FARMERS URGED TO LIFT FERTILISER

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 October 1947, Page 4

FARMERS URGED TO LIFT FERTILISER

In his address to the farmers at Brunswick on Saturday last, Mr. A. R. Laird, provincial chairman of the Dairy Section Council of Federated Farmers, made an earnest appeal t" dairy farmers to lift their full allocations of fertiliser as soon as convenient. .

There has been some criticism of the withdrawal of the subsidy on fertiliser, said Mr, Laird, and tne consequent increase in price to the producer. Most of the arguments one hears about the new cost of fertilisers are based on incorrect surmises, he continued. The Dairy Industry Coinmission is composed of men of wide experience and sound judgment, and they have unanimously agreed that the new price to be paid for butteafat includes adequate provision for the new cost of fertilisers. Mr. Laird said that in 1926, when butterfat was only Is 3d per lb, the price ot fertiliser was £8 12s 6ct per ton, and he considered that today’s prices were a long way better than tnat in comparison. In view of the necessity of increasing production Mr. Laird appealed most strongly to the dairy farmers to accept the advice of the Dairy Industry Commission and use all the fertiliser on their farms that they could reasonably afford. Those dairy farmers who had gone in for pig production would be doing a real service it they assisted to the utmost of their ability to bring the pig population on farms to the objective ot 80,000 set by the Dominion Committee. The growing of crops to help in the feeding of pigs would reduce the amount of cereals now being imported into the Dominion and would assist poultry farmers to get better supplies. Mr. Laird concluded by analysing the new prices for dairy produce recently announced by the Dairy Industry Board, which he claimed must be considered to be sat. isfaetory by ull reasonable farmers.