Manufacturers Go To The Country

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31321, 17 March 1967, Page 10

Manufacturers Go To The Country

Seventeen manufacturers from Christchurch spent yesterday in the country as guests of the North Canterbury Federated Farmers.

■ They saw six dead opossums, on roads, a water storage dam which in a nor’-wester has 2ft waves, and a super silage! pit where a farmer offered the manufacturers some raw silage to smoke. The venue of the field day was the 3851 acre property, “Emu Plains,” Waiau, farmed by Mr C. Gardner and his five sons. The hosts were Mr and Mrs R. Gardner. The property is named after four emus, which used to run on the plains in the 19305. The manufacturers followed each other in Indian-file in cars i across Mr Gardner’s paddocks. To entice 240 Black Polls and Black Poll crosses to pose for a photographer, two farmers imitated bull roars. The cattle obligingly turned around: ran up to the camera and posed for a shot. The silage pit was a highlight of the tour. Mr R. Gardner said that this was the first year he had had a pit. Before that high winds had destroyed £9O worth of plastic on each stack. He said that last year the farm had fed about 320 steers and younger stock from the silage. This could not have been done with self-feed.

A manufacturer asked what were the advantages of silage over hay. Said a farmer: “You can make it out of anything. You can make it when its raining.” A farmer explained how shingle taken out of the silage pit, was used for shingle for road building. Silage was put in, and when needed was lifted out with a dragline. The silage was lifted by the dragline into a specially designed truck, for automatic feeding out. The 17 manufacturers were impressed at the extent of mechanisation on the farm.

The president of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association (Mr C. W. Mace) said: “The farmer today has to be an engineer to look after his own equipment. He must be a part-time engineer to do repairs immediately and to improvise.”

One of the manufacturers suggested to the farmers that now was the opportunity for them to buy up some heavy earth-moving machinery cheaply. “There are so many contractors going broke,” he said. “You farmers should be able to buy up some equipment cheaply.” “Emu Plains” this year is carrying 10,450 sheep and 510 cattle. Machinery includes four crawler tractors, five wheel tractors, three trucks, four utility vehicles and one dragline. The property has its own lime works.

The dam, when full, holds two million gallons. It feeds 45 troughs. On the way to Waiau, the manufacturers stopped at the farm of Mr N. Twose, the junior vice-president of Federated Farmers, for morning tea.