FARM AND DAIRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 19 May 1928, Page 16

FARM AND DAIRY

notes by ttle way

When speaking on Saturday evening at the social organised by the Farmers’ Co-op., Mr. 0. Dickie, referring to the meat export companies, said that they tried to hold the scales evenly between the farmer and the buyer. He said the companies had had a bad run of luck during the past eight years, but were getting qn a stable footing now. They were out to serve the public and the competition of the companies’ buyers secured better prices for the farmers’ cattle and sheep. In regard to the works, they were hoping to make economies at the manufacturing end. Efficiency and service -were the watchwords of the companies, and with these they hoped to secure advantage for the country generally. ***** Diseases in stock have been muck less frequent this year in the South Island dairying districts than during the two previous yeans. This is considered to be the result .of the activities of the .live-stock branch of the Department of Agriculture. In Southland cattle ha%-e been comparatively free from contagious abortion and contagious mammitis. There has also been less trouble with cows failing to come into profit. * * * * *

A tribute was paid by Mir. P. Budd, of New Plymouth, when proposing the health of the meat exporters at the Farmers’ Co-op. function on Saturday evening, to the men who put their time and money into the freezing industry. Hte said they had a lot of hard work, and often there had been no adequate return. *****

The total of cattle in the Dominion is 3,237,729, including 11,972 beef bulls and 46,870 dairy bulls. This i,s a decrease of 194,757. Bulls (dairy) increased bv 925, and cows in milk by 104. ‘ . *****

A great deal of space is devoted in the April “Journal of Agriculture” to the blackberry pest. The article deals with control of the biological means being taken to deal with a pest that, in parts of North Taranaki, and to a lesser degree in parts of South, is giving a great deal of trouble. It has been good to read of the success secured at the Oawthron Institute with imported parasites, which were permitted to come in only on the strictest conditions bv the Agricultural Department. * J * * * *

At the Massey Agricultural College there will be available after June 11 short courses in dairy farming and dairy manufactures. The _ former is mainly technical, and designed as a supplement to the practical knowledge of the dairy farmer. The latter is designed specially for factory assistants, and gives training in dairy management and dairy engineering and the manufacture of butter and cheese. It is a great chance for men employed in the factories to get special instruction during the slack time of the year. * * * * *

“New Zealand practises almost exclusively summer dairying,” says Professor Hunziker in the “Creamery Journal,” when reporting on his visit to New Zealand. “Confining its dairy production largely to summer enables New Zealand to place the bulk of its output on the London market when prices are highest there.” * * * * *

The scheme of railing hay free to farmers in the portions of the Auckland province which were smitten by drought will meet with general favour and approval. But it is added that the recipients must he able to show that they are in real need, and that the whole of the hay supplied will be used for the purpose of feeding dairy stock. * * it * *

The same favourable conditions us have been experienced in Taranaki have been evident in Southland, another great daily centre. The “Times” reports that a decided improvement in the weather has been experienced this week, and the fair conditions have enabled farmers to proceed with the many seasonal activities which precede the slack winter period. Many of the agriculturalists are already" devoting their attention to various “odd jobs” which the busy season causes to be neglected. The bad spell of weather seemed to put dairy herds back in their yields in Southland, but in some districts where farmers made provision for special feeding, yields have been well maintained. The wet period will allow farmers to carry on for more time without the necessity to use turnips for sheep and dry stock and should help to conserve winter feed. ' * * * * *

The calf marketing scheme inaugurated some two or three years ago in the Waikato was referred to interestingly by a speaker at the annual meeting of a Held Group near Te Awtmutu. He said the growing demand for the marked heifer calves at good prices spoke eloquently of the value of this great innovation, and the speaker confidently predicted that the poorer standard areas would he speedily recruited shipments of marked heifer calves from the best producers of highstandard areas. “The calf-marking scheme,” he said in conclusion, “is the key to the- profitable expansion of the dairying industry.’.’

The Manawatu Pig Breeders’ Association is urging a series of competitions between branches, which, they consider, would greatly stimulate the interest in pedigree pig breeding and assist the industry generally. The conditions proposed are as follow: Bach branch to select a team comprising five breeds of pigs, divided into six classes, making a team of thirty pigs in all from each branch. The competition would be an annual event, and held in a different province each year. The idea seems sound and good, and already Taranaki has approved and promised support.

RED POLL__BREEDERS. FORMATION OF NEW CLUB The formation of an Otago and Southland Bed Poll Breeders’ Club is an indication of increasing popularityof this dual purpose breed which appears to do very well in New Zealand. The extent to which new herds have been formed in Great Britain, the number of sires which have been acquired for crossbreeding, the extent to which importations of red polls is ceeding in South America, the favourable reports on the breed from both dairy and beef points of view in Australia- and New Zealand, and the increasing attention which Bed Poll have received in South Africa, is indicative of the recognised vain© of this breed for milk and beef production. Probably at no time in its history lias the Bed Poll demonstrated its worth in this connection than at the

national shows in Great Britain in lyz7, as well as on the commercial catt.e markets during tne whole or the past year. Apart irom the Bed Poll oreed s success!m penormances in the milk trials at the dairy show, where they beat all breeds but one, there is the"iart that, at the &>mitl)iield tehow, where Bed rolls had by far the biggest collection of baby steers under *5 months old, the stocit there was out or high milk-yieiciiiig cows. The winning young steer was the get of a bud whose dam has at eraged izod gallons ior the last two years, while the champion of the breed was a steer by the same bull, and whose dam was out ol a cow which had averaged ltuo gallons ior the last five years. At tire Norwich hat otocit Show tuo winning steer was out ol : a ÜbO-gadon cow, while numerous other winners at both the shows just mentioned had a big milK ancestry. There is no doubt that the formation of a. club will do much to increase the popularity of tins proutable breed in southland.

EMPIRE_TOURS. A London correspondent writes to a New Zealand City paper to say that there has already been a good deal oi talk among farmers in England about the proposed Empire farmers’ tour in Australia and New Zealand next year. This will be organised by the British .National Lnion, which has in hand the tour of Empire farmers in this country in a few months’ time. The secretary of the union says that already 12 English farmers have asked to be included in the tour of Australia and New Zealand. No doubt when more definite plans have been made there will be more applicants than will be wanted. A certain number of places will have to be allotted to the various parts of the Empire, tor instance, so many or the party will be from Great Britain, so many trom Canada, and so many from South Africa. 1

“As regards Australia, the Federal Government itself is interested in the scheme, and has already taken primary oteps for the promotion of the tour.” Meantime, tanners from the dominions who are coming to England this year will have a most interesting tour, and they will see all the big shows as well as the great agricultural experimental stations, where up-to-date research is always going on, and probably they' will have the opportunity ol visiting "centres where peuigree stock are important.

CHATHAM ISLANDS. ADVANCE IN DAIRYING. AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS / _ An interesting time was spent at the Chatham Islands by Mr G. AY. Wild, Government agricultural instructor at Hamilton, who recently returned. Mr Wild had an opportunity of studying agricultural conditions on the main island during his five weeks stay says the “Auckland Herald.” He noticed that a steady advance had been made in dairying, and that the output ol the island cheese factory had increased from 35 tons to 43 tons in the last year. ' During the current dairying season about 250 cows were milked to supply the factory, and it is intended by the settlers to" ’ increase the number to about 400 for next season. The cheese was forwarded to Lyttelton, and when graded compared favourably with cheese manufactured under more modern conditions in New Zealand. A number of progressive farmers were importing high-grade Friesian and Jersey heifers with a view to laying the foundation of pedigree herds. During February and March the pastures at the Oliathams were in fresh and healthy condition, and provided a striking contrast to the parched paddocks of Waikato. English grasses do well on the Chathains and are freer of weeds than similar grasses are in New Zealand. Top-dressing, was adopted last year, and the results were very beneficial.

Speaking of the nature of the land on the islands, Mr Wild .said there were large areas of sand dunes- and limestone, hut there was much arable land of a chocolate brown and volcanic nature. Many thousands of acres consisted of peat of from a few inches to 50ft in depth. The total area of the main island is 250,000 acres, of which 160,000 acres, including the peat land is capable of b.eipg used for grazing. A great proportion of the land has as yet been untouched. Among the' stock at the Chathams arc- 20(\) head of cattle, including 500 dairy cows and 83,000 big-framed Romney sheep, which give a relatively high wool clip averaging 8i Ib. The total population of the Chatham Islands is 580, and of these 260 are white people. The remainder are Wellington and Taranaki Maoris and their descendants, who migrated to the Chathams in the thirties and forties. The only Moriori left is Torunly Sullivan, who is married to a Maori and is farming some 2000 aci-es on the islands.

Until recently no crops have been grown for the sheep, hut soft turnips and swedes are now being cultivated and fed to them. This has had the effect of reducing the mortality among the hoggets, which has sometimes reached 50 per cent. The death rate has been due to the flush of feed causing scour, a trouble root crops have to a large extent corrected. Algerian and dun oats do well on the island. From a climatic point of view the Chathams are extremely well favoured. The rainfall averages 35 inches and is well distributed throughout the year. Heavy dews fall at night. Flowers grow profusely on the islands and every homestead is surrounded by a beautiful garden.

STOCK IN_ARGENTINE. FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. Speaking in the House of Lords rerecently on foot and mouth disease precautions, Lord Bledisloe said that an increasing quantity of meat was coming from Brazil, and perhaps they would have to focus future attention more on that country even than on Argentina, where the disease was easier to control. He suggested that something might be done to effect- co-operation in the matter of research with the eminent experts who were working .with the utmost sympathy in Argentina and Brazil. There were certain observations made in a- letter addressed to “The Times” by Sir William Haldane, who said that the disease had passed beyond the power of the Argentine authorities to save the herds of their country from that devastating disease. He (Lord Bledisloe) did not support that view, after carefully investigating the position oil the -spot. The speaker said that he could not help feeling that with the sincere and

hearty support which .might he expected from the leading estancieros of Argentina to their Government in carrying out British demands in relation to the restrictions and penalties under the decree which the Argentine Government had just issued, the position there would materially improve. Lord Biedisloe added, that alter the most careful and detailed negotiations with the representatives of the Argentine Government, he was convinced that whatever might have been the case before his visit, the Argentine authorities were determined to do their utmost to carry out their decree, which embodied to a very large extent the conditions which Britain asked them to adopt some six or nine months ago.

AFFORESTATION. ENGLISH COMMISSION’S ACHIEVEMENT. “The British Government,” says the “Daily Telegraph,” “warned by the desperate shortage of timber during the submarine campaign, established its Forestry Commission to carry out a 10 years’ scheme of replacement of the woodlands felled in the war and of planting in other suitable areas. It was hoped that by next year 250,000 acres of forest would be added to our resources. The actual achievement, we are informed, will be only a little less than the intention, though Lord Clinton still talks regretfully of those 500,000 acres cut down since the war began and left unplanted. For the first time in many centuries great tracts of the Ehglish countryside, where little else would grow, are growing useful timber. But we cannot afford to rest on our oars. Our own island alone cannot, of course, provide an improvident world with timber, or even supply all our own needs. We must look overseas, and in particular to the great countries or our own Empire. But that is no reason why we should not at the same time take the fullest advantage of what supplies can be grown at" home.” NEW ZEALAND’S EXAMPLE,

Sir AY. Beach Thomas, writing in the ‘‘Spectator,” says that if the people of the Empire possessed a “forest sense,” even to the degree the New Zealanders possess it, the Empire could easily make itself self-supporting in timber, even before Scandinavia and Canada and the United States cease to export from their surplus, as they must within a generation. “I have been looking at slices of trees felled in different parts of the world. The section that most filled the eye was, cut from a pinus iresign ks. We have many lino specimens in England, especially in the Isle of AA’ight; but this came from near llotorua, in the North Island of New Zealand. After the few more crowded inner rings, marking the early years of the tree, the rings were often considerably more than an inch in breadth —a marvellous thing to behold, representing a scarcely credible rate of growth. Doubtless the specimen was exceptional: butArees grow at very different rates in different soils and climates; and it is a well-established fact that they gallop in onq particular district of New Zealand. They grow there perhaps twice as fast as in Newfoundland or. North Shropshire, both good spruce districts. The soil, a sort of pumice, is ideal tenpines, but useless for agriculture; and it is good to know the New Zealand Government is doing much what our Forestry Commission is doing at Thetford, and steadily afforesting. But economy forbids more than a petty scale. Forests vanish 10 —even 20 — times as fast as they are renewed. CULT OF THE THEE.

“Is there any reason why the public should not take a hand? An acre can bo bought and planted—even in England—for a very small sum. In New Zealand I heard it alleged that £25 would, ut present prices, a crop worth at least £SOO in 15 years, and if prices rise, as they have in the past, twice or three times that sum. The claim rather suggests a South Sea bubble, though similar prices within a similar interval have been made in England with just one special tree, the cricket-bat willow. But that is rare, and its uses special. It is possible that pinus msignis may rival salix caerulea alba, and provide not cricket bats, but a great Imperial insurance. A good many New Zealanders are said to be trying the experiment, and the cult of the tree is spreading into other parts of the Empire. It might serve a useful purpose if such a body as the Em-, piie Marketing Board (whose forest posters have been magnificent) would consider the value of some great cooperative scheme. It would do more service than the excellent tree and arbour days that begin to be celebrated here as in America.”

MODERN TENDENCIES, INCREASED GROAA 7 TH RATE. OQAAV‘CHEMICAL FACTORY.” In- his notes on feeding stuffs, Mr. H. E. AA’oodman, of the British School of Agriculture, Cambridge, in the Journal qf the Ministry of Agriculture, states that no feature of agricultural development is more striking than the marked tendency which has been evinced during recent times in the direction of intensifying the xethods

whereby meat and milk are produced for human consumption. It has left its mark on every pnase of animal husbandry. The pig destined for pork must be fattened during its period of active skeletal and muslular growth, so that it may be enabled to attain the necessary size and condition for slaughter at a comparatively youth fill age. The fat lamb is now a common feature, and, in addition, large numbers of cattle are slaughtered at the age of about 18 months to satisfy the demand for “baby beef.” Turning to the dairy cow, few farmers of to-day are satisfied with the modest yield of milk tolerated so complacently by their forerunners in the industry. Rather has this useful animal come to be regarded as a. kind oi “chemical factory,” in which farm foods constitute the raw materials and milk the finished product, the process of conversion being carried out with the utmost intensity and efficiency. The increased growth rate which must be induced in an animal fed for early maturity must naturally be circumscribed by the limit of the animal’s capacity for consuming and digesting food. It may, of course, some day be found possible, by the science or art of breeding, tp prqdn.ee an animal with a capacity for food assimilation much superior to what we are at present ac customed to. This, however, can scarcely be looked forward to with any degree or confidence. The present-day ruminant is already a wonderful digester of food, and is’ able, by the united digestive activities of bacteria, and enzymes, to make very efficient use of many types of constituents which are of little or no use to man. The immediate solution ol; the problem I of enhancing growth rate is clearly to be sought iu improved methods of feeding. The digestive powers of the .animal must be utilised to the utmost, and, since the capacity for consumption is limited by Nature, this end can only be achieved by restoring to feeding stuffs of higher digestibility than those employed in ordinary practice. In the growth of crops for feeding to highly productive animals the farmor should be prepared to sacrifice, bulk in order to gain feeding value, liis object being, “More food value in a smaller bulk.” This idea is rapidly gaining ground among farmers. Pastures are being grazed more closely than hitherto, so that the herbage may be secured at its phase of minimum fibre content and maximum nutritive value. The growing of other green food for stock should always be so planned that the animals are supplied with a succession of crops in the young and highly di::c tible condivten.

NORTHERN AUSTRALIA. A TOUR, OF EXPLORATION. Love of exploration and adventure has moved Mr. Donald Mackay, a prominent grazier in New: South AA 1 ales, to, lead a party through ArnJieim L.and, in Northern Australia, (says a Sydney correspondent). The party, four in number, will be: Mr. Mackay, Dr. H. Basedow, a South Australian geologist and surveyor and a member of the Parliament of that State; Mr. AValter Sully, a cinema photographer who accompanied the explorer Hurley to New Guinea, and Mr. Lovell, a South Australian. As on previous occasions when lie has led expeditions into the interior of Australia, Mr. Mackay is meeting all the financial obligations of the venture. The party has already left Sydney for Darwin, which will be the base of operations.

Mr Mackay states that the expedition is being made for the purpose of ascertaining if the country is suitable for tropical agriculture, and Dr. Basedow' will make investigations in regard to the presence of minerals and other matters of geological nature. He adds that in the hinterland, the going will be heavy, as at this time off the year the grass is from three tp four feet high, and there are swamps and many obstructions , which will cause delay. They fake a house vehicle to a certain poinf and then discard that and trust to walking, with horses for packs.

FERTILISERS_LEFT OVER Pff ESER.VLVG THEIR. VALUE. It sometimes happens that a farmer finds he has a quantity of fertiliser left over, and will have to keep it in store for the following season. Ilow much of its value will be lost during the six months’ storage? The following information on the subject is furnished by the “Farmers’ Express” : * Nitrate of soda can be kept for a considerable time without loss of value if stored in a good shed with a dry ffoor. When wanted for use in due ,:ourse the nitrate will probably be found to have set, and in that case will have to be emptied out of the hag and broken up, which can easily be done with a shovel. Sulphate of ammonia can also be held in store over the dead season if stored in a dry shed free from damp. If it cakes it must be broken up before use. The neutral quality now in general use is less liable to become hard than the old kind. Superphosphate can he kept without loss m a dry shed; it is liable to cake to a certain extent, and a portion of the phosphate soluble in water may retrograde, but practically the fertiliser retains its fertilising value and can be used with confidence. If it has become damp, the remedy is to spread it out on a dry floor and mix a little dry earth with it. Basic siag and raw ground phosphate can be kept in store without risk of loss in value. If they become caked, it is simply necessary to shoot the stuff out of the bags and break up- ,