Firm Market For Small Seeds

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31985, 12 May 1969, Page 10

Firm Market For Small Seeds

Christchurch grain and seed merchants have had good business with Australia in the export of small seeds during the autumn. Inquiry, however, has eased off a little over the last two weeks. Local demand has been very good, particularly for greenfeed mixtures. Sales to the United Kingdom have been limited. Buyers generally have not been prepared to meet quotations. The English winter has been a severe one; according to reports, and appears to have had some bearing on the spring requirements. In spite of the driest autumn on record, the seed harvest in Canterbury was better than expected. While statistics are not yet to hand, the over-all yield will probably be little less than last year.

More than 96,000 acres of small seeds were entered for certification, but with the dry summer and autumn, it is unlikely that this entire area was harvested. Farmers on lighter country might have been forced to use crops intended for small seeds as feed for fattening lambs. The acreages entered for certification showed a marked increase in perennial ryegrass, and a marked decline in the area of Manawa, or Hl ryegrass. Some of the figures are: Perennial ryegrass, 24,561 (up 3814); Ariki, 4591 (down 1182); Italian, 2081 (down 57); Manawa, 12,624 (down 3157); white clover, 39,046 (up 1342); broad leafed red clover, 1524 (up 607); Montgomery red clover, 6478 (up 587); cocksfoot, 5327 (down 233). With regular small rains of nuisance value, the harvest was not an easy one. The weed content of harvested

seed was higher, because of pastures opening up under the dry conditions prevailing earlier.

The following list of prices to the grower for new season’s seed, the president of the Canterbury Grain, Seed and Produce Merchants’ Association (Mr J. C. Paterson) said was an approximate one only, and that it was based on rumex—free samples with a purity and germination of 99/90.

Perennial ryegrass: First generation, $2.10 a bushel; second generation, $2. Manawa (or Hl short rotation): First generation, $1.65. Italian ryegrass: First gene: ration, $2.15. Ariki: First generation, $2.20. White clover: First generation, 38c a lb; second generation, 37c. Cowgrass: Certified, 20c; uncertified, 18c. Cocksfoot: “Grasslands” first generation (85/85), 28c a lb. .