FARM and STATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17173, 1 February 1930, Page 11

FARM and STATION

A Taranaki farmer recently sold a dairy farm at Te Roti, seven miles from Unworn, for £7l) per acre cash. * * * * If stacks are built narrow and long' they will dry out ami spontaneous combustion will not occur, writes a Waikato correspondent. * * * * A mob of 2000 lambs were trucked recently from Rotorua railway station. They came from Galatea station and are the second big draft to be sent a wav. *** * * * Sales of cheese have been made lately bv factories in North Taranaki at Sid f.o.b for the January-May make. It is understood that about .iOO tons are involved. * ■* * # The weather conditions at present prevailing in Central Hawke's Bay are favorable to pastoral farming, while throughout the countryside are to be seen excellent rape and turnip crops. Harvesting is now in general progress. * * * * A Taranaki farmer revisiting the - Waikato after 30 years was greatly impressed with the improvement in the pastures and the carrying capacity of the land in and around Matamnta, i Hinuera and Te Awamutu. lie considered it quite equal to Taranaki, and the price of land generally Was much more reasonable. - 1 .v*‘ * /" \ [ /rlrq . fi'fctjzihg 4 kehsoh dpe'Hfcd. in Southland last week and the schedule rates which are said to be identical with those in Canterbury, are as iollows:—Firsts, under 371 b, BJd; 37-4211), 8d; 43-50ib, 7]d; over 501 b, (s]d. Seconds, under 3tilb, 74d; 371 b upwards, 7d. All these rates are for lambs delivered at the works. # * * * A Monzies Ferry farmer brought some scraggy wool into an Invercargill dealer recently. The wool realised Sid. This week the same dealer offered his client 7}d for a line which the farmer, basing his estimate on the price obtained for his previous sale, anticipated was worth at least lid. . * * * * Motor-trucks as a means of transporting fat lambs from the saleyards to the freezing works are coming more and more into use all over the Dominion. One of the Canterbury works has adopted this method this season, using trucks capable of carrying .120 lambs. Not only is there a great saving in time, but it is stated that loss in the weight of lambs is obviated. * * * * A Wanganui resident who does much travelling along this coast said he had never known a season for probably over 20 years when there were such large numbers of ewes still unshorn. # * * * Two Australian farmers recently made an extensive tour of the Nortli and South Islands. They were greatly taken up with the farming.districts they passed through, especially so in the North Island. They remarked that they never had seen such extensive green pasture. * * * * Ragwort, in the vicinity of Matamata, does net seem to have increased much ,this season. Scotch and Californian thistles have made strong growth, and many farmers are finding it advisable to run the mower over all their paddocks. It checks the seeding of the weeds and freshens the pastures for the herds. . L’ho cattle seem to eat the thistles readily after they have been cut for a few days. A considerable quantity of this roughage has been converted into ensilage, and in this form it is eaten with avidity by the stock.

Fat lambs are coming in freely at the Pukeuri works. There are now 30 slaughtermen on the boards. Although the season opened this year later than usual, the figures at Pukeuri are ahead of last year, and the prospects for a good season appear excellent.

An Otorohanga farmer who of recent years has Become exasperated at the unfavorable haymaking weather has just stacked 00 acres of excellent ensilage, providing some 300 tons of winter feed for his dairy herd, which lie considers will last him for two years. This progressive farmer considers that in future ensilage will replace hay as fodder for the dairy herds, as the hay is a most precarious crop under our weather conditions. * * * *

A matter that is causing the farmers and Agricultural Department officers real anxiety is the . apparent inevitability of a very light crop of

ryegrass. That is disquieting. New Zealand usually sows about 2(1,000 acres in ryegrass for seed, and the annual product is nigh upon a halfmillion bushels, worth (is -per bushel. As air off-set to those troubles, the weather this season suits turnips and swedes, and they are coming along well.

“.There is nothing in .breaking-in new country nowadays,; eveu if it were 'ayailftfel'e} 1 ’ ’■ -declared. f it,;’' Auoi'essjfnl, Taritmiki -fanner to 1 hP&aniihaki News' reporter. He went on to say lhat present costs-were prohibitive. Bushfelling would run into £2 10s an acre, grass seed another £2, fencing and buildings, nearly £4, making a total of £8 10s an aero, a cost much below which a fully improved back-block farm could be easily obtained. Settlement of new country was consequently at a complete standstill, and any increase in production was entirely due to the use of topdressing and better methods of farming of present lands. For public, men to talk of using relief workers to break in new country, in the backblocks or on pumice lands, was to betray a woeful ignorance of existing conditions. Settlement of this kind would prove ruinous.

A common sight in the Waikato during the past few weeks has been that of the families of fanners, in gum boots and oilskins, turning hay in the paddocks. A considerable amount, of hav nil over South Auckland has been ruined by rain, and it will have to be destroyed. Fortunately many farmers have turned their hay crops into ensilage, which is an excellent food that may be fed at all seasons. Much hay is. being stacked damp, and many fires from spontaneous combustion may bo expected during the coming year. One expert assorts that if stack's are built no wider than 12)1. no matter what their length they will dry out and spontaneous combustion will lie avoided.

Rain, the spoiler of* pleasure lor holiday-makers, has been the producer of profit for dairy farmers in Taranaki, and a material blessing. While factory payouts have been lower than usual the position may. be rectified because the production of Taranaki's chief concern, buttorfat, has increased, and the difference may net the same aggregate incomes. Instead ot commencing to drop about the middle of December as it usually does, production has been phenomenally high, probably 7 per cent, ahead of the average figures. Though this is only the seventh month of the dairying season there is every indication that 'given continued favorable conditions fat production will easily exceed of 1028-29, when a.record for the province was established by figures that were twice as high as the average returns for 10 years previously.