Copra For Stock Feed

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 44, 20 February 1941, Page 6

Copra For Stock Feed

Big Shipment From Samoa Arriving FURTHER QUANTITIES LATER Ter Press Association. WELLINGTON, Feb. 19. Two thousand tons of copra from Samoa will arrive in New Zealand next month for use as stock feed and for the manufacture of coconut oil. Apart from a small experimental shipment in November, this is the first importation of copra to the Dominion. It has been arranged by the Internal Alarketiug Department that a second shipment of 2000 tons will arrive in Alay or June, and there may be others later. Tho chief purposo of the importation is to meet ttie shortage of stock feed, notably barley. In the past, large quantities of barley have been imported from Australia. Last year the amount was 285,000 sacks. The severe Australian drought at tho end of last year, however, has now made supplies almost unobtainable. The usual market for copra is mainly in Europe, where it is used iu the manufacture of soap and margarine. Because of the war, that market has almost disappeared. New Zealand’s imports will bo of great assistance to Samoa, where the production of copra is the principal industry. The normal price of copra in Samoa is £l2 to £ls a ton. It will be sold to New Zealand farmers at £8 10s a ton on the wharf. The first shipment is being allocated as follows: Auckland 800 tons, New Plymouth 600 tons, Wellington 600 tons. The copra will be used as feed, mainly for pigs, but also for cattle and sheep. Its feed value, pound for pound, is said to be one and threequarters the times that of barley or barley meal. An experimental shipment of 100 tons arrived in November and was distributed to farmers throughout the North Island. Report* are that it has been satisfactory*. It is recommended that the copra should be fed dry at the rate of from ilib. a day for young pigs to l£lb. a day for large pigs, in addition to the usual skim milk or other feeds. Experiments are now being conducted to find whether the feeding of copra right up to the time of killing has any effect on the quality of the bacon. In the meantime it is not recommended that it should be fed during the last four or six weeks before killing. Some of the copra will also bo used in the manufacture of coconut oil. A plant for the expression of oil was established in Auckland early this year.