NO EASY, EARLY ANSWER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 9

NO EASY, EARLY ANSWER

No significant new avenues of farm production emerged from a field day on farm diversification held at Lincoln College last week for members of farm improvement dubs. As already reported last week, Professor M. D. Dawson, visiting professor of soil science at the college, from Oregon State University, emphasised that not much thought could be given to diversification of farm production without greater use of irrigation, and he also suggested that people would have to tMnk of nitrogen in other forms than that fixed by the white clover plant. During a Visit to the mixed crapping farm at the college, Mr B. J. P. Ryde, senior lecturer in farm management, said that the only crop out of the ordinary that they were trying to grow was fodder beet for seed. He said that under mechanised systems of precision seeding and spraying that had been developed only five hours of work had been involved in growing this crop, wMcb could produce some 10001 b of seed or enough for the whole of New Zealand’s requirements.

Mr Ryde said he could foresee New Zealand becoming the vegetable producer for South-East Asia.

On the college mixed cropping unit, under a low rainfall, he said, production of small seeds, peas and potatoes was vulnerable and irrigation could increase production, but a capital cost of about 14000 would be involved in irrigation. Dr C. T. Dougherty, lecturer in plant science, was not hopeful about the prospects for soya beans as a now commercial crop when the field day party inspected Ms experimental plots. And when Mr O. T. Klngma, research officer in farm management at the college, discussed the prospects of adding a 50-sow herd to a 420 acres Mid-Canterbury farm running sheep and beef cattle and doing limited cropping, he suggested that at recent prices the project would be risky and unsuitable as a form of diversification. He agreed with a questioner that at this stage there was “nothing” in raising a porker, and he forecast that unless the Pig Council gave some support, production of pig meat would'fall off and there would be a shortage and prices would' rise again. On a subject that he will be developing at the farmers* conference next week, Mr Rex Ballinger, export manager of the New Zealand Farmers' Cooperative Association, expressed the view that as far as export markets for New Zealand pasture seeds Were concerned the peak was probably past, in the light of breeding work being done overseas by

seed firms and private breeders in producing varieties for their own countries and also for overseas markets, but he suggested that sometMng might be done in the direction of breeding more winter hardy varieties in New Zealand that would have a wider application, and also in joint promotion with the Government and growers in letting overseas countries know what New Zealand had in the way of small seeds.

Mr M. G. Hollard, senior lecturer in animal science at

the college, said that all of the experts told him that the prospects for beef were excellent A rather ironic contribution was made to the deliberations by Mr N. G. Gow, lecturer in farm management, who said that a farmer had to decide whether over a 10-year period he wanted to maximise his returns or to maintain a certain standard of living. He said that a move away from specialisation to diversification could Involve some costs and he suggested that a farmer might be

better to take some of the cream off his farm income in certain years and put it outside the farm in the form of an investment.

At the end of the day Mr Ryde said that there was obviously room for a lot more research on this subject and indeed in such fields as soya beans and oil seeds a good deal of work was actually being done Of paramount importance, he said, would be development of market outlets for any products produced.