A Major Problem

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31215, 12 November 1966, Page 9

A Major Problem

“Through all my farming career there has been one major problem. Each year it gets worse. Each year I learn more but achi-... ..eve less. It is like ‘Peyton Place’—the same story but it gets more complicated every week. I refer, of course, to the utilisation of feed,” said Mr I. H. Wardell, of Lake Pukaki, in a paper to the 28th conference of the New Zealand Grassland Association at Alexandra this week.

“There is no doubt we can certainly grow large quantities of good nutritious food. We make 28,000 bales of hay a year. We know how to make 48,000 bales. We can mob

stock with up to 12 ewes and their lambs per acre. We fence and rotationally graze. But still the problem of effectively using all our feed is not overcome. “I feel this is one matter which our advisers and scientists could take more seriously. Herbage production is increasing rapidly—but so is wastage.

“From the practical point of view there is only one answer. If you are going to grow feed at considerable cost you must use every mouthful effectively. The greater the cost the greater the need for efficiency. Up until the present there has only been one way of doing this—to buy the poorest piece of country within a 20 mile radius which you use as standing room. This insurance policy is like a dairy farmer’s run off. It itself gets more fertile and productive and eventually provides a useful capital gain.”