GOOD FARMING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 244, 12 September 1933, Page 5

GOOD FARMING

THE BUSINESS INSTINCT. ANALYSIS BY MR F. J. NATHAN That, it was not so much the low price of butterfat, but rather the high overhead costs and the lack of specific' knowledge of the costs of production that were defeating the New Zealand farmer to-day wa.s the view advanced by Mr F. J. Nathan at yesterday’s meeting of the Palmerston North Rotary Club. His view was, that there could be no permanent solution of the unemployment problem until a complete survey of our leading primary industries ha.d been made.

If those engaged in the primary industries could be shown the way to reduce their overhead costs so that they would be able to employ more labour, then something would have been done that was really worth while, said ; the speaker. If they failed a.s leaders of industry', then some other people with some other method might deal with the problem in a way we did not like. It was a tragedy that the boys who were leaving school, anx. ious to work and having ability, could not be offered anything. He had lived in the countrv nearly all liis life and one thing that struck him, as it would strike anyone if he went on a motor trip to Wellington or to Wanganui, would be the amount of land he saw that was not producing the maxirpum. He would see land that had fences' down, land that had been allowed to carry what it should not and land that was obviously not farmed to its full production. About 80 per cent, of the land would be found to be not producing all that it should. Should not some scheme be brought forward to place that land in the hands of men who could put it into its greatest production P he asked. Dairy farmers said it was not possible to farm profitably unless they got a shilling a pound for their butterfat. Mr Nathan said that it was his opinion that they could farm at less than a shilling a pound if their overhead costs were placed on a better footing. It was not the price of butterfat per -pound that was beating them, but it was rather the overhead costs. The individual cow came into that question to a very large degree. Mr Nathan submitted a table showing overhead costs per pound of butterfat at different average yields of butterfat per cow, with the interest at 6£ per cent. He took the land cost per cow at £SO and showed that with the yield of 2001bs of butterfat (which was slightly larger than the average for New Zealand tested cows) the cost was 3.9 d per lb butterfat; but if that output per cow were increased to 300 lbs of butterfat, then the cost was reduced to 2.6 d. The yield per cow averaged out was 1991bs in New Zealand, although there were herds where 4001bs was reached. Some cows even reached GOO lbs; but there were herds tha.t gave only 931bs; numbers that averaged only 1051bs and others that averaged only 1501bs. There were several herds in the Manawatu district that averaged only 1501bs. The Manawatu district had a herd of 70 cows that had averaged 3571b5. 3421bs and 3891b5. In New Zealand there were 1,700,000 cows, and of that number 16 per cent, were tested cows. It had been found that the vield of the tested cows was a great- deal higher than that of the cows that were not tested. The difference between the various herd testing averages in the various districts was remarkable. His contention was that if a man would give his attention to his herd in the matter of selection, not necessarily buying new sires, but by selection of what lie had in sires, and if lie would give his attention to the cultivation of grasses, the application of manures and the conservation of fodder against the lean period, it was not at 'all impossible that he should raise his average vield to between 250 and 3001bs of butterfat per cow. In the Manawatu district some of the men who had the largest holdings had cows that were returning almost the lowest average, and on the other hand meji who were farming land that was of a clay nature which needed about a ton of manure a year returned averages that were among the highest. COMPARISON WITH DENMARK, Denmark was not bigger than the Wellington province, said the speaker, and the Danes paid out about £SO, 000,000 a year for manure and fodder. Their climatic conditions were not as good as ours and the soil was not as good; but between 1880 and 1930 the number of cows had been increased by 80 per cent and the quantity of the milk had been increased by 275 per cent. In 1861 the number of cows had been 757,000 with an average butterfat yield of 651bs; in 1924 the figures were 1,369,000 cows with an average yield of 2411b5; and in 1931 tho figures were 1,702,000 cows with an average yield of 2781bs per cow. In 1900 about 5 per cent, of the cows of Denmark were tested, in 1910 the figure was 20 per cent, in 1920 it was 24 per cent and in 1930 50 per cent. The butterfat production per cow had risen in that time to 220 lbs, 2571b5, 2681bs and to 319 pounds. His contention was that what they had done in Denmark could be done in New Zealand, said Mr Nathan. That was only if the dairy farmers would take a careful survey of their own businesses.

We in New Zealand were possibly the highest consumers of butter in the world, said the speaker. The butter consumption per person was estimated to be.37lbs a year, but the cheese eoiusumption was only 4£lbs. He thought

that until New Zealand could get rid of what was termed “directors’ cheese” there would always be trouble. The milk consumption was very low, being only ,61bs per head per day and the cream consumption was only one ounce per person per week. When they looked at the cost of the cream, which was equal to 3s 4d for butterfat, it could not perhaps be wondered that the consumption was so low, but even though there were high costs to bo met ho <1 id not think that it should be as high as it was. He believed that with a strong advertising campaign, if the quality were maintained, thero could be a greatly increased consumption of cheese and cheap cream in this country. FARMING AS A BUSINESS.

That the farmers did not understand their business as business men did their own, was a statement that Mr jNntlian said he would make without any fear of contradiction. If the ordinary man in business knew as littlo about liis business as tlio farmer did about his there would bo nobody in business after two years. Mr Nathan quoted the results of the school children’s mangel growing competition. At one school tho variation in the plots was only two tons per acre, but in another it varied from 93 tons to 22 tons to the acre. So it went on from 86 tons to 39 tons, from 112 to 57, from 163 to 45, from 59 to 11. There was that variation in the plots .of the school children and they would find the same difference between the yields of the farmers. He had met only one man who could say how many tons to the acre his mange! crop had produced. He had asked another what liis crop was to the acre and that man had replied “Do you want me to weigh the whole lot?” He did not think that there were many farmers in this district who could tell them what their yield, in tons per acre of mangels, swedes or turnips might be. His critiicsm of the dairy farmer had been severe, said

Mr Nathan, but it applied also to the sheep farmer. He had been sitting in Wellington recently with four prominent pastoralists and not one of them had been able to tell what their yield was in pounds of wool per acre. They knew how many bales came off the whole, but they could not say how many pounds per acre. Production in New Zealand varied from lib to 801bs. Dr Peakes had told him that it varied as much as from 12 to 181bs per acre on adjacent farms. The speaker advised those present to ask any farmer what was the weight of wool he produced per acre and what it cost him to produce. The average yield of wheat in New Zealand was 35 bushels per acre, said Mr Nathan, although it varied between 12 and 100. If those averages in crops, butterfat and wool could be increased by a knowledge of manures, the knowledge of the best variety of crops to sow, by the culling of herds without extra capital expenditure, then the costs of production would come down and the farmers could employ more labour. ]f that were too much then they Should get something like the Mortgage Debenture Bank of Denmark and give the land to the people who could farm it to its greatest capacity. The position was not really as desperate as some would make out, concluded the speaker. With a little common sense, a little study and a little intelligence the bulk of the dairy farmers could get out of their troubles. They had to watch their overhead costs, the costs of production. That knowledge was available for them and they would get over their difficulties if they would have the common sense to obtain it and then apply it to the business in which they were engaged. The speaker was introduced by the chairman, Eotarian W. G. Black, and a vote of thanks was passed on the motion of Eotarian F. Jackson. The visitors at the gathering were Messrs E. Porter, A, Seifert and Dr Mci Dowell (all of Palmerston North).