ON THE LAND

Southland Times, Issue 20664, 20 April 1929, Page 7

ON THE LAND

REVIEW OF THE WEEK

DAIRY PRODUCTION IN SOUTHLAND OAT CROPS DISAPPOINTING The weather during the last week or two has shown some improvement, but latterly it has been marked by wintry tendencies. Oat Crop Disappointing. Oats are offering more freely now, but so far the samples submitted have been somewhat disappointing, and it appears that there will only be a very small proportion of A grades this season, most of the oats being dark in colour. The cause for this is partly ascribed to the bad weather experienced while the oats were ripening, and also while the crops were in the stook. The general experience seems to be that the yield is quite good, but the grain is not up to first grade quality. It is expected that some improvement will be noticeable in the case of oats kept in the stack for some time. Top-dressing. A large shipment of African phosphate and basic slag has been discharged from the Rangitiki this week, and also some 30 per cent, potash. A large proportion of this will be railed direct from the ship to the farmers and will be sown during the next few weeks. Orders for top-dressing manures seem to be very good for this season, and it is likely that record quantities of fertilizers will be applied this season. The movement has developed very rapidly in Southland, and all farmers appeared to be convinced of the remarkable benefit to be obtained as a result of top-dressing. A farmer in the Oteramika district reports that the carrying capacity of his holding has been increased 300 per cent, as a result of consistent top-dressing. Many farmers who have adopted top-dressing with marked success declare that they are doing little more than struggling along. One is tempted to wonder what would have been their position had they not carried out topdressing. Demand for Farm Lands. There continues to be a good inquiry for land, but not a great many sales have been reported so far this season. The inquiry is principally for small places with an easy ingoing and, of course, it is difficult to secure such properties owing to the fact that lenders are very conservative in their advances on land. However, the prospects are that during the current winter a number of properties will change hands. The interest from the north is still evident, and it seems probable that the approaching visit of South Taranaki farmers will increase this tendency as in all parts of Taranaki it is reported that the price of land Is still a good deal in excess of its value. Southland has never suffered from this to any extent, and so farm lands should prove quite attractive to the visitors and any transactions that may take place will be to the advantage of Southland. Dairying. The supply of milk at the various dairy factories is being well maintained, and there are bright prospects for a good supply in the latter part of the season. The quantities of dairy produce received into cool store to the end 'of March show a considerable increase in cheese, but a very decided drop in butter. This latter, it has been suggested, may be largely due' to increased local sales, in which case the actual manufacture of dairy products might show an increase over last year’s figures. The shipments from Bluff would seem to have been fairly satisfactory this season, as at March 31 there remained in store at Bluff a balance of 21,505 crates of cheese as compared with 28,551 crates at the same date last year and 4801 boxes of butter whereas there remained at the same time last year 5241.

The increase in the manufacture of cheese, according to the returns from the cool stores, amounted during the first six months of the season to 6281 crates, equal to 5.5 per cent., but the decrease in butter is much more substantial, amounting to 10,979 boxes, equal to 43.2. Those figures do not, however, mean that the decrease, if any, is as great as might be suspected, as to date only 14,392 boxes of butter have been sent into store, while the quantity of cheese amounts to 119,586 crates. The quantities of cheese forward during the individual months for this and last season were, as follows:—

1928-29. 1927-28. September . . . . 100 — October . . . . . 7,513 6.354 November 18,880 19,160 December . 24,482 24.047 January . . . . . 27,205 24,343 February . . . . . 21,559 21.123 March . . .... 19,847 18,276 119,506 113,305 The butter figures for the same period are as follows • 1928-29. 1927-28. September 16 752 October . . 637 1.484 November 2,483 5,081 December , 3,245 6,056 January . 4,011 5,940 February . .... 2,573 4,114 March . . .... 1,427 1,944 14,392 25,371