STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 7

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

By Dhotbh.

Weekly Stock Sules : Fortnightly : Burn«4e, Wednesdays Invercrpil, Tuesday!, A«fcbarto», Tuesday* Vcnlhly: Addiaeto^Wedneadaya aiDtoj)< Pal y mer , ton . Fortnightly: Winton, «cd W«|. Balclutha Fridays kouait). Gore, Tuesdays Ftritiicdlly: GUaiaru, Tuesdays Heriot, Kelsc and Ky« bur*. Thera is no change to record in th« market for fat stock. Export buyers contine to act with caution, and do not advance on prices lately current for lambs, and buy mutton in very small quantity. The store sheep market at Addington last week was decidedly weaker, but not so in Otago and Southland. The good rains and genial weather lately have made feed prospects for some time to come good, and the present effect is an advance, in the price of anything like forward sheep and lambs of 16 od to 2s per head. "Whether the fact of there now being grass in abundance to eat down warrants the advance in store sheep v and lambs remains to be seen. If the rains, besides making ths grass grow, advanced the pricvti of fat stock, and inspired export buyers with confidence, the advance would be justified, but at present the good rains in South Canterbury, Otago, and Southland have not had any such effect. In some instances lately, notably at the Otekaike sale, the rains caused such an advance in store stock) as to put about 3s per head into the sellera* pockets. The present state of the wool and meat market does nofc warrant any boom in store sheep, and so far as I can see it is incumbent on farmers to exercise caution, m buying stores. lam inclined to think the etock agents will make more money out of this business than the farmer* who buy. The Auckland Weekly Xews of March 5

lias a good article on tb« lessons to b* learnt by farmers from ths drought, The writer's remarks apply more particularly to the Auckland district, but, generally speaking, have application, more or less, to all parts of New Zealand, and 1 therefore Rive gome quotations and comments. The writer' 3 first statement certaitly has general Application when he says: There is no doubt that the great lesson offered to tho farmers of Northern New ZeaJand by tb.9 recent spell of 3ry summer weather is the need for the cultivation of fodder .ri-ps and the providing of hay and ensilage. They lose jioney every year by depending too much on grass. There are' in every district of New Zealand farmers wio know the value of raising crops both for su-nmer an«? winter, and these are usually the "most successful men in the agricultural community," and obtain a larger return from their land than others. Unfortunately, there are also a still larger number of people owning land and stock who think grass the eim and end of all farming, and sometimes •they are not particular as to the quality of the grass they depend on. These men suffer financially when a few weeks of drought conic, or when the winter is loner and cold, and, worse still, their stock suffer. Almost invariably their milking cows yield poorly in the spring, and go off early in the autumn. It is to such men that the lessons of drought and winter should be preached in season and out of season. The writer suggests lucerne-growing, and also the humble cabbage. Of lucerne he writes : The most desirable locality in which to grow 'this crop is on some river flat which has s subsoil free from stagnant water, but any place will do which has a good deep fertile sod) or soil that can be made fertile ■with manure. The drier and hotter such places are in the summer time the better lucerne thrives., provided there is water ■within 12 or 20 feet from the surface. Lucerne is a deep-rooting plant, and has been known to penetrate to depths of 30 or more feet in free soil, so that no drought ire are likely to have in New Zealand would affect it seriously. Well established and properly handled, this plant will provide many successive cuttings in the year for «ight or 10, or even 20 years. It is estimated that the green feed from one acre of lucerne would keep 10 cows in milking condition through the summer when the pastures are yielding scarcely any succulent feed. There are certainly parts of Otago and *jtenthland that could do more in giving **cerne a trial than has ever- been the case. **fH«j©rne can also be turned into hay or tomilage if not wanted as green feed, and were are many other crops besides lucerne Ima.t1 ma.t could be grown. Of course, in Otago, wuthland, and even in Canterbury the tarnips that can be growp are nearly always & great and valuable winter feed. So far as they are used for fattening sheep and cattle, this is a matter for congratulation. Not so, however, with dairy cows, and year by year this is becoming more apparent. The dairy-farmer of Otago and Touthland will sooner or later find himself forced to find some substitute for turnips as winter feed. This has been the case in every country that is keeping ahead in d"airy'ng. Turnips are not used by Canadian or Danish dairymen. Their winters are much more severe than ours ever are at their worst, and yet they find it pays to do without turnips and use other fodder, and we shall find the same result, so that the sooner we «et about growing suitable .winter -feed other than turnips for our •dairy cows the better. Even in those districts of New Zealand, either in North or j ; South Island, that have suffered this year .from drought there was in the early part ! lof t!te season thousands of tons of rough j ! feed that simply went to waste. In South- 1 Hand this is elways the case, and the same thing 1 occurs every wliere and every year. This material could easily- be cut with a mowing- machine and made into ensilage. The labour could not be great, as cutting and stacking can be carried on in almost any weather, and herbage useless for hay makes good ensilage—Cal'fornian thistles for instance. This ensilage ' will do either for winter or summer. If j all far. rs had seen to this in the North i Island the six weeks' drought would not j have paralysed some of them as it seems ! to have done. It seems positively a dis- ' grace to New Zealand that a paltry six' weeks dry weather should cause such a ■ <v>llapse in such a fine country as ours. \ but the fact is that it is not the country, i lft;t some of the people in it, that have been aeriously at fault over this matter. There has been of late years a geod deal «f talk about improving our herds by t*~-t- ! mg the cows— a ?ood "d«al of taJk and. I <un glad to *&y, T know some work too, but r.nt so much as I would like, to see. Our' average milk supply from cows is very far , p»low what it should and could be. 'Test- j tasr of the herds is not so general as it ' might and should be. The paper read an '< ti;.« West of Scotland Agricultural Discusfcion Society bt Mr John Speir, a leading j dairyman, which has been published 1 in the ' *7itn*«s, sjlrfts several instances of striking results. Tn one case a dairy-fanner began with an average of *50ga! per annum per jow for his beet. 12. from which h» bred, i Vy weeding: out the popr yielders, and . breeding always from ihe best, in his tenth ' v^ar hi's average was 600 gal for the be*t ! 12. and in the twentieth year 868 gal. An- I oth»!- farmer, who has had many sucmssr? ! it Th<} dairr show, besan to keen a milk record in 1885. What the average yield was then is not stated : but by "1890 he •made an average of 729 gal from 33 cows. *nd in 1894 one of 842 gal each from 43 rows. In another casj a start was made with cows a'l purchased. Many were found to yield under 400ga1. and" all were weeded out that gave les3 than 600. After some years the minimum was raised to 700 gal, j and after this year it is to be 800. There i is no doubt that in New Zealand dairymen j keep and feed among their dairy herd I many of what Americans call " lodgers." i who <io not pay for their keep. Mr Speir said of these "lodgers." "They are the very worst kind of lodgers, as they live on the best, and then leave without paying the landlady." If farmers cannot weigh and te«t the milk, which is the best plan, they misrhl, I think, keep &' record of the gallons by measuring or weighing. Th" exports of dairy produce* to London by the rearular fortnightly steamers up to the <?n.l of February are: — 350.65-2 box« 8 bufcfer, equal to 9516 tons 133.494 crates che«M, equal to 8833 tons For the same period last season the shipBents were: — 480,ft72 boxes butter, equal to 10.774 tons 111,92-2 crates obeesß, equ»l to 7,414 ions

This shows a decrease in the butter shipments for this season of 1253 tons, but an increase of 1419 tons of cheese. As the increase in cheese is equal to about another 800 tons of butter, there is no very great shortage in our dairy exports, even after the six weeks' drought, which was most severe in the Wellington province. Auckland aiso suffered severely. Taranaki did not, on the whole, suffer so much as the Wellington and Auckland districts. Nelson suffered, but the dairy produce from- that district is comparatively small. Hawke's Bay district supplies very little at any time also. North Canterbury dairying district suffered severely, and there the output continues small, for as yet sufficient rain has not come to do any good. Southland and Otago cannot be said to have suffered at all, and the outputs of butter and cheese this season are larger than ever. At the present time every district in tho North and South Island has had good rains from the end of February, except North Canterbury, and grass is coming away well. London buyers have for the most parft sold the outputs for March to buyers in the colony, who were eager purchasers during our drought seare x at up to 118s. f.o.b. From now to the end of April stocks will gradually accumulate in the cold stores here, and it looks as if there would be no short supply for local winter trade. The market in London is now on the down grade. Shipments at Bluff and Dunedin this month will average 3500 crates for the fortnight, about 2500 of which go from ihe Bluff.