FARMING IN ENGLAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18235, 2 November 1933, Page 11

FARMING IN ENGLAND

EXCELLENT STOCK PRICES NEW ZEALANDER’S IMPRESSIONS Impressions of his tour, and particularly of farming in Britain, were outlined to a Hawora< Star representative by Mr. J. J. Patterson, Manaia, who has returned after a holiday of six months spent in England and Scotland. As a general rule the grass pastures were’ not equal to-,those of New Zealand and in pasture management the standard of efficiency was much higher in the Dominion. Mr. Patterson was, however, impressed by the manner in which hay stacks wore finished, and nowhere had he seen better. He saw no Jersey cattle, and Shorthorns seemed to be the favorite breed. HolstQins and Ayshires were also greatly fancied. In the dairy classes he vyas not over-impressed with the quality. As an instance of the price some farmers wore securing for their milk, •Mr. Patterson mentioned that one. I with a herd of 40 tuberculosis tested ‘cows, was .obtaining sixpence per pint from some customers and the .balance ! was sold at fourpence per pint. There was considerable tubercolosis in tho {herds in England and milk, from guaranteed free cows brought a very good price indeed. Most of the farmers wore leaseholders and the ront for dairy land would range from £1 to £1 ‘lQs.'por aero. Labor was, cheaper •than in New Zoaland and general overhead appeared to bo much lower. 'The releasor system, in machine milkiug was found to be little understood, and for the most part the old fashioned bucket plants were in use. j HIGH PRICES FOR STOCK. j Stock prices were found to be very !high in comparison with New Zealand • values. At the Carlisle market dairy ' cows brought exceptionally good •prices, £25 boing paid on one occasion when Mr. Patterson was prosont for a newly-calved heifer and £2 10s Tor the calf. Fat lambs brought up to £1 Is. pigs up to £4 and £5, with heavy pigs in the vicinity of £lO. Three-year-old bullocks at that time were • fetching about £lB. With the cows ’no guarantee was given, and every 1 animal sold appeared to be taken at .the buyer's risk. A feature of the sales was that the animals were inj variably in vory good condition. ! Good farming land could be bought for £l4 an acre, find Mr. Patterson thought that a young man with a little capital would have a better chance of making a success at Homo than in New Zealand. All things considered, the British farmer could not bo regarded as badly off, and in some respects lie was on a better footing than the New Zealand farmer. However, the British farmers were not very optimistic about their mar- : kets. 1 Cropping was apparently very profitable and the returns per acre would, on tho average, be regarded in Now Zealand as highly satisfactory. Mr. Patterson spent some time at, the Smith field market, being desirous of obtaining first-hand information concerning the quality of New Zealand beef and mutton. He found that . although it did not have the bloom of the English product New Zealand mutton was in good demand, with tho quality very uniform. Our lamb was very highly spoken off and tho demand very' firmly established. A shipment of .New Zealand beef that was ! inspected did .not appear to be very satisfactory, the color being very dark and tho quarters “weeping.” Ono butcher complained that a good deal of the New Zcalaud beef seemed t‘o bo j handled in too hurried a fashion, and the animal heat did not seem to bo allowed to pass out of it before it was frozen. Mr. Patterson formed the opinion that if it could be satisfactorily chilled there was a good future for beef. | sr—=—====