DOMINION FARMING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26478, 4 June 1947, Page 6

DOMINION FARMING

INFORMATION FOR AMERICA RADIO DIRECTOR’S VISIT Special radio programmes for the farming community had become a feature of broadcasting in the United States of America, said Mr Wallace L. Kadderly, farm service director of radio station KGW at Portland, Oregon, who arrived in Dunedin yesterday on a short observation visit to Otago. Mr Kadderly is a former chief of the United States Department of Agriculture radio service, a post he held m Washington, D.C., for eight years. Visiting Australia as a representative of the United States Department of Agriculture, at the invitation of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, for consultations and to acquaint himself with Australian farming, Mr Kadderly has come to New Zealand to gain information on various aspects of farming here. . During the recent war radio had been used with great success to acquaint the farmers of America with the war agriculture programme, said Mr Kadderly, and its use was being increased during the present difficult post-war years to keep the farming community fully informed on subjects of interest to them, explaining what they were being asked to do and telling them why. A wealth of valuable information was being imparted to the American farmers in this way. Of the 3000 counties in the United States which had agricultural instruction services, at least half used radio regularly to reach the farmers. Department of Agriculture instructors, experimental stations and colleges of agriculture all cooperated with regular contributions to these programmes. Weather and market reports were also given. A popular innovation was the broadcast made “on the spot.” With portable sets, recordings 'were made at stock fairs, meetings of all kinds, and on farms where new machinery was being operated or new systems of farm management were being tried. Radio interviews were taken on the scene of the various activities, and these proved immensely popular with farmerlisteners. Similar to Oregon There was much farm land in New Zealand that was similar in many respects to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, continued Mr Kadderly. The valley was 125 miles long" and 40 miles wide, and had many of the characteristics of farming country in the Dominion. For that reason, among others, Mr Kadderly was anxious _to gain a first-hand appreciation of dairy management in New Zealand, particularly with respect to pasture manage r ment and the other things that make it possible in so many districts to produce between 2501 b and 3001 b of butter-fat an acre. Pastures in New Zealand had surprised him, although he had expected to see good ones. Mr Kadderly is particularly interested in the grass-seed industry, which is also established in Oregon, and he has been inspecting fields in New Zealand and talking with producers about the growing of imoroved strains of cocksfoot, perennial ryegrass and Chewing s fescue. Farmers in Oregon had been troubled with rust and blind seed disease, and Mr Kadderly had been anxious to learn how these were combatted in the Dominion. New Zealand. however, had made no more progress in this direction than had been achieved in America. The American farmers would be particularly interested in New Zealand’s short-rotation (H. 1.) ryegrass, which Mr Kadderly was asked to investigate by the Oregon State Agricultural College. Chewing’s fescue, which was imported by the United States from New Zealand, was now being grown increasingly in the States.

During his visit, Mr Kadderly added, he had gained a picture of the growing of the fast-maturing fat Canterbury lambs, the crosses used to produce them and the pastures for fattening. He had also obtained information fpr the breeders of Romney sheep m Oregon. Expressing pleasure with all he had seen of agricultural and pastoral New Zealand, Mr Kadderly said it had tallied with the description given him bv Mr F. S. Board, a New Zealander who has his business headquarters in Chicago. Mr Board is making arrangements for the manufacture in the United States of the “ vacreator a machine, the patent for which is held in New Zealand, which pasteurises cream under pressure, removing all flavours created by feeding, such as those by turnips and weeds. Mr Kadderly will leave Dunedin by air to-morrow morning for Auckland, where he will connect with the Pan-American Airways clipper for the United States.