STOCK FEED IMPORTS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 7

STOCK FEED IMPORTS

Shortage In North Island C.V Z. Press Association) HAMILTON. Sept 18. Supplies of stock feed are being imported from Australia to meet an acute shortage in the Waikato, Auckland and Bay of Plenty areas. This, according to the Department of Agriculture, has been caused by a late growing season and new methods of farming. Waikato farmers have been haunting the firms for badly needed supplies of dairy meal, which has been rationed out. Limited supplies are on their way from the South Island, but this is expected to be quickly snapped up without alleviating the situation to any great extent The Australian supplies are due to arrive on September 27, but the need is an immediate one, according to a stock firm spokesman. “This is no joke for us,” said one stock firm's produce manager. “We are getting up to 11 calls a day, not counting our own customers. Supplies are nil. We just can’t get meal.” “Our delivery trucks have been working at week-ends and we have had to ration meal severely,” another said. Dairy production in the Waikato was down, said Mr A. H. Woolven, general manager of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company. “Not only is the average flow of milk down but the butterfat tests are below normal, reflecting a lack of feed and poorer condition of the herds," he said.