HAY AND SILAGE COMPETITIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1935, Page 6

HAY AND SILAGE COMPETITIONS.

Although the number of entries in the hay and ensilage classes of the farm field crops competitions last season was less than that for the previous year, it is satisfactory to note that nearly 300 farmers in North and Central Taranaki saw fit to enter for the competitions. Their members were, of course, increased largely by entries in the competitions organised by the South Taranaki committee. In his report upon the entries in the northern and central portions of the province, the judge, Mr. A. G. Elliott, who is also an instructor in the fields division of the Department of Agriculture, gave some interesting details of the various types of entry and some sound advice for those who desire to improve their pastures. It is becoming quite evident that nutrition of dairy cattle is having a big say in many of the problems confronting the dairy industry. Flavours in milk, sterility, and other matters affecting animal public health are intimately associated with nutrition or malnutrition of dairy herds, and the greater the interest shown in the pastures by the stockowners the sooner will some of those difficulties be cleared away. The present late and cold spring has proved a severe lesson to many farmers that ample provision of winter feeding must be a cardinal principle in successful dairy farming, but it is not only quantity but quality that is required if fodder is to be available that will not only satisfy the hunger of dairy stock but also preserve health and productive capacity in the coming season. It is to aid in th«- improvement in quality of pastures, summer and winter, that the competitions have been inaugurated.

They have been maintained with the aid of a good deal of voluntary labour accorded by farmers who are anxious to improve the pastures of the province, to which has been added the advice of departmental experts. But if the competitions are to give the best results they must have the widest support from the stockowners of Taranaki. The committees and the Departmental officers are willing to do their share, and it is to be hoped that an increase in entries will indicate that the dairy farmers of the province are ready to do theirs.