Big fertiliser season expected

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33058, 27 October 1972, Page 9

Big fertiliser season expected

The prospects are that this will be a big year for fertiliser usage. Consequently, to ensure that fertiliser gets on the ground to take advantage of rains next autumn, farmers should be considering taking delivery of fertiliser early and also arranging to have it put on earlv.

Mr P. F. H. Rowley, the managing director of Aerial Sowing, Ltd, who is urging farmers to act early, believes that autumn topdressing might still be going on into the winter next

year. The further upturn in fertiliser usage is a result of improved wool and lamb prices and the availability of stock retention grant money.

Officers of Kempthorne Prosser and Company, Ltd, said this week that it was highly desirable for farmers not only to place their orders early but also take delivery early—in January and early February. The main period for autumn topdressing is late February and March and April. Mr H. K. Death, the marketing manager for Kempthornes, said that forward bookings indicated a bumper year. Reports have indicated people planning to double their usage this season and in one extreme case on a large property where total fertiliser usage over a period of time has amounted to 450 tons, the application of some 700 tons is planned. Kempthornes had a record year to the end of May this year. This yearly period began with usage down for the first three months, but the position began to improve in the new year and there was a big increase in usage last autumn.

In the present yearly period the company is expecting another record year

at its Homby works. The manager of die company’s fertiliser division (Mr P. M. Roberts) said that in the period from June to midOctober this year usage was up more than 20 per cent on the corresponding period last year. Mr Roberts is confident that the company has the manufacturing capacity to meet the likely demand in the near future, but he said that distribution services were likely to be stretched —hence the need for early deliveries ahead of the expected peak in demand. The works superintendent (Mr D. J. Higgins) said that November was normally a small month at the works, but this year it looked like being quite a good one. In the peak of the season he said that the company used about 80 railway waggons a day and it could be that this season they would reach 100 waggons. Consequently, it is important that waggons are unloaded quickly to ensure that they are freed for use again. To encourage farmers to improve fertiliser storage on their airstrips, and also to encourage deliveries in the relatively quiet period for operators and so spread the incidence of their work, Kempthornes will be offering 90 days deferred credit to farmers between November 1 this year and January 31 next year. To qualify for this they must have approved storage bins which have to be water-proof and stock-proof. Consideration will not be given to the use of covers for the protection of fertiliser heaps. The responsibility for approving airstrip storage bins for the scheme in most cases is delegated to the local aerial topdressing operator, but in some cases it is performed by the sales staff of the company. The scheme offered by Kempthornes is said to be the only one of its type in the country. There has been quite a swing to delivery of fertiliser in bulk from Homby in recent years. Mr Roberts said that whereas three years ago nearly 50 per cent went out in bags, in the last four months this proportion had fallen to 27. However, this could hardly be compared with the position at a North Island works which last year put only 4 per cent out in bags.

And incidentally it is good business for the farmer to take his fertiliser in bulk. For the price of five tons in bags he gets six tons in bulk at the works.

Mr Rowley said that two or three farmers he knew were planning to have their fertiliser spread in November or December instead of in the autumn to be sure that it was on the ground before the autumn rains. One farmer was contemplating applying 165 tons at this time, compared with 40 to 60 tons in some past autumns. In August this year he said that his company had applied a record quantity of fertiliser for any month since its inception and 25 per cent more than in one month in 1969.