SOMETHING AHEAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3610, 22 May 1923, Page 10

SOMETHING AHEAD.

Yes, there is “something ahead.” Whether goad or bad will depend upon farmers themselves. If they rise to the occasion there is nothing to fear. If not, our dear lands will outplay them. Improved methods of pasturing stock, tillage, and the general treatment of our soils would seem an imperative present need. Taken together, it is not unreasonable to suppose that improved pastures arid constructive breeding would mean a larger volume of exports of primary products and the country’s salvation. Always provided, of course, that settlers availed themselves of such modern scientific teaching in agriculture offering. Apart from dearer lands, farmers to-day have to contend against an army of insect and fungoid pests unknown to the pioneers. Then our best customers are thousands of miles away, while our competitors will not always be “out of .action,” as at present, but rather gather strength and hasten to feed “hungry” Londoners and others. When that time comes—if there is any money left —it will take us all we know to hold the Home market. New Zealand products may smack of quality, but against the world’s competition they will need to be extra good to hold their own. The “get-up” of our goods must be left to those who know commercial life, but the quality and the quantity will, especially quantity, depend upon the man on the land. On the improvement of stock .and the feeding value of grazing areas our whole future pros perity We cannot reasonably hope to k*s®p up our exports unless science is linked atjp with agriculture and pastoral undertakings. Consider for a moment our pastures. It is natural for them to deteriorate when “settled.” Ominous word that when viewed from certain aspects. However, no one, we imagine, will contend there is no deterioration when eveiy year our surplus wool, meat, and dairy products are shipped out of the country, and there is no fertilising of pastures. Mr A. E. V. Richardson, Victorian Department of Agriculture, in an address last month at Hamilton, Victoria, put the matter plainly enough. Natural pasture deteriorates in several ways—(l) over-stock-ing and injudicious grazing, (2) spread of noxious weeds, (3) continual removal of the elements of nutrition by the annual crop of wool, lambs, fat stock, without the replacement of those nutritive elements by means of fertilisers. Let us consider these causes. By injudicious grazing and overstocking the better and finer grasses tend to disappear, and tire poorer types of indigenous vegetation and weeds are left in possession of the land. The spread of noxious weeds has lowered the grazing capacity of many fine pastures, and has even detrimentally affected land values. The continual removal of the elements of nutrition by the annual crop of wool, lambs, and fat stock, sold off the farm without replacement of certain mineral nutrients by artificial fertilising, will bring both rich and poor soils alike to a state of comparative exhaustion. It seems inevitable in, if we may call them, young countries that their rural lands should be depleted—“robbed,” we have often written —of their mineral and fertilising elements. It can only be for a time, though, when our virgin soils were kind to the early pioneers. A .big area of pasture to-day fails to deliver the weight of produce (alive or dead j of former year’s. The application of phosphates or phosphates and lime as a topdressing is known to produce marked effects on grass lands, the weight of herbage being increased, the clovers vastly increased and impi'oved, while the palatability and stock-carrying capacity of the herbage is much increased. No need, perhaps, to here further stress the fact that our natural pastures are the source of our greatest annual returns. We may observe, however, that the chief limiting factors, apart from climatic conditions, of our cereal crops depend upon the available fertilising ingredients, which approximately may he deemed the essential elements —nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash, not forgetting lime as a soil ameliorator. We pass on to say a word in connection with constructive breeding, more particularly as it affects our dairying industry, although very similar reasons for quality in dairy stock may be adduced in regard to sheef>-breed!ng. Dairy farmers in their own interests will have to go in for the elimination of the poor-yielding milk cow by the wholesale adoption of herd-testing and pedigree bulls of a milking strain, together with more care of young stock and care in the treatment of milk. Some countries have introduced legislation destined to end the ca.reer of the scrub bull in the course of a few years, but no one desires such interference in the dairying industry if it can be avoided. Admittedly it is not an easy matter for a dairyman with a considerable mortgage on his holding to plunge for a pure-bred sire, and, unfortunately, directors of dairy factories lack in the main sufficient vision to see that it would pay the community handsomely if they took a hand and “stalled” something extrq good in the bull line, which might for a small fee be- made available to the dairymen owning small herds. Something, however, should be

attempted by those interested in the dairy industry apart from an individual dairyman’s efforts to improve his herd. it takes time to improve a dairy herd. The quickest method is heading the herd with a good pedigree hull which has the guarantee of generation of milkers behind him. We should aim for a milking pedigree, not merely a pedigreed hull or one who has only his looks to recommend him. If a dairyman is going to save his own heifer calves from his best cows, it is absolutely essential that the calves should descend from a pedigree bull of a guaranteed milking and high-testing s-train. Then the bull should be given a chance and tried out until his worth or otherwise was proved. By herd-testing it is not a difficult matter to find out just what his daughters are capable of at the milk pail, and ascertain just how much they have improved on the yields of their dams. Two years is not time enough to prove a. bull’s worth. It is not always advisable to shirk mating him up with his offspring, although in-breeding is looked on askance by many breeders. Anyway, the bull can be kept in a bull paddock for a considerable time of the year, thus doubling his potency, and tried out thoroughly. Hand in hand with improvement of the dairy herd should necessarily go herd-testing and the marketing of those which fail to pay their way. An authority has stated that it costs approximately £l2 10s per annum to keep a cow in New Zealand, made up as follows: —lnterest on cost of land, £6; labour per cow, £5: upkeep of plant and depreciation, etc., £1 10s; — a total of £l2 10s. If butter-fat realises Is 6d per lb, a cow must yield 1671 b fat before one can reckon upon a profit. We should not like to hazard a guess as to how many Dominion cows are milked at a dead loss. This is a matter that should and can be remedied if dairymen will hut view the matter aright. The happy solution is determined by weeding, feeding, and breeding, helped out by herd-testing. There is another point worth mentioning : “Half the breeding goes in at the mouth,” a dangerous saying in itself, as no amount of feed will make a dairy cow which is not possessed of the inherent milking qualities, a first-class pail-filler. Add the uords “and all the constitution” and wc have a well-balanced slogan. In connection with the foregoing we would draw attention to the fact that some time this month, the week before the Otago Winter Show, the Department of Agriculture purpose delivering a course of lectures to farmers on various subjects pertaining to agricultural and pastoral matters affecting farmers in the province. The subjects have been chosen with a view of covering those matters in which knowledge is generally lacking. Similar courses have been held with great benefit to all concerned in the North Island, and as a galaxy of expert talent will be in attendance on the 29th inst. we trust that this initial farm course at Dunedin will be well patronised, and that the experts will “rub it in.”