Industry Attracted To Area

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32274, 17 April 1970, Page 7

Industry Attracted To Area

The potential for lucerne production with irrigation was paramount in determining the site of its first dehydrator in M i d - Canterbury Mr A. J. D. Robb, general manager of the southern division of Fletcher Industries, Ltd, and Mr J. S. Whitelaw, research farm manager for the firm at Winslow, said in submissions to the irrigation committee of the Water Allocation Council at Ashburton last week. They said that Winslow was relatively central to the three Ministry of Works irrigation schemes in the district and also to the area of the Ashburton-Hinds irrigation district, where about 80 farmers were already irrigating, mostly with sprinkler plants. “In order to ensure that the lucerne dehydrating industry can provide a regular dependable tonnage of products to overseas markets, it is important that the availability of raw materials be as regular as possible,” said Messrs Robb and Whitelaw. “New Zealand has an excellent opportunity of breaking into the Japanese market for lucerne products, and regularly increasing the quantity so long as its manufacturers can demonstrate their ability to meet volume requirements. “Lucerne, like other farm products, is severely affec-

ted by drought conditions to the extent that it will be essential for the majority of the crop to be irrigated. Regular cutting under irrigation will give greater utilisation of processing plant, a factor that is most important when competing on the world market “We cannot stress too strongly the importance of a steady, predictable supply of lucerne to our factories if this overseas market is to be developed in the future, and Irrigation is the key to this problem." Messrs Robb and Whitelaw said that yield figures for the first season at Winslow were incomplete but the average yield for first cuts on irrigated land had exceeded that on dry land by 0.57 short tons (a short ton contains 20001 b of dry matter) to the acre or by 83.8 per cent. A number of dryland crops had also been abandoned to grazing so that taking account of these lowest yielding crops would still further favour irrigation. The past season had been severely affected by the spring drought with 3.71 'inches of rain being recorded at Winslow for the four months from August to November compared with the Ashburton average of 10.12 inches. However even under these conditions the best yields from irrigated lucerne had been most encouraging. A border dyked crop on Lismore soil would yield more than six tons (five tons in four cuts) and a spray-irrigated crop on

medium soil would yield close to eight tons (6.5 tons in four cuts). With payment per ton at about $lO, the returns to the farmer were attractive. They noted that a costing recently undertaken by Lincoln College showed irrigated lucerne as a cash crop for dehydration to be fully competitive with alternatives under a variety of management systems on various soil types.