Prospects For Good Dairy Stock Season

Northern Advocate, 13 May 1938, Page 2

Prospects For Good Dairy Stock Season

If indications given at the first dairy heifer sale of the season are any criterion, the market for the forthcoming season will be still better than

it was last year. The sale, which was held by Walter Wakelin at Kamo on Wednesday, drew an exceptionally large attendance of buyers from all districts throughout Northland and several from the Waikato. No less than 400 dairy cattle came under the hammer and each lot found a purchaser. Bidding was .exceedingly keen throughout, and there was not a dull moment from bidders. One of the reasons attributed to the renewed interest in dairy stock is undoubtedly the reverse suffered by many sheep farmers from facial eczema among N their flacks. Faced with higher costs and a shortage of farm labour, many farmers, especially in the Waikato, changed over to- sheep last season. Now, after their losses through disease, a large number of them are recognising that dairying, after all, is the soundest and most reliable proposition. Waikato Short of Stock. It appears, from* the early-, inqu|i;ios from the Waikato that there is a shortage of dairy stock in that (district and that prices which will be ruling as the milking season approaches, will be higher than for several years past. The current tendency was first noticed about two months ago when several large lines, acquired by private negotiation, were sent to the Waikato. This shows that even before the stimulation of the eczema scare, there were indications ,of a swing back to dairying in South Auckland.