Dominion Superior in Farm Practice

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 175, 27 July 1939, Page 10

Dominion Superior in Farm Practice

POSITION IN AUSTRALIA AUCKLAND, July 25. Amazement at the out-of-date methods used by dairy farmers in the northern and central portions of New South Wales was expressed yesterday by Mr C. J. Lovegrove, a member of the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council and Auckland Electric-Power Board, when he returned by the Mariposa from a visit to Australia. “It is not because they cannot afford better equipment and the proper use of fertilisers,” he said, “but what was good enough for Dad is good enough for Dave.” “Although I was greatly impressed l*y the wonderful possibilities of these districts for dairying,” said Mr Lovegrove, “I was astounded to find that farmers were not taking full advantage of the great fertility of the soil and the many other advantages which have been so generously bestowed upon the area. I do not think that we have any dairying land in New Zealand so rich as that seen by me during my travel* through the Aliddle and Northern River districts, but, on the other hand, I have never seen in New Zealand such inefficient farming methods. Hand-milking of Herds “1 was astonished to find that the majority of farmers still rely on the hand-milking of herds, that their milking sheds are generally in an advanced stage of dilapidation, and that what we regard as a form of slavery here, the use of wives and families to milk the herds, is the usual thing.” Mr Lovegrove said that there did not seem to be sufficient pasture control on the farms he had inspected. While dairying land in New Zealand generally could not approach the natural fertility of the dairying country throughout the central and north coast districts, the New Zealand farmers, by labour, ingenuity, the liberal use of fertilisers and a thorough, efficient ami scientific control of pasture had brought his butter-fat production per cow and per acre to perhaps the highest level in the world. Cows Lost in Grass In the Australian districts he had visited, however, pasture control was neglected. He bad seen paspalum fencehigh and it was a fact that during the spring growth grazing cows were lost in the grass. At the same time, however, he believed that as they improved their methods, the dairy-farmers of the northern and central New South Waledistricts would exceed New Zealand production of butter-fat. There were already signs that the interchange of visits between New Zealand and Australian farming parties was having extremely valuable effects for the New South Wales dairy-farmer, and tliiwould continue.