DIVERSIFIED FARMING

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3468, 19 May 1934, Page 7

DIVERSIFIED FARMING

STRIKING PUKEKOHE EXAMPLE

One of the most notable examples of diversified farming in the Dominion is to be found on the property of Mr Samuel Hamilton, a pioneer settler of the Pukekohe district. Dairy cows, sheep, horses, pigs, poultry, and bees each make their contribution to the income, and although Mr Hamilton makes no claim to the distinction of possessing- a property of record productivity his activities provide a striking object-lesson in economic and rationalised management. The area comprises 88 acres of rolling country, the soil being a medium loam on a solid sub-soil. The live stock at present on the farm number 45 milking cows, 11 springing heifers, 12 yearling calves, two bulls, two working horses, one 15-months-old filly, one foal, 140 lambs which have been bought for fattening, four breeding sows, and a boar. Production of butter-fat for the year ended March 31 last, amounted to 12,670 lb, the gross return being £472 Is 4d. During the same period 63 porters bred on the farm netted £9O 11s 2d, 120 lambs brought in and fattened netted £45, the sale of cull stock brought in £l3, and the calves sold returned £5 7s 9d. The best of 30 hives of bees gave 1281 b of honey at the fisst robbing. The type of the pig preferred is the all-white progeny of the Large White sow and the Tamworth boar, the best returns for which during the year mentioned being secured from a line of six porkers which averaged 781 b dressed weight when sold over the hooks at 14?. weeks. A purely grassland system or farming is followed, with absolutely no supplementary cropping to relieve the pressure on the pastures. The quantity of hay saved during the past season was approxmately 40 tons, this being additional to about 100 tons of ensilage conserved under the pit method. The standard autumn top-dressing consists of an application of 2? cwt of superphosphate an acre, and 5 cwt of lime an acre on three-quarters of the farm. In the early spring 21 cwt cf superphosphate is applied to the paddocks which are not top-dres-sed in the autumn, while another 2 cwt of superphosphate is put on the hav and ensilage fields. Most of the cows calve by the end of July each year. In a dry season —but not during the past one—they receive a silage supplement from the stack. From May to July, their off-season, the hay reserve is drawn upon, but subsequently the ration comprises both hay and ensilage.