WEALTH FROM THE LAND

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6812, 16 January 1929, Page 10

WEALTH FROM THE LAND

Greater Expansion Made

LAUGER YIELDS PER ACRE

An amazing development of I'.vo stock production in the Dominion during the last 2G seasons is revealed, by a new form of statistical review published in tho 1929 edition of the New Zealand Year Book. The analysis, based on standard values and units, plays the searchlight of the statist on hitherto unsuspected increases in tho carrying capacity per acre and the production per animal. It is an effective answer to superficial criticism crying stagnation in Dominion farming. For the purpose of their study, Mr. E. J. Fawcett, farm economist, and Mr. W. N. Paton, of the farm economics section of the Department of Agriculture, have adopted a unit of production base'd on equivalents, and giving production in terms of value, derived from flat-rate prices throughout the period reviewed. Por instance, £IO,OOO is the value of one unit of production, and all cattle have been converted to sheep units of stock on the basis that each cattle beast is equal to six sheep.

Acreage Yield 51 per cent. Greater. Most striking of the many diagrams, graphs and tables presented with tho treatise, is a graph depicting increases over the period of six phases of live stock production. The total grassland farmed is shown to have increased by .11.7 per cent., indicating an astonishing increase in the carrying capacity per acre. Actually, it is 51.8 per cent., showing that within 2G years tho carrying capacity per acre has increased by more than half. Remarkable improvement in the quality cx tho country’s stock is evident from the fact that the production of lamb, mutton, beef, wool, butter-fat and calf products, per unit of stock carried, has grown by 37.2 per cent. The increas® in the same forms of production per acre i 3 actually 109.9 per cent. Steep,est of all the rising lines on the graphs and a magnificent testimony to the progress of tho Dominion’s primary industries, is that which shows the total production of lamb, mutton, wool, butter-fat, beef and calf products to have increased by 13G.7 per cent.

Great Uniform Expansion. A more minute analysis on the unit basis shows that tho total livestock products liavo grown from 1817 units in 1901-02 to 4311 units in 3926-27. In terms of money, using the flat rate prices worked upon, these represent a rise from £18,170,000 to £13,410,000. This Tcmarkable expansion has been far more uniform than might be supposed in an industry dependent so much upon weather conditions. It is a tribute to an ideal farming climate, ■and a national policy of unflagging progression. With minor fluctuations, the total livestock products grew to 2777 units in 1910-11, and in the next decade advanced to 34G0 units, an increase of over 24 per cent. Since then, in six years, a further increase of over 25 per cent, has been registered, indicating that development is proceeding at a greater rate than ever. Since 192324, the growth has been slower with tho exception of the 1926-27 season, which show’cd the Temarkable growth of 261 units, or £2,610,000 over the previous season. Were tho figures for 1927-28 available on the unit basis, there would certainly be another season of great expansion to record. , Of the total livestock products in 1926-27, sheep products comprised over 4G per cent., and dairy products over 37 per cent. The balance was fairly evenly shared by pigs, cattle and calves on the one hand and livestock by-products and live animals on the other. The proportionate growth of dairying is striking. In 1901-2, dairy products provided little more than 16 per cent, of tho total, and in 1919-20 slightly more than 24 per cent. Put in another way, since 1901-2 sheep products have increased by over 62 per ceDt. and dairy products by 433 per cent.

Higher Standard of Animal. The year 1926-27 -witnessed the greatest season but one (1921-22) in sheep products, it was a comfortable record in dairy products, the best season but one in livestock by-products, and live animals, and one of the three years in pigs, cattle and calves. Among the miscellany of valuable information given are .many interesting sidelights on the improved status of the farming industry. A graph showing the estimated production per cow, for all cows in milk and dry, bespeaks the herd improvement brought about by herd testing and other efforts to better the standard of the dairy animals. It has risen, with fluctuations, from less than 1301 b. of butter-fat per animal in 19012, to close on 2001 b., in 1926-27. It is to bo emphasised that the estimate covers dry cows as well as those in milk.

The lamb, mutton and wool returns per sheep, again taken on a standard value, have risen by over 33 per cent, in the 26 year. Did the computations take into account the rise in values, the greatly increased yield per animal and per acre would bo shown to mean a very great deal more than thev do to the farmers of New Zealand. Tho work of the economists of the Department of Agriculture is a great gift of figures to the, country, showing in definite fashion that intensive development is proceeding in every direction. To tho average observer without such statistical aids, iand occupied does not reveal its true worth, for there, is- no detailed evidence to

show that all the time it is being made to carry more stock, and what is equally important, stock producing more. Here lies the proof that the development of the country’s primary industries by no means rests upon the basis of tho occupied area. Science in farming is to-day more than ever a power in the land, and only figures such as these can bring home so strikingly the fact that the limits of production per acre and per animal are by no means reached, but that Now Zealand is progressing far more rapidly than tho vast majority think toward making the maximum use of every acre.