Largest Harvest For 33 Years

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31060, 16 May 1966, Page 7

Largest Harvest For 33 Years

New Zealand’s wheat crop this year was the largest in 33 years. It yielded 10 to 101 million bushels.

Announcing this at the agriculture section conference of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, the general manager of the Wheat Board (Mr L. C. Dunshea) said that the yield and the area sown in wheat (199,00 acres) had trebled in ttie last nine years. Glancing at several young farmers among the delegates, Mr Dunshea said: "This must be the largest crop in your lifetime.”

The bulk of the big yield was grown in the South Island, the North Island producing about 600,000 bushels on 10,000 to 11,000 acres. Mr Dunshea said this year’s harvest produced a 1.8 million bushel surplus above the South Island milling and seed-wheat requirements. By purchasing more than their quota, mills had absorbed a further 500,000 bushels, enabling them to produce more flour for shipment to the North Island. Most From Canterbury

Mr Dunshea said that in the last three months to the end of next week, 630,000 bushels would have been shipped from the South Island, 80 per eent of that amount from Canterbury- The wheat was consigned tn 26 separate shipments, 22 being from Lyttelton and four from Bluff.

He described the quality of Canterbury wheat as pretty good, but in a small number of cases the wheat had suffered because it had been left in the paddocks uncovered. “In spiUffof pruharvasflng

advice, it is not possible to move all the wheat as fast as we should like,” Mr Dunshea said. "Some wheat left in the paddock was subject to deterioration, but some had obviously suffered from bad harvesting.

“Even Under the best of conditions, a few of these sacks—24,ooo this harvest—get through, and they are the subject of a lot of criticism in the North.” Mr Dunshea said the Wheat Board was endeavouring to coincide shipments with scheduled delivery dates and to increase the bulk shipping of wheat. He pointed out, however, that buyers were limited tn how much they could accept at one time. In this situation, the only sensible thing was to provide for the safe keeping of wheat before it could be moved.