Pastoral Production

Southland Times, Issue 23897, 16 August 1939, Page 4

Pastoral Production

THE annual pastoral statistics for the Dominion, published in the Abstract of Statistics for July, reveal disturbing decreases in almost all classes of livestock. During the year ended January 31, 1939, the number of horses declined by 3,364, the number of dairy cows by 19,084, lambs shorn by 268,922, lambs tailed by 391,935, sheep and lambs by 521,225 and pigs by 73,003. The only increases were in the number of cattle (58,866) and the number of sheep shorn (759,366). While seasonal conditions may be responsible for the decline in some cases, and in others it may be merely a temporary fluctuation, the general downward trend is too marked to be overlooked. The decline in dairy cows, for instance, is attributable to neither of these causes: the number of cows, both dry and in milk, has fallen progressively since 1935, when the Dominion total was 1,952,094, compared with the latest figure of 1,853,713. Over five years the fall has amounted to more than

five per cent. The number of pigs has decreased on an even greater scale—from a peak figure of 808,000 in 1936 to 683,000 in 1939. This decline in the Dominion’s anima] population is to some extent reflected in the export returns for the production year ended June 30. Exports of butter, cheese, lamb and pork have all fallen substantially, the drop in the case of butter being as much as 14 per cent. It would be a mistake to read too much into these figures: the last dairy season was an exceptionally poor one, and if exports of some commodities declined, others, like wool, mutton and frozen beef, showed increases. Changes in the direction of pastoral production are inevitable and not necessarily bad. But when due allowance is made for all outside factors, the fall in dairy cows and dairy exports, in pigs and pork products and in the sheep population still requires explanation. It is impossible to believe that these decreases could be recorded if the pastoral industry was healthy and the guaranteed price was the stimulus to production that it is supposed to be. When the decreases are set beside the known shortage of efficient farm labour and the abandonment of good land, the Government has a difficult case to answer. It will not be answered by the further inflation of farm costs that is now under way.