Small Increase In North Farm Population

Northern Advocate, 8 January 1948, Page 2

Small Increase In North Farm Population

A SMALL increase ' in the male farming population of Northland is shown in the agricultural supplement of the Abstract of Statistics for 1947. .... In 1930 there were 16,067 males engaged in farming in Northland. In 1947 the number had increased to 16,739. Totals for the Dominion, however, show a marked decrease from 119,321 to 112,921. „ ' , This decrease is all in the South Island, as the North has shown a slight increase in the overall total. Tha decided increase in yield with the smaller number ot workers is accounted for by the mechanisation of many farms.

Record acreages were under tobacco, grasses and clovers and perennial rye-grass and the bulk of the seed crop was exported. The total number of cattle in the Dominion fell in 1947 from the record figure of 4.606,782 recorded in 1946 to 4,633,800. Of these 2.585,810 were dairy and 2,047,990 beef. Despite the decrease in numbers the total yield of butterfat gose from 374,000.0001 b in 1946 to 408,000,0001 b. Reflecting the drought conditions of the previous year, the number of sheep shorn and lambs killed fell slightly to 30.214,772 and 3(8,642,298. The pig population was 549.391 and there were 216.335 horses. MORE TOPDRESSING

ed by band. Of these 25.000 were under five cows, but there were 1000 herds of between 20 and 30 cows milked by hand. The greatest number of herds in any one group were found in the 30-40 bracket with a total of 5767. The bulk, of the dairy cows in the country are in the 30-90 group, although there were 115 herds of more than 200. TRACTORS AND HORSES

In Northland 595 farms have one tractor and no horses and 17 have more than one tractor.

Of the farms that have kept horses as well as a tractor, there were 1591 with one tractor and 54 with more than one, while 7948 have horses and no tractor.

In spite of the shortage and price of fertiliser, the area topdressed for the season, 4,259,994 acres, approached the record figure of 4,649.000 recorded in 1940-41.

The total area farmed in 1947 was 20,103,863 acres on 86,483 holdings. The New Zealand climate does not require the wide scale irrigation schemes that are needed in other countries, but there were 85,437 acres under irrigation for orchards, grassland and other crops, and a further 30.000 acres prenared for irrigation.

Machines all reached record figures in 1947. with 82,721 electric motors, 32,596 milking plants, 21,156 agricultural tractors, and 14,564 shearing plants.

Of the 32,000 milking machines in use. units of the three and four cow capacity are the most popular with over 9000 of each type in use. In large sheds there were 74 plants of a capacity of nine or more. Although milking machines are almost universally in use throughout the country there were 34,217 herds milk-