Rising Costs ‘Main Problem’ On Farms

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31075, 2 June 1966, Page 3

Rising Costs ‘Main Problem’ On Farms

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, June 1. The major problem facing New Zealand agriculture was not increasing production but keeping the farmer in business, Mr A. R. Rankin, fields superintendent in Southland, told the Dominion agricultural conference of Federated Farmers today.

Mr Rankin said the farmer would not stay in business if costs of production continued to climb toward the level of returns he obtained. “The hardest hit by this set of circumstances, of course, are the younger, less financially secure farmers—the ones just starting to make their way, the ones who will be the backbone of New Zealand agriculture in 10 to 20 years. “This to my mind is the group that has to be really helped,” said Mr Rankin. If the insidious rise in costs

and increase in capital, which required greater debt servicing, could be offset by higher returns for farm produce the problem would substantially diminish, Mr Rankin said. “But higher produce prices are something we can’t afford to gamble on. Indeed, they may well get lower,” he said.

“For this reason I am somewhat perturbed at the granting of incentives which, although effective in 'increasing stock numbers, make farm costs rise and farm finances more difficult.”