FARMING NEWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 3 May 1934, Page 5

FARMING NEWS.

RURAL BAKINGS. It is understood by an exchange that the Wheat Purchase Board will begin to buy the surplus from this year’s crop on May 15. The wheat, which must conform to tho f.a.q. milling standard, will bo bought for delivery in May at the May price. Tlie trampling and firming of lucerne fields which result from graziug during autumn and winter should, as a rule, bo avoided, especially if tho stand of lucerne is a good one. The farming of tho soil favours tho ingress of grass and clover which in regions of medium to good rainfall are likely to bo serious weeds of lucerne. Should a lucerne area already be badly infested by such plants', then it may be sound practice to utilise tho area chiefly as a grazing field from which it may be possible to obtain up to three cuts a year. The dry autumn this year had its effect on the milk supply in tho Waikato, as is shown in the returns of tho New Zealand Co-operative Herd-Testing Association for March, there being a dcclino of 341 b in tho average quantity of milk and a slight decrease in the quantity of butterfat yielded, compared with the returns of tho previous year. The yield is heavier, however, than that for March, 1932. The association tested 108,025 cows in March and they gave an average yield of 5141 b of milk and 25.081 b of butterfat per cg«v. The test was 5.02. In March last year 102,947 cows were tested, tho average production being 5481 b milk and 26.641 b butterfat with a tost of 4.86. Tho association tested 93,348 cows in March, 1932, the average yield being 4401 b of milk and 21.461 b fat, with a tost oI 4.88.