Irish May Become Threat In Dairying

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31383, 31 May 1967, Page 8

Irish May Become Threat In Dairying

Ireland is potentially another New Zealand on Europe’s doorstep and is likely to become a serious competitor for New Zealand in the British and European dairy produce markets, according to Mr J. A. Lancashire, of the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

■ Mr Lancashire, a pasture ecologist, recently returned to Palmerstoa..J4orth after work-. ing for six months at th'e National Dairy Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy,; County Cork. < He said he had been im> : pressed by the productive potential of the higher-quality Irish soils, which seemed ■ capable of development to a , carrying capacity of two cows i to the acre. He had also been greatly impressed by the vigour with which the Irish . were developing their agricul- j tural research and marketing i programmes. i

The challenge, he added, was not"'only in research and productive effort, but also in marketing methods. Already, by dint of an imaginative and effective advertising campaign, the Irish were selling their butter in England for £3O a ton more than the New Zealand product was fetching—though their quota was, of course, only about one-eighth of that of

,ew Zealand. "But the Irish quota is almost certain to increase substantially as a result of the free-trade agreement entered into with England last year,” said Mr Lancashire. “Moreover, if Ireland joins the Common Market, as probably she will if Britain does, this will give her a tremendous advantage over New Zealand.”

The growth of agricultural research in Ireland had been phenomenal, he said. The Agricultural Institute, which was responsible for nearly all agricultural research in Ireland, was established only in 1958, but already had 21 research institutions in various parts of the country, and covering almost every branch of this agricultural industry. The Moorepark Dairy Research Centre had been going only since 1961, but now it had a research area approaching 1000 acres, together with laboratories and technical services. Next year it would have 700 cows and about 200 bullocks involved in experiments. It had the land, the facilities, and the research staff, and now was trying to develop, also, studies of the economic aspects of its work.

Before such advantages could be fully exploited, however, Ireland would have some problem to solve. Prominent among these was the paradoxical situation that most of the small farm holdings were on the poorer types of land, while the good soils tended to be in larger holdings. Much effort was now going into attempts to amalgamate small units into larger ones or to find crops suitable for growing on the small areas.

Productive capacity on the better Irish soils was potential rather than actual at present At Moorepark, Mr Lancashire carried out some trials of pasture growth. He found that clovers seemed to perform better than in England, and he estimated that the better Irish soils could be made to give

“This phenomenal rate of growth is typical of the trend in Ireland, and is an indication of the challenge New Zealand faces in keeping up,” said Mr Lancashire.

pasture yields as high as 15,0001 b of dry matter an acre annually. Such growth, fully used, would give a carrying capacity approaching two cows an acre. At present, however, the research stations were running up to about one cow an acre; the better farmers about two cows to three acres; and average farmers only about one cow to three or four acres. Mr Lancashire said he felt his experience at Moorepark would be most useful in his future work in Palmerston North. When developed, the new experimental areas recently purchased for the Grasslands Division would enable more extensive experiments to be undertaken, with

greater use of the grazing animal. What he had learned from the large-scale experiments in Ireland would be helpful in planning such projects here. On the other hand, Irish workers, having carried their production trials so far, now needed to explain the results of these trials through intensive studies of plants, soils, etc., such as bad been carried on by the Grasslands Division and other research institutions in New Zealand. Benefit could be derived from studying each other’s approaches, said Mr Lancashire, and in the next few years Irish workers would come to New Zealand to study research here.