Feed Improves, But Harvest Poor

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 8

Feed Improves, But Harvest Poor

There has been a considerable improvement in the feed position in the province, but the frequent showers of rain that are helping in this direction are not making the harvest any easier and the latest effect of these conditions is the appearance of sprouting in wheat.

A survey made at the middle of the week showed that 10 per cent of 300 samples were exhibiting enough sprout damage to cause them to be rejected for milling. The harvest continues to be one of the poorest for a number of years as a result of earlier protracted drought conditions. There has been a notable change in conditions in the former drought-stricken Waimate area, but as yet, according to Mr J. L. Symons, of the Department of Agriculture in the area, there is no surplus feed, except in the Waihaorunga district Most farmers, he said, were planning not to bring stock back from grazing until late February or early March to give their properties a chance to recover. Quite a bit of growth had been saved for hay, he said, and already some pasture had had been made on destocked farms. A great deal of lucerne had been sown and conditions had been ideal for its establishment Lucerne had recently been making terrific growth but it had been found that lambs were not doing very well on it It could be that it was a little too immature and sappy, Mr Symons added. While some winter feed crops were good, there had been a lot of damage to crops’like swedes and chou moellier in the early stages of growth by Argentine stem weevil. Hundreds of acres had been affected in this way and the Argentine stem Weevil seemed to be becoming a major pest D.D.T. had given good results against the pest. He wondered whether late prepar Atiod of winter feed areas might have had something tq do with it Very little wheat had been harvested and it was likely that a large percentage of the crops in the coastal area would be a write-off. The best yield that he had heard of so far was 37 bushels to the acre. Barley, however, looked quite promising and some later sown crops could yield quite well.

Early sown Rhonda peas had presented a lot of difficulty in harvesting because they were so short, but partridge peas and later sown Rhondas were fairly good. There was quite a lot of stem and leaf rust in oat Crops but there had been reasonable yields. The harvest had been proceeding in fits and starts.' Mr C. P. Whatman, senior farm advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture in Ashburton, said earlier in the week. The wheat taken off the early country had also been off the dry country and he hoped that yields to date were not an indication of average yields for the whole of the county. Not taking into account areas abandoned or fed off or made into hay, he said that yields at this stage would average out at about 28 bushels to the acre. It appeared as though crops further inland would be very much better and would raise the average considerably, but it was likely that the average yield for the county would be the lowest for many years. Last year’s crop averaged something more than 50 bushels to the acre;

Crops, he said, had been on the point of sprouting before the change to very warm weather last week-end and he had heard that some crops had sprouted. He also understood that bug damage was fairly severe in some crops in the area. He did not think that the situation was so bad in bar-

ley, but early crops had been disappointing with a second growth problem and windrowing being necessary and some samples had as much green, material as grain. Yields of'early pea crops had been as low as three to four bushels to the acre, with growers only getting their seed back, but in other cases yields were up to 30 to 40 bushels. However the average would be low so far. Clover was being harvested but this crop had been upset by, the weather and had gone to leaf growth and was not threshing out as well as it might have. Inland Mr Whatman said that the fed position was “crazy.” Down country however, It was only adequate. Root crops Were looking extremely well and prospects for winter feed were now pretty good. Hay supplies were also improving. In North Canterbury, Mr R. A. Milne, senior farm advisory officer of the department in Rangiora, said that probably over half of the wheat crop had been harvested. Yields had not been very high, with one or two farmers reporting yields

which were about a quarter of what they would expect. One man had a yield of 15 bushels to the acre compared with 55 last year. Yields in areas like Waikari, Hawarden and Omihi had all been affected by drought. So far not much had been harvested on the heavier soils.

There was quite a bit of bug damage and it now seemed to be thought that there might be some sprout damage. The small-seeds harvest was a small one. While not out of the woods yet, Mr Milne said that it seemed that the area was on the way to recovery from the drought. It was not now going backwards. On the worst affected areas it was still largely a colour change without any bulk of feed. The biggest change was in lucerne on the lighter soils. It had, however, gone to flower but had eased the feed position. Winter feed crops were doing extremely well at tbe moment. With 4000 samples of wheat received by the Wheat Research Institute for testing at the middle of this week, the director of the institute, Mr R. W. Cawley, said that apart from where lines had been rejected for bug or sprout damage, baking quality remained quite good with quite a high proportion of lines scoring in the 40s. He estimated that at this stage they would be about a quarter of the way through the harvest.