ON THE LAND

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1932, Page 10 (Supplement)

ON THE LAND

DOMINION FARMING VIEWS OF A NEWCOMER. IMPROVING DAIRYING PRACTICE. “Agriculture to-day is a business of fine art. To make it a paying proposition farmers have to use scientific methods, adopt intensive cultivation, feet dairy cows with balanced rations, conserve fodder on a large scale, and have a definite object in view.” This opinion is expressed by Mr. W. 'S. Watson, N.D.D., recently a dairy, stock and veterinary inspector in the employ of the Government of India, who has permanently settled in Auckland after two ■previous visits to the Dominion. Mr. Watson is well known in Australian farming circles as. a judge of all classes of stock.’ “To-day,” he writes, “one hears of low prices and that agriculture is not a paying business. But what has the average New Zealand farmer done to combat these low prices ? Take the position of Denmark, Germany and the Irish Free State. Years- ago the farmers of those countries had a definite object m view—the improvement of livestock and the lowering of the costs of production. For a number of years representatives from Denmark and Germany visited Scotland for the purpose ,of purchasing stud bulls to lease to the farmers for a nominal sum. Look at the position they are in to-day. “The Irish Free State has been doing the same on a much larger scale and her export of surplus cattle to the British Isles has improved 100 per cent, in this last 10 years. In New Zealand legislation should be passed licensing all stallions, bulls and rams which are to be used for stud purposes. Scotland has embarked on that principle.

■EFFORTS IN VICTORIA. “Another good way is the Victorian system. There, should a small farmer wish to improve his dairy herd’and has not the money to purchase a bull with butter-fat records, the Government will do so for him and the farmer pays on' an easy instalment system. Another way in which Victoria is endeavouring to improve her stock is by a compensation fund. This involves a stamp duty, which has to be paid on all 1 cattle sold. Should the animals develop any contagious disease the Government orders its slaughter and the full amount is paid providing a receipt is produced with the stamps affixed. This gives encouragement to farmers not to hold unhealthy stock. , “In New Zealand all cows that aic under test should be tattooed. In the event of a sale the purchaser could soon find out the amount of butter-fat she has produced. No doubt a lot of cows here are rejected 'by energetic farmers only to be purchased agai.. by another and (submitted to test in. another association. ■ “With regard to the wool and sheep industry there has been such a demand for fat lambs in the past that breeders have lost sight of the wool question and the replacement of breeding ewes. Alany of” the sheep I have seen in my travels seem to be only culls from the tat. lambs. How do farmers expect to get prime lambs from these ?

FAT LAMBS AND WOOL. "While judging in Australia I always considered wool and. carcase in breeding ewes. I have samples which averaged Is 4d per lb. at the last Melbourne wool sales, and the lambs from these ewes averaged 1-Ss each. A German wool buyer not long ago informed me that the New Zealand wool was not attractive enough for them to come here. The sheepfarmer has to have an object in view, and that is better breeding stock. He must- go back to where the earlier generation started, and use Lincoln or English Leicester rams. He will then obtain good ewes- of carcase and wool. "The dairying industry throughout the world has made great, strides in a few years. If New Zealand wishes to keep or better her position she must improve her methods from the cow to the consumer, as Australia and the Argentine will be great rivals in the near future. Farmers to-day do not treat milk, etc., as the vital food it has proved to be.

CONDITIONS ON DAIRY FARMS. “I have visited numerous farms, and have frequently found that the most non-hygienic conditions exist. With these methods, do farmers expect their produce to be of the choicest ? “[ have studied the question of the milk supply to Auckland. Milk is delivered in utensils which in other countries would have been condemned. The bottle milk is practically all pasteurised. When bottled milk first came into vogue it was meant that it should be from special sources, produced from cows free of any disease, and under the most hygienic methods and fit for infants and invalids to drink without being pasteurised. By pasteurising milk you kill the vitamins, which are a necessity to the human body.

NEW MARKET FOR BUTTER. ‘•The conservation of large stocks of fodder should be practised by the farmer. While I was in Australia I made it my object not to allow any stock on my pastures-during the winter months. This gives the land a rest, and the stock were always in great condition, and I secured the utmost from them. Hand feeding with balanced -rations should be practised all the year round, and any cows that do not respond to it should be discarded immediately. Australia has proved what can be done in this direction during the last few years. “No second grade or whey butter should be exported, as I have seen how this is dealt with in England. A. matket untouched so far is that in India. Australia exports a little, but Irish butter is to be found everywhere, packed in attractive lib. and Jib. cartons, and selling as high as 3s 4d per lb. The market could be easily captured, as the native butter is produced under the most filthy conditions.”

QUALITY OF SEEDS. CERTIFICATION OF MERIT. Some sidelights on the activities of the Department of Agriculture in the certification of seeds formed the subject of a talk given to the recent Waikato Farm School students by Mr. W. H. Woodyear Smith, who dealt with the research work affecting the agriculturist. Strain and type had a very important bearing on the seeds, he eaid, and the certification scheme was designed to remove any element of doubt from the farmer's mind when buying seeds.

It was found that pastures in Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay contained traces of the original ryegrass.introduced into New Zealand, and had dominated most of the better type of pasture. Hundreds of thousands of acres of permanent pastures in. the Dominion had been set down in tiic wrong type of seed and great harm had been done. The Department of Agriculture inaugurated certification to discover the best type of seed for the pastures. Extensive experiments were carried out in various districts, and every paddock submitted for certification was listed. After harvesting samples of seed were sown on Mr. Bruce 'Levy's experimental station, farmers’ and seed being planted. It was found that while there was true perennial ryegrass in 'Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay there were many degrees of the grass, and it was Air. Levy's task to determine the best, or the mother seed. It could be realised that with such large areas of pasture in New Zealand it was necessary to have the seed distributed as soon as possible. It was thought by some that sowing the Hawke’s Bay ryegrass in the South Island the characteristics of the seed would be changed, but this was wrong. It was all a matter of strain. Certification did not give any guarantee as to the purity and germination of the seed, but only the strain. From a buying point of view the purity and germination certificates, which were issued under the International Seed Testing rules, were the most important. The pure seed in a line was a very big thing. If farmers had a line that was only 80 per cent, pure it must be realised that in every 100 bushels -20 were doubtful. The germination of ryegrass and clover depended on the season. A poor season might give plenty of seed, but with low germination capacity. The pure ryegrass seed must be above 96 per cent., and the germinating capacity anything above 85 per cent. Exactly the same applied to white clover. There were areas in New Zealand where this big-leaved, late-flowering type of clover was in evidence, and efforts were being made to have this distributed throughout the Dominion. Farmers should not be misled by low prices. They might be offered cheap lines of seed, but these would do more harm than good. The certified seed, although it must be dearer than other lines, was thoroughly reliable and worthy of sowing. New Zealanders should take full advantage of the certified seed to place their pastures on a level with the best in the world. Once they got their pastures sown with this seed they would come to the forefront among the countries of the world so far as production was concerned. Farmers who were sowing uncertified seed could always send a sample of more than 100 seeds to the plant research station at Palmerston North and get it tested under the latest methods.

REDUCING FARM COSTS. THE VALUES OF LAND. Sir Lennon Raws, who returned to Australia recently after a business visit to New Zealand, said that the Dominion had not yet suffered so severely as Australia from the reduction of capital -expenditure, which was due to the cessation of' overseas borrowing. The New Zealand Year Book devoted a chapter to mortgages. This showed that the value of land and improvements increased between 1878 and 1902 by about 50 per cent. In the succeeding 18 years the total valuation more than doubled, and from 1920 to 1927 unimproved values increased by more .than £50,000,000, and the capital values by £148,000,000. Mortgages in 1929 relating to farm lands represented £115,000,000. i ■ Mortgages on areas from one to 15 acres averaged £55 an acre, and those on areas from 40 to 50 acres' averaged £23 an acre. In 1930 interest on mortgages represented one-third of farm expenditure, and no doubt there had since been a large increase. One who believed that the greatest -need in Australia and New Zealand was for the re-establish-ment of equilibrium between internal and external prices, and between costs and prices, found the question of interest on farm mortgages a tremendous difficulty. It was apparently recognised that some reduction of land values was inevitable. This did not necessarily mean that the mortgagee should bear the loss, but it was obvious that the mortgagor should regain some equity in his land. A reduction in values had, of course, been effected in Australia by means of the lowering of the rate of interest. He had expressed the opinion in .1 New Zealand, however, that Australian experience in varying nominal wages according to a cost of living index figure suggested that some similar relationship between -mortgage interest and farm prices might be advantageous. Reduction in costs was as important in restoring equilibrium as a rise in prices. LAMB FOR EXPORT. COMPARISON OF -SIRES. The English market requires a rather light lamb, well developed, and sufficiciently fat, according to Professor Perkins, Director of Agriculture, who spoke to York Peninsula (Queensland) iarmer-s recently. Certain characteristics in the flesh counted on the English market, sie said. The dark-faced sheep, represented by the Down breeds, usually commanded a better price than the white-faced sheep like the Border Leicester or the Dorset Horn. So far -as he was concerned, all the 'long wool English breeds -—Border Leicester, English Leicester, Romney Marsh and Lincoln—were out of court. Rams of these four breeds produced the half-bred ewe used to produce the fat lamb, but were not used as an immediate sire for export purposes. The choice therefore was narrowed down to the three Down types —Southdown, Suffolk and 'Shropshire, and then the Dorset Horn with the white face. Another breed found in the South-East was the Ryeland, which also had a white face, but a better development than the Dorset Horn. “Where you are using the Merino ewo there are certain points to consider,” Professor Perkins told farmers. “An Important one is the possibility of lambing difficulties. These arise freely with the Dorset Horn, chiefly because of its breadth of shoulder, and a breeder is apt to lose not only the lamb, but also the ewe. That represents a percentage of losses, which should be avoided wherever possible. Trouble also arises in many cases with the Shropshire, because of the size of the head. The Southdown does not present any •difficulties, and losses from the Suffolk would be less than either the Dorset Horn or the Shropshire. • “From the point of view of getting high average prices per lb., the Dorset Horn should also be left out. especially if you consider the lambing losses. No sheep has better conformation in the eyes of the butcher (han the Southdown. 11. has better hind development

than any other breed, and mated with a Merino ewe produces a lamb suited to English requirements. “The best’breed of ram for the farmer to use, then, is the Southdown, Suffolk. arid Shropshire in that order of preference,”