LIVE STOCK STATISTICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1929, Page 8

LIVE STOCK STATISTICS.

The reports made to shareholders by the directorates of the various co-opera-tive dairy companies in Taranaki have been unanimous in one respect. They have all recorded an increase in production that has been highly satisfactory. The manner in which the increase has been brought about is disclosed in ttome degree by the interim returns of live stock for the year 1929 that have now been issued. Attention has been drawn to the fact that the Hocks of the Dominion have reached the record of over 2!),009,000 sheep, but dairy cows furnish another record figure of 1,371,000, an increase of some 18,000 on last year’s returns. The figures are admittedly not complete, but interim returns are usually conservative It ml the final figures will probably show an increase even greater than the one now shown. For this increase in dairy stock the North Island is wholly responsible. In the South Island dairying has been on the wane since 1925, and even this year's figures show a decline of 5100 in the number of cows over that for 1928. The expansion in the North Island has therefore been compelled to counteract the shrinkage in the South Island before a new record number of stock could be achieved. In the North Island there were 23,800 more dairy cows this year than last, leaving, after allowing for the southern shrinkage, a nett gain to the Dominion of 18,400. The causes of the decline in the dairying industry in the South Island seem worthy of investigation, especially seeing that one of the main reasons for railway extension there is to facilitate intensive settlement. In the North Island the expansion is steady, and judging from reports received from dealers in live stock, the demand for dairy cows shows that the limit of the industry’s growth is not even within sight. For cattle other than dairy cows there is also an upward movement shown in the official figures. Though the record number of 19’22 was not reached the 1929 provisional figures show an increase of 152,000 head. This would seem proof that the problem of “deteriorated” or second-class land is on the way to solution, while at the marketing end or the business the prospects for beef are a little less depressing than they have been for the past five years. On the whole the live stock statistics arc distinctly cheering, and are proof that the expansion in the dairy industry rests upon a solid basis.