Big Wheat Harvest Again Next Year

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31868, 21 December 1968, Page 8

Big Wheat Harvest Again Next Year

New Zealand is likely to be in for another big wheat harvest in the New Year. On the basis of the performance of last season’s crop, there seems a distinct possibility that production of milling-standard wheat could exceed the demand unless some unforeseen climatic or disease factor intervenes to affect the crop.

The Government Statistician estimated that the area now in wheat was 317,500 acres, which was similar to last season’s crop, the general manager of the Wheat Board, Mr L. C. Dunshea, said this week.

There was a good prospect that the resultant crop would be even larger than the record 15.8 m bushels estimated for the 1968 harvest, he said, bearing in mind that the 1967-68 crop had been beset by a number of difficulties including drought, snow, frost and then rain, with the latter causing a good deal of the crop in Southland and Otago to sprout. Recent rains had greatly improved the crop prospects in Canterbury, Mr Dunshea said.

The wheat that had sprouted in the 1968 harvest had, for the most part, turned out to be undergrade and had been sold at a discount enabling a considerable clearance of this wheat to be made in New Zealand, even in the face of a record production of feed barley and a considerable quantity of maize. However, in spite of this, a surplus of almost Im bushels of undergrade wheat had been shipped or was under negotiation for shipment overseas, Mr Dunshea said.

This year only 5000 tons of wheat had been imported from Australia for Auckland mills in the aftermath of events following the loss of the Maranui and in the expectation that New Zealand would be short of its full milling wheat, requirements. As matters had turned out, Mr Dunshea said that South Island milling-quality wheat available for shipment to North Island mills would just meet the requirements of these mills and no more, so that these mills would be keen to replenish stocks from the new season’s harvest. Mr Dunshea said that they were now in the final stages of shipment of 1968 wheat to Auckland and Mount Maunganui mills. Quantities of milling wheat I that had been shipped from' the various ports and by rail-! ferry were:

Port Tons a Lyttelton .. .. 37,000 3 Timaru .. .. 41,800 ’ Oarnaru .. .. 5900 * Dunedin .. .. 2400 ’ Bluff .. .. 3900 s| J Total .. 91.000 j j Rail-Ferry .. 4500 Grand Total .. 95,500

Mr Dunshea said that all of this had been shipped in hulk except for about 3000 tons which was shipped in bagged form following the loss of the Maranui last June and until such time as other vessels were fitted with shifting boards and returned to the bulk service. The Wheat Board, he said, had co-operated with the disposal pools in Dunedin and Invercargill by accepting orders in the North Island for undergrade wheat held by the pools and arranging shipment of this wheat to the North Island. Such shipments were still being made but it was expected that by the time they were completed next month some 22,000 tons of undergrade wheat would have been shipped from Bluff and 6000 tons from Dunedin. In addition an unknown quantity of this wheat had been sent from these areas by rail-ferry

[and of course much of it had found an outlet for feed in other parts of the South Island.

The Southland disposal pool had also successfully shipped 13,224 tons of undergrade wheat by the Athena in August to Singapore and Taiwan. They were at present shipping a further 5000 tons to Taiwan and were expecting to negotiate a sale for shipment in January of the remaining undergrade wheat amounting to about 6000 tons. Mr Dunshea said that the bulk grain handling facilities at Bluff, Timaru and Lyttelton had greatly aided the shipment of wheat in bulk from the South Island to the North Island and satisfactory arrangements for shipping wheat in bulk had also been made at Dunedin and Oamaru. Next year all wheat shipped from the South Island to the North Island would be in bulk, Mr Dunshea said. Milling standard wheat, he said, would be shipped in three classes—Hilgendorf for mills, other wheat with better baking scores for mills and lower scoring wheats for feed purposes. Again any undergrade wheat should find an outlet for feed purposes. Mr Dunshea said that the following observations might be timely and of assistance to. all concerned in the harvest-] ing, handling and disposal of next year's crop:—

Retention From Growers’ Price: The Wheat Board would retain from the price to growers for all milling standard wheat 12c per bushel to cover any loss incurred in the storing, handling and marketing of wheat; declared surplus to require-! inents from the 1969 harvest. [ The amount of the retention was as agreed between the Wheat Board and growers’ 1 organisations and approved; by Government and embodied! in an amendment to the' Wheat Board regulations! gazetted last week.

Mr Dunshea said that it; would be an offence to evade making this payment. With certain minor- exceptions, all

wheat of milling standard had x to be marketed through the 1 Wheat Board and the author- s ised brokers of the board i were the instrument' through which this was done. The only safe way for a j grower to avoid the possibiljity of offending against the act was to refrain from selling his wheat direct. He] should offer it to an authorised broker of the board.is ;Similarly buyers should buyt I only from an authorised s jbroker of the board. it ;| Need for care in harvest-is ing and keeping wheat safet'c

Farmers should exercise care in harvesting their wheat to ensure that it was in a fit condition and that it was har-

vested at a safe moisture level for storage. They should also avoid having an excess of screenings in it. With considerable quantities of wheat available [ from the large harvest that was expected, buyers would be selective in the wheat that they bought. Need to observe proper sampling procedure: Difficulties had arisen through inadequate or faulty sampling of growers’ lines to provide jsamples for millers' or gradlers’ inspections or for sub-

mission to the Wheat Re-; search Institute for testing! to determine baking score and sprout index.

It was much better for a [grower to know definitely how ibis line measured up than to have a test which was unreliable through being made ion a poorly drawn sample, Mr [Dunshea said Unless sampling was properly carried out growers (faced the possibility of their wheat being rejected when the time came for them to [deliver it. Safe-Keeping of Wheat is Farmer’s Responsibility: Provided fine w'eather prevailed the large harvest was likely to be completed very rapidly. The rate of harvesting had been accelerated in recent years as a result of the bigger type of headers now used. I [South Island mills would be [following their normal procedure of buying in a big amount of wheat at harvest but they would not be able; ;to accept wheat at a faster! [rate than they had done this; ! year.

Shipping of wheat from the South Island to the North Island would begin at the start of the harvest but the rate of shipping could not be developed beyond the North Island buyers’ ability to handle and store the wheat.

Thus many growers would have to hold their wheat until lit could find an outlet during the year. Wheat was a valuable commodity and it was the farmer’s responsibility to provide for its safe keeping until it could be delivered to a buyer or shipped.