult to get good farm labour, Mr R, Hayward, an English farmer who is in New Zealand under a Nuffield Foundation farming scholarship, said in Christchurch. “It is unfortunate, but I think we are going to have to accept the fact that farming, as an industry, seems to be unable to offer as good a reward in the way of wages and conditions for services rendered as other industries can,” Mr Hayward said. Mr Hayward farms a 900acre property at Great Haseley, Oxford, where dairying and cereal cropping are the main sources of income. Eleven men are employed on the farm, which produces 200,000 gallons of milk annually from two dairy herds, on Friesian, the other Ayrshire, 700 tons of cereal crops, including wheat and barley, and 300 tons of potatoes.

Mr Hayward and his wife arrived in New Zealand on December 2. They have spent a few days on the West Coast and during the next few weeks will visit farms and agricultural centres in the South Island. Before returning home, they will also visit the North Island. During his visit to this country, Mr Hayward said, he was mainly interested in studying dairying, mechanised cereal cropping and irrigation. This week he will visit

the Winchmore Irrigation Research Station, Lincoln College, and some farm properties before going to Otago. On his own farm in England, Mr Hayward said, about 120 acres was spray irrigated. Before arriving in New Zealand, Mr Hayward spent about a month in Australia where he inspected dairy farms and irrigation work in New South Wales and Victoria.

Mr and Mrs Hayward will be in New Zealand for ‘hree months and a half.