GROWERS ASK FOR PREMIUM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21090, 16 July 1938, Page 8

GROWERS ASK FOR PREMIUM

Stacking of Wheat Compensation for Trouble There is plenty of time to discuss the payment of a premium on stacked wheat before prices are fixed for next season and the committee is always prepared to consider suggestions, stated the Wheat Committee in a reply to a request by the Timaru Agricultural and Pastoral Association that some inducement be given to farmers to put their harvest in stack instead of threshing it out of stook or heading it. Board’s Observations In a reply to a meeting of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association yesterday, the Wheat Committee made the ..following observations: (1) “So long as wheat is harvested and threshed in good condition, stacking does not improve its value to the , miller. (2) “The increase of the April in- , crement from Id to 3d per bushel would not necessarily mean that only stacked wheat would secure this increment, as many lines of stook threched or headed wheat would be held by growers to secure the increment. (3) “The payment of a higher increment in April would alter the incidence of delivery completely < nd would throw the whole ; rice structure out of gear. (4) “In South Canterbury in a normal season the harvest does not begin until the second half of February, so that normally wheat would not be ready for stacking until March 1. Once in stack, it must be left there for at least six weeks so that stacked wheat in South Canterbury normally earns Id increment under present conditions as it cannot be threshed until the middle of April. By holding the wheat for only another fortnight (into May), the grower can at present secure an increment of 2d per bushel and this is a point which your members may not have taken into consideration. “There is plenty of time to discuss this matter further before prices are fixed for next season and the Committee is always prepared to consider any suggestions. It might be pointed out, however, that from time to time suggestions have been made by South Canterbury growers that the merer ment on South Canterbury wheat should be delayed until May in order to induce Timaru millers to wait for the South Canterbury harvest and to discourage them from buying too large a proportion of their wheat in Mid Canterbury. It is realised, of course, that your suggestion is for an entirely different purpose, but any alteration in the system of increments requires very full investigation before being made because any readjustment of these increments is likely to have an effect quite different from that which is intended.” Premium Advocated “The man who stacks his wheat does not get any compensation for the trouble he has to go to,” said Mr P. Porter. The man who headed his crop or threshed it from stook did it much cheaper. It was evident from what millers said that wheat which had been in stack was much better for milling than wheat threshed early. He considered that if farmers were given some inducement to stack there would not be from 18,000 to 20,000 sacks of wheat lying in Timaru to-day. The Wheat Committee was wrong when it said that the South Canterbury harvest did not begin until the middle of February, for by that time it was practically all over. It was claimed that the payment of a premium of 2d a bushel for stacked wheat would throw the price structure out of gear, but the price was 5 9 and the grower received 5/6. Out of the resulting pool they could pay the premium asked. “It looks like a dying industry in South Canterbury and anything we can do to further it will be an advantage’,’ remarked Mr C. L. Orbell, who said nothing further could be done in the meantime.