MORRINSVILLE

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17804, 31 August 1929, Page 5

MORRINSVILLE

Spring Weather. Fairly hard frosts, followed by bright sunny days, have been experienced during the past week, and the country generally Is putting on a | spring-like appearance. Where liberal j top-dressing has been done the grass ! is making a good growth,, hut owing to the sharp frosts at night, is not sufficient for the cows without the aid of hay or ensilage. On most farms the bulk of the cows are now in, and farmers and their hands find the days I quite short enough to get through [ their dairy work in the daylight. Cows | generally arc coming in in good conj dition and the losses so far have been | less than last season. I The weather during the lambing season was not altogether favourable, and some losses were made in consequence, but as the ewes were generally in good condition they are doing their lambs well and the percentage for the district will be about an average one. Considerably more farmers have gone in for sheep than there were last year, and the number of fat lambs for export should be considerably higher. The starting of the milking season has quite revolutionised the pig j market. When last milking season j closed weaner -pigs ;wera a drug In

the market, selling— 'one might almost say given away— at as low as half-a-crown a head. As soon as the milking started the price jumped up rapidly, and at last sale pigs were keenly competed for, weaners making as high as 24s per head and three-months-old pigs £2. One lucky farmer who had bought a line of well-bred young pigs at 12s 6d two months ago, turned them into a paddock and gave them a few swedes, more than trebled his money in the short time that he held them.

Farmers in the district are beginning to realise the difference In the value of a high producing cow and a low producer, the herd-testing having done much to educate them in this respect. By using pure-bred bulls, keeping the heifer calves from their best cows, and culling out their bad ones, they arc taking the right means of greatly improving their herds. Some fear is expressed that the number of heifer calves being kept willglut the market next year with heifers, but if they arc well-bred and welldone there can be little fear of this, as the number of cows that go out of profit through sterility, mammilla, or some other cause is very great each season, and there are likewise cows in almost every herd that could be replaced with advantage by better ones. The carrying capacity of farms is also being considerably increased by the more general practice of top-dres-sing.