WEATHER SPOILS HAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22620, 7 January 1937, Page 8

WEATHER SPOILS HAY

m | TOO MUCH HEAVY RAIN LOSSES ON TARANAKI FARMS [by telegraph—owx correspondent] NEW PLYMOUTH, Wednesday The frequent heavy rain throughout Taranaki is causing the farmers of the province a substantial financial loss. It is seriously affecting the hay harvesting and farmers who depend on late paddocks for the bulk of next winter's supply are likely to sufler ail acute shortage unless the weather clears, and remains clear, within tho next week. The quality of the milk is being affected and seasonal trade is paralysed. In many cases early crops were ruined by the almost continuous rains of the late spring, and even those farmers fortunate enough to get their dry feed stacked have had to be content with inferior material, for W nearly every case the grass has been down in the paddocks too long to r e * tain its high feed value. Many pad* docks were closed late in the hope that the usual dry weather of mid* December and early January would allow extra stacks to be made. AH work in the liayfields was, however, impossible. Another effect of the excessive rain* fall and high temperatures of the past fortnight has been a lowering of the quality of milk for cheesemaking. On® Xorth Taranaki factory yesterday reported that only 25 per cent of its suppliers were able to supply first-gra milk during the last week of Decernb <