SHEEP REPLACING COWS

Southland Times, Issue 23141, 6 March 1937, Page 14

SHEEP REPLACING COWS

WAIKATO MOVEMENT

The huge sum of money the Government will certainly have to find to square the guaranteed butter price to farmers is evidently causing some perturbation in northern dairying circles. The Government will obviously be in a quandary if prices do not improve next year, as it will scarcely wish to reduce further the figure which is already unsatisfactory to the dairy man, while on the othqr hand an accumulation of losses in the dairying account would seriously embarrass its finances and create much criticism.

For the last eight or nine years there has been a great movement of breeding ewes from the East Coast to the dairying districts of Waikato, the number varying from season to season, according to the prospects of the dairying industry, says the Press. Most of the 100,000 or more ewes which used to find a way to the Canterbury market are now exclusively diverted to the Waikato. For a number of weeks an average of 10,000 weekly has been travelled across from Gisborne to the rail-head at Taneatua. The total that will be sent is not yet known, but it is . estimated to be double that of last season. It was mentioned last year that the number was in excess of 200,000, so that if double the number is to be sent across this season it should have a substantial effect in reducing dairy production in the Waikato district.