PRIMARY PRODUCTION

Southland Times, Issue 20002, 16 October 1926, Page 2

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

WORK IN AUSTRALIA. IMPORTANT CONFERENCES. ASSISTANCE TO FARMERS. Sydney, September 30. To the impartial observer the development of Australia is proceeding along two distinct lines—the fostering of the secondary industries by tariffs and bounties, and the encouragement of primary producers to win still greater rewards than they are doing from Australia’s natural fertility. For the past fortnight the primary producers in New South Wales, at least, have filled the stage. The manufacturer has been pushed into the background. First, there was the Producers’ and Consumers’ Conference at Bathurst, of which the main object was to help farmers to obtain better prices for their products, and the consumer to pay lower, by devising better systems of marketing and distribution. Secondly, this week, a conference on “animal husbandry” has been sitting in Sydney under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales, to impart technical advice by highly-trained specialists to practical farmers. The two conferences are illustrations of the definite recognition that on the prosperity of -primary production depends the prosperity of the whole nation. The Bathurst conference, after all, belied the general opinion that its usefulness would be negligible. It was considered merely the frothy observance of an idle election-time pledge by the Labour Party. Instead, by whole-hearted co-operation between two such divergent bodies as producers and consumers, it is probable that the Minister responsible for convening it, Mr Loughlin, will persuade his Government to put into legislation valuable decisions made by the conference. In fact, he has given a sincere promise to do so. The decisions of the conference were unmistakable. The principle of collective marketing was favoured, and it was recognised that, in order to make this effective, producers should have the opportunity of indicating by a ballot that the handling of their product should be controlled by a board, on which producers should have direct majority representation, with reasonable representation to consumers. The marketing and distribution of every branch of agricultural and pastoral production were investigated. The animal husbandry conference has been remarkable for the many fine papers read by experts. Sheepbreeders’ problems were discussed from all points of view, among them being the advocacy by a farmer, who claimed to be speaking from the results of his own experience, of increased breeding for meat export. This expert claimed that from the wheat belt of New South Wales alone, farmers, as a sideline, could produce yearly for export 3,000,000 carcases of lamb and 1,000,000 of young crossbred mutton. All kinds of dairying problems were thrashed out, from the conservation of fodder and the improvement of pastures to the more scientific breeding of herds. There was expert advice of all kinds for farmers, and probably this will prove one of the most valuable methods of educating the farmers of this State that has yet been devised. The results, of course, will not be seen to-morrow, or next year, or even the next, but at some future date the seeds of wisdom sown here will bear their harvest. It has proved, indeed, what a great factor in our agricultural life is the Royal Agricultural Society, whose main work for the citizens of Sydney has been to provide them with its annual show at Eastertide. But this conference has demonstrated that it fe doing a much greater national work than that-.