FARMING COSTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4046, 11 May 1938, Page 5

FARMING COSTS

INFORMATION WANTED. DAIRY BOARD REQUEST. OPINIONS IN TARANAKI. The first steps regarding the guaranteed price for butter and cheese for next season are being taken by the Dairy Control Board, which has cicularised all dairy company secretaries seeking information, mainly regarding costs on farms, says the Taranaki Daily News. Two elaborate forms With a questionnaire of over 60 items are requested to be filled in and returned by April 13. These generally deal with prices of materials such as seeds, manures and wire for the season ending March, 1936, and March, 1938. Form B requests the ruling prices at the two dates of nearly 30 items, in eluding rubber inflations, petrol, en- | gine oil and cement. Form A asks •for a complete return o-f assets, receipts and expenditure. Each company is asked to return the forms after being filled in by five suppliers, one of whom supplies approximately 3001 b. of butterfat per annum, one 6001 b., one 9001 b., one 12,0001 b., and one 15,0001 b. The covering circular states that it will be necessary that the directors should arrange for the selected five farmers to be called upon personally and assisted to supply the information. The five farmers are to be average farmers in the respective classes. “Tremendous Job.” “It is a tremendous job to do, and I do not think that the Board realises what it is asking for,” stated a prominent dairy company director. “It is doubtful whether any farmers have records that could supply the information. Most farmers do a great

deal from memory. The figures that could be obtained would be too indefinite to be of any use.” “The scheme is not feasible,” stated the secretary of several companies. “It is useless to ask dairy farmers for such detailed information and obtain any satisfactory results. Form B is ridiculous, as nearly all the information could easily have been gathered from the various dealers and merchants.” Another secretary stated definitely that the whole affair verged on the ridiculous. He said that although the idea had something to recommend it, it was obvious that those who had drawn up the schedule had no practical knowledge of the affairs of dairy farmers. “For instance, it was suggested that the directors of one company should supply returns, but not one of them supplied less than 80,000 lb. of fat per annum. Any returns supplied would be 75 per cent, guesswork and it would obviously be foolish to attempt to base any guaranteed prices upon such statistics. I will be very much surprised if more than 10 per cent, of the forms ever find their way back to Wellington.” i v.