FARMERS’ COMPETITIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1932, Page 7

FARMERS’ COMPETITIONS

! < AWARDS PRESENTED AT URENUI. PASTURES AND ENSILAGE. At Urenui last night, in the presence of a representative gathering of farmers presided oter by Mr. J. F. Phillips, president •of the Urenui branch of the Farmers’ Union, the prizes won in the district at this season’s pasture competitions were pre■sented. -

In calling upon Mr. J. M. Smith, of the Agricultural Department, to present the prizes, the chairman-remarked that already the competitions appeared to be- bearing good results. Last year there were 20 entries, a considerable increase on the previous year, and he expected that next year would show a further increase.

Mr. J. M. Smith congratulated the district on the fine position it had taken in connection with the competitions. Urenui had come to be recognised throughout Taranaki as one of the leading districts, and that opinion was justified by results. He explained the position in regard to the 1.C.1. Cup, pointing out that the pasture competition had been divided into two classes —dairying pastures and open pastures. The donors of the cup had decided that the cup' should be allocated to the dairying pasture. Unfortunately that precluded Mr. S. Topless, who already, “had one leg in,” from competing further -for the cup. Mr, Topless was presented with a miniature for his previous year’s win. Mr. S. Topless very sportingly accepted the position. Mr. Smith then presented certificates and prizes as folio wo: —. Pasture competition (open):—S. Topless, 90 points 1. Pasture competition (local): —D. L. Tate, 89 points, 1; G. Salway, 87 points, 2; S. Managh and S. Topless, 86J points, 3. Certificates were presented as follow: — Ensilage (hillside stacks): —A. Vaughan, 1; R. Weedon, 2. Ensilage (earth pits)P. Elliot, 1. Mr, S. Topless suggested that the ten leading, pastures should be again judged by the point analysis system. Mr. J. M. Smith agreed that the idea was a good one, as where there were about 100 good pastures to judge and some of these were judged days apart, it _ was certainly difficult to judge. He pointed out that a points analysis would be expensive. Mr. Topless considered a charge should be made for' the points analysis. Mr. Freeth considered it would be unfair to re-judge the pastures some weeks later. Mr. Smith pointed out that that difficulty could be got over by setting a standard, say 90 points, and at once analysing any pasture that reached that standard. He also emphasised the fact that productivity was the main requirement of a pasture, and therefore it might be advisable later to have two judgings, once in the spring and once in the winter.

Mr. Freeth and others spoke in high terms of the work carried out by Mr. J. M. Smith in the interests of the farmers, who perhaps did not realise what a great asset he was to them.

Mr. Freeth urged the necessity for continuing the competitions, which set a very high standard in North Taranaki, due to the work put into it by Mr. Smith. It was unanimously decided to carry on with the competitions. _