Growing barley waste of time —- farmers

Press, 6 May 1980, Page 12

Growing barley waste of time —- farmers

Barley growing in North Canterbury was a “complete waste of time,” Mr W. J. Thompson told the annual conference of the agriculture section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers.

It probably was not worth negotiating a price with the purchasing company, Mr Thompson said. . ' “I. understand they are thinking of a figure less than $l5O a tonne and I doubt if that would be enough to cover rosts,” he said.

Farmers’ representatives started negotiating a price with the buyer (the Canterbury (N.Z.) Malting Company, Ltd) at a time when farmers would have few cropping alternatives if they did not accept the barley price. - If negotiations • were started and a price settled earlier then “we would have a choice,” Mr Thompson said. As it was, the only choice farmers had was growing or not growing barley but this decision

would have to be made each season before a price was fixed. The section chairman (Mr K. M. Wells) said the company had shown recently that it was “fragile.” It established a plant at Marton and offered North -Island growers a price which was rejected. The price was increased but still rejected until the company agreed to pay transport costs for the grower. The recently announced increase in the wheat price should help, Mr Wells said. Mr A. L. Mulholland (Darfield) ■ said that because of dissatisfaction during barley price negotiations several years ago Federated Farmers decided to organise a boycott and refuse to grow barley.

“This was and is our only weapon,” he said. However, farmers proved to be their own worst enemies and contracts were still signed. The farmer support which was lacking then would have to be strong if an-

other boycott was decided on, Mr Mulholland said.

The assertion that increasing the price of barley seriously increased the price of beer was rubbish. “In the old measurements one bushel of barmade 37 gallons of beer so let’s not be fooled about the price of barley affecting the price of beer,” Mr Mulholland said. Mr G. E. J. Hutton said grain brokers were also responsible for the problem. “They encourage farmers to sign contracts ■which are not economic,” he said. Figures given to the conference showed that during the coming season growing costs would amount to $678 per hectare but the return, if the payout was $l4O a tonne, would be $630. If the payout was increased to $l5O a tonne the profit per hectare would be $B. The conference decided to organise an early meeting with grain and seed merchants before negotiating with the company.