More farm produce to buy the same
Members of the agriculture section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers felt at their meeting last week that like C.A.R.P. they had something to complain about. One member even suggested that details of a paper they had before them should be sent on to that watchdog of rising prices. The paper, prepared by Mr P. S. Alexander, an accountant who specialises in farm accounting, detailed increases in farm product prices since 1972-73 and also in the prices the farmer has to pay for some of the items he uses on his farm. Finally there was an assessment of his terms of trade, which indicated that in general over that period he was losing ground—more of his produce was now needed to buy the same item. Between mid-1973 and August this year it was shown that a popular make of station waggon had gone up in price by 133 per cent, a popular 77 horsepower tractor by 127 per cent, a 15ft header harvester by 173 per cent, a fence post by 162 per cent and diesel fuel by a massive 314 per cent. At the same time the average fat lamb, which in 1972-73 returned the farmer an estimated $7.90 in his pocket, improved to $ll in the most recent season, wool rose from 143 c per kg to 171 c and wheat from $57.30 per tonne to $127.50.
But in the most recent season Mr Alexander calculated that it would have taken 957 lambs to buy that station waggon, compared with 571 in 1972-73, and 49.45 bales of wool to purchase the tractor compared with 25.9 bales in the base year. At the same time in the last two seasons 525 tonnes of wheat would have been needed to buy the header harvester compared with 401 tonnes in 1972-73. The cost of diesel fuel to run a tractor for 1000 hours using three gallons
age price in the most recent season compared with 217 in 1972-73 and 342 gallons of diesel fuel compared with 1185 gallons five years ago. Similarly at latest prices a tonne of wheat would buy 170 gallons of diesel fuel compared with 317 in 1972-73.
an hour, according to Mr Alexander, has risen from $543 in 1972-73 to $2250 in the last two seasons. A bale of wool containing 150 kg of wool would buy 99 posts at the aver-
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Press, 8 September 1978, Page 16
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401More farm produce to buy the same Press, 8 September 1978, Page 16
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