Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1942 DOVE-TAILING FARM PRODUCTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 18 February 1942, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1942 DOVE-TAILING FARM PRODUCTION

L A renewed call to farmers to trim: their production to fit in with wartime demand and exigencies is contained in the explicit review' by the 1 Minister of Marketing (Mr Barclay) f of export prospects for meat, butter c and cheese. While these are staple | i products for New Zealand they have j 1 ! only a limited application to farming c T in Nelson. Fortunately this district f t has not all or most of its eggs in c t one basket. Our main single indus- ' t try is apple-growing. War has i T knocked the bottom out of the apple i* export market but Government in- ’• tervention has given growers at least \ a living. On the other hand war [ ♦ has provided a sharpened demand j ♦ at good prices for all the hops, to- I ♦ bacco, small fruits, vegetables and ’■ B: grain that we can grow. Sheep and J i dairy farmers have a good market s | for wool and cheese so long as r j§| these can be sent safely overseas. ! Obviously the risk of shipping from G j New Zealand being upset is greater • I now than it has ever been. t | We have reached the stage where ? | New Zealand’s economy must be | placed on a war footing. Generally a | speaking, this means importing as | r little as possible of those things that S do not make us stronger in defence c | and producing for ourselves those ' v | which are necessary for life and j } which add to our defence potential, i v j It may not be apparent that the far-i | mer has much responsibility here in’ v | contrast with industrialists, especial- \ v | ly makers of guns, bombs, transport ! | vehicles* uniforms and the other;]; = munitions of war. But he has a ’ *- S great responsibility. Having been | ‘ | guided as to what' commodities are c | most needed in a time like this it is j *; j his function and duty to produce ! c j them if his land and the climate are! I jj suitable. Certain farmers in Nelson ; j for example might well turn from j t | dairying or fat-lamb production to I t f | the growing of wheat, an adequate' ' I ! supply of which is essential to ourljI national safety. More tobacco can v | be grown on land fit for it. Such j v | changes need planning well in ad-1 j vance; they may involve disiuibing; | long-established habits of the indi-lj i vidual farmer, but in making a real. | effort to grow those products essen- j c ! tial to us now, the man on the land j : ! is both helping himself and making j j | a very valuable contribution towards j - i winning the war. ! c - For years the life-blood of New i <l - Zealand has been the selling of prim- [ j ary products overseas. Farming ' r practice has shaped itself according-j ly. Now the situation has altered • r temporarily. Britain still needs our ° meat and butter to feed her people' and her fighting forces, but she can- j not take all we would like, because j s of acute pressure on every available Is ton of shipping and of the danger j lurking in our long shipping-lanes, j c Cheese has first priority. Britain j* asked for 160,000 tons and Mr Bar- i clay tells us that we are likely to j t send 153,000 tons. There is no carry-over. Contrast the butter j position. No definite quota for but- J i ter can be fixed, but the Ministry of j - Food will take what it can. The anticipated result will be that, at! , the end of this year, 33,000 tons of . butler will be left in our stores, | which means that more than half our ! c available butter storage space will L be taken up with unsold butter. It i 1 is plain from this what Mr Barclay | has in mind when he says that a j { greater butter production is not in' i

our present interests. He might have' added that to use productive capacity i for more butter is not helping Die war effort. The need for decreasing our meal production is greater. Even if ship-; ping is not further disturbed there will be meat to the value of £5,250,000 remaining (he responsibility of the New Zealand Government at the end j of the year. When next season’s j killing operations begin the meat j stores will be more than half full of j meat carried over. Notwithstanding this the Government is retaining the open-door policy at freezing works, as well as prices so as to cause only the minimum hurt to farmers. It must be plain, however, to Government and farmers alike, that this cannot continue year after year if the war is going to be long or we shall have our stores cluttered up with surplus meat and butter. That might involve waste during the war and everyone knows the effect of accumulated surpluses of primary products on post-war markets. To avoid both these difficulties slimming of our meat and butter production should begin now. The Government is reasonable and wise in asking that, wherever possible, milk should he turned into cheese or milk products; in both meat production and dairying, activities should pe diverted to other channels, if they can be. Diversion in farming is often difficult and sometimes impossible. In some parts of New Zealand dairying land and sheep country cannot profitably be used for other classes of production, though some sheep farmers can concentrate on wool rather than meat. Much of the land in the Nelson district, however, is not so highly specialised and diversion there should not present insurmountable problems. It would be in the farmers’ interests because at present there does not appear much prospect of the clamp applied to our export markets being lifted for some time to come.