FARMING DIFFICULTIES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 107, 19 April 1933, Page 11

FARMING DIFFICULTIES

STABILISING FARM PRICES. Under the heading of ‘‘Should Production be Restricted?” the ‘‘Farmer and Stockbreeder” has the following: ‘‘There ia one great difference between the positions of the factory and of the farm. The factory produces an article at a known cost, and sells it at a price that is based on the cost of production. If sales are sluggish it may in some cases be possible to trim prices a little to encourage the demand, but if this is not sufficient the factory begins to wotk short hours, and, at worst, produces no more than it is able to sell without incurring a loss—even if this sinks to nil. Normally, it will restrict production to the amount that it can sell at some sort of profit. Yet this may mean that a proportion of the usual workers are paid off and that the remainder are employed on short time. “The fam cannot produce at a fixed cost. Weather and seasons see to this. Much less can it fix the price of its produce at a figure based on the cost of production. And it is equally powerless to curtail or suspend production at a few weeks’ notice on the' report of its sales department. On the average, the farmer is looking about a year ahead. He is now making his plans for what he hopes to sell in 1934. How he may sell it, or whether he can sell it, he does not yet know. “It is not deemed a serious offence for a factory to pay off employees or to work part time when the exigencies of the situation drive it to this course and all Norfolk appears to be doing is to be looking a year ahead, as they must, if they attempt to put what are their factories on short time. “It is possible that the steps being taken to stabilise prices and regularise production will do something, possibly much, to minimise the gamble inherent in the farmer’s business. Except in such abnormal times as the last half-dozen years, it has generally worked out to-a reasonable average. Although in these times there is some evidence that the salvation of farming cannot be found in the restriction of production, we do not assert that the Norfolk executive are wrong, much as everyone hopes and many believe they are, in the lead they have given to , their members. In offering it however, i they have shouldered a grave responsibility, that is their own concern. ‘‘Hie general trend of opinion does not follow the Norfolk attitude. Farmers generally are anxious to increase production, and appear willing to carry some of the initial risk incidental to qualifying for the greater scope in our own markets that the Ottawa agreements and the Government policy have been designed to give them.” (Norfolk branch of the Farmers’ U" n cjvho,] fj, p members to restrict "’• end discharge all workers i who i.'i'd t "ibly be done without.)