Weather and crops

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33092, 6 December 1972, Page 18

Weather and crops

Sir, —I read in Monday’s issue a report by Mr R. A. Milne, senior officer of the Department of Agriculture in Rangiora, on the feed and stock situation in North Canterbury. Surely he should be more conversant with the weather situation in North Canterbury than he obviously is. In this district crops are suffering severely from lack of rain. In the Waipara district, always overlooked by the department in rainfall records, we have had 395 mm. of rain to date this year. Crops are at the point where yields will be seriously affected. Already lambs are being drafted at light weights because of lack of feed, and hay crops are very light or virtually nonexistent.—Yours, etc., REALISTIC. November 16, 1972. [Mr Milne replies: "I have two main points to make. First, my report on the farming situation was made early in November to accompany the weather records for October and generally my comments relate to the situation at the end of October. Second, it is not always easy in a short report to deal with all areas of North Canterbury in detail, and the general nature of the comments was indicated in the second paragraph of the report, which expressed the qualification *. . . in most areas.’ I appreciate the situation which existed in the Waipara district at the time my comments were published.”]