Lord Bledisloe’s Advice

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXIV, Issue 127, 31 October 1930, Page 6

Lord Bledisloe’s Advice

VALUE OF PEDIGREE STOCK

TOP DRESSING ESSENTIAL

(Per Press Association)

MASTERTON, Last Night

Speaking at the Carterton show today Lord Bledisloe dealt with several questions of current interest (amongst them that of standardised cheese) observing that as times were bad, he would urge farmers to be on the alert first in supplying the British market with what it wanted in the way of produce and secondly, as to what science could teach them of rural economy. He could not help thinking there was scope for the introduction of new blood for the improvement of livestock in the Dominion.

Fresh blood must be obtained if the constitution of the Dominion’s stock was to be maintained. At the recent Royal Show he had seen animals that would have taken prizes at any English show but he had seen others that showed evidence of inbreeding and the ' necessity of fresh blood. He saw some that he would rather not have seen parading in the ring. The reason, he discovered, was that in many classes at the Royal Show, there were only two or three entries but they all got prizes.

If they wished to maintain the quality of their stock, they must instruct their judges io withdraw prizes unless these were deserved.

Lord Bledisloe comhiented with gratification on the growing realisation amongst New Zealand farmers of the value of top' dressing but urged that the right artificial fertilisers should be applied. A generous dressing with nitrogenous and other manures was useless where land needed phosphates and lime, as most of it did in the North Island. In catering for their main market in Britain, Dominion producers must supply what British people wanted or go to the wall. He was not one of those who believed that a certain breed of cattle was equally good for butter or cheese but -while they might produce what they called standarised cheese, and it might be some of the finest cheese in the world, the British merchant classed it as skim-milk cheese and would only pay for it what he was accustomed to pay for that class of cheese. Standardised cheese was not going to be judged upon its quality but upon its name, because the name did not convince the British purchaser and producers were not going to get full value for their cheese. There must have been some good New Zealand cheese at the Dairy Show last week, he added, because it was placed first in competition with all Empire countries. In regard to butter as well as cheese, Lord Bledisloe urged that the markets to be served should be studied. For example, they should ascertain why New Zealand butter was in poor demand in the north of England though it sold well in London and the south of England. Popular features of taste, colour and texture should be studied so as to give each area what it wanted. Export butter was graded very strictly in Denmark and if producers in this country submitted to the same regulations as their competitors, they would deserve to have and would always have, control of the market of the Old Country.