THE WAIKATO FARMER

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19765, 21 December 1935, Page 27 (Supplement)

THE WAIKATO FARMER

.EDITED BY 0. E. CUMINQ

In the big fight taking place in Britain to ensure a payable price to the producer of milk, and at the same time to encourage a greater consumption of milk in the interests of national health, the farmer is contending that the price fixed by the National Board for milk on the farm is too low, while public authorities are declaring that the high price of milk is discouraging consumption. The middleman is the bugbear, and the Milk Boa.rd is finding it difficult to discipline him. In the meantime one of the biggest distributing* concerns, United Dairies, paid last year on ordinary shares 19 i per cent. While the farmer only gets about lOd a gallon the distributing concerns are getting about lid a gallon, and obviously they are getting too much out of the business.

in Great Britain, but it is continually breaking out, the germs having been imported from time to time in some mysterious manner. We hear nothing said of the danger of importing chilled beef from the Argentine, a country rotten with the disease. One advantage of the present position, which makes the importation of pedigree stock from Britain such an expensive matter, is that it pays to only import the very best types of animals. And this is some safeguard seeing that while we can do with the best types of British stock there are many we could do without. Indeed, in some cases we have better types in New Zealand than they have in Britain. In an October issue of the “Farmers’ Weekly,” of London, foot and mouth disease iB illustrated with some striking photographs, and among some interesting statements made in regard to the disease is one that “the virus has been found to be alive and infective after 96 days in cold storage.” This surely emphasises the danger of bringing chilled beef into the country from the Argentine, where the disease is rife, and where apparently absolutely nothing is done to control it. A New Zealander who visited the great Buenos Aires Show said that quite a number of the exhibits of cattle were suffering from the disease. It certainly would seem that the disease is continuously being introduced into Britain, for the most drastic measures are being taken to control every new outbreak. We read that at a meeting held in one of the affected districts the other day everyone entering the hall had to walk through a bath of disinfectant, while quite a number of shows and sales have been cancelled. • • • • Farm Labour. - 4> Two keen well-travelled farmers were discussing with the writer the present position of farm labour. “The present Government,” said one, “by making conditions better for the general worker are making it more difficult than ever for the farmer to get the help he wants, and must have. The worker is being made too independent, and it is a bad thing fqr the country.” “But there are two sides to the question,” said the other, “how many farmers make country work at all attractive ? What sort of accommodation do they give their helpers, do they ever provide any little comfort for him at the end of his very long day’s work, and seven days’ work at that, and is the work properly organised so that the helper may have a short rest * in the middle of the day or a few hours in the evening? I

The British Milk Board is doing excellent work in encouraging the consumption of milk. In addition to running milk bars at agricultural shows and other public functions the Board ia opening bars in the cities. It is doing things in quite a spectacular way, taking a leaf out of the American publicity book. In a milk bar it opened in the booking office of Charing Cross Underground Railway station it has two good looking Jersey cows in, of course, model cow stalls. This is advertising that must bring results. • • * • Mr Ben Roberts, M.P. % The new Labour member for the Wairarapa, is an outstanding dairy farmer. He has been chairman of his dairy company for many years, and has always been regarded as one of the best men representing co-opera-tive dairy interests at the national dairy conferences. But what we like best about Mr Roberts is that he has tested his herd under the group system ever since group herd-testing was established. There is some hope for the vital herd-testing movement when the chairman of directors of a cooperative dairy company sets the example he should to his suppliers. • * • • Foot and Mouth Disease. Lord Bledsloe' is certain persistently active in his advocacy of lifting the embargo against the direct importation of pedigree stock from Great Britain. But the 1 New Zealand farmer has yet to be convinced that it would be a wise thing, even though there is yet to be recorded a case where pedigree stock from Britain have taken the disease into any country. The disease is not established

A page devoted to assisting the Waikato farmer to make the fullest possible use of the great natural advantages of the Waikato and to thereby develop the most prosperous farming community in the world.

know that some farmers do try to provide deoeirt conditions and do show some consideration for thedr men, but these employers who do the right thing are in the minority.” “There may be something in what you say,” replied the first speaker, “but what farmer can. afford to do the things you suggest? I know this that if something is not done to increase the supply of farm labour that many men will have to reduce their herds, and even subdivide their farms.” “And it would be a good thing if they had to,” was the rejoinder. The trouble with the majority of our dairy farmers is that they have too much land and too many cows. If they had less land and less cows they might be able to attend to things better. In any case if good intelligent men, men who can be a real help to the farmer, are to be attracted to farm work they will have to be treated very much better than they are treated at the present time. Long hours, crude living conditions, and comparatively poor pay have driven the best workmen from the land.” “I can’t agree with you,” said the first farmer. The farmer has to work harder and longer than any man in the community, and you would pamper his employees.” “I would do no such thing. I would merely have them treated as ordinary decent members of society, who have a' right to the ordinary conveniences and comforts of civilisation, to say nothing of such remuneration for their labour that there is some hope of them advancing themselves in life. While the farmer is prepared to work all the hours the Almighty made he is not working his soul case out for a wage, • with nothing at the end of it.” * • * * Dried Grass. , It will be remembered that one of the main objectives of the important work being done at Jealott’s Hill Research Station in connection with dried grass was the endeavour being made to evolve a simple drier for use on the ordinary farm. After some delay it would appear that the station is satisfied that it now has a plant that can be recommended. Nothing is said as to price, but it will probably cost several hundred pounds. It comprises a bricked in fireplace for the burning of coke, and a series of adjacent chambers for drying the grass which is fed in on trays. , It would be simple enough to construct a similar drier in this country and probably at much less cost than importing one from England. Our own agricultural engineers, who by the way, have done work which would compare favourably with work done in any part of the world, have already constructed satisfactory drying machines for fruit and vegetables, and the principle is much the same. • • • • Its Great Value. Not only is dried grass (grass dried when in the leaf stage and at its highest feeding value) a concentrated food rich in proteins and minerals, but it also contains unimpaired the vitamin potency of fresh grass. It has been conclusively proved by feeding experiments that cows receiving dried grass during the winter produce milk and butter undistinguishable in colour and vitamin A content from that produced in summer from cows on grass, whereas cows receiving ordinary winter food give a pale milk and white butter deficient in vitamin A. In short, dried grass gives (so far as all British experiments made up to the present show) all the advantages of feeding good grass right through the winter, and it is becoming increasingly evident that dried-grass-fed animals are healthier and have more disease-resisting powers

than animals fed on other winter foods. It would apparently be necessary in cutting grass in the leaf stage for the making of dried grass to have the automatic loader which has been introduced in England, which takes the grass from the teeth of the mower to a waggon following behind the mower.

Real Grassland Truth. The best scientific statement we have read for some time was that made by Sir Albert Howard, one of the leading agricultural scientists of England, in London recently. It has specially appealed to the writer because it bears out the truth of the principle we have tried to drive home iin these columns that balanced manuring (returning to the land the mineral matter extracted from it) and proper pasture management® is the best way to have healthy stock and to fight disease. Indigestion is at the root of half our stock troubles, and yet we allow cattle at one time of the' year to gorge themselves on rich succulent grass and at another time expect them to produce well on a sole diet of dry fibrous grass or hay. Here is wjiat Sir Albert said: “As a nation we are spending large sums of money every year on the study of the' diseases of our live stock in the vain hope that laboratory science can find a remedy for what common sense should prevent. The-cause lies much deeper than anything which is likely to be ascertained in the laboratory. It is in all probability malnutrition, following closely in the wake of long continued mismanagement of the land. We must attack diseases at the source, by seeing that our animals get grass and fodder worth eating, that the breed iB kept robust, and that the hygiene is satisfactory. We must make our grasslands really efficient. We shall then introduce real quality into our milk, into our milk products, into our meat, and so lay one of the foundations of a sound system of preventive medicine.” It would be well if all our agricultural experts and writers pondered on this last statement. Perhaps we would then hear less of quantity being the only criterion of success, whether in plant or animal.! It would not be the quantity, of grass produced that determined the value of a fertiliser treatment, but the amount of mineral matter it carried in the balance the animal to be fed on it required. Grass would be the best managed crop on the farm. And the most valuable breeding animal would be the one that gave; a profitable return in every year of a disease-free life. * * * • The White Butterfly. The splendid manner in which the white butterfly has been controlled by scientific workers again emphasises the value of science to rural industries. And a fact that should be emphasised at the present time is that, as in all occupations, there are scientific workers and scientific workers. And when it comes to scientific work the standard of the men engaged in it is of vital significance. This fact has not been sufficiently appreciated in this country. Too often cheap men have been employed doing work demanding men of the highest calibre in their particular scientific field, and cheap men means cheap work. Fortunately in parasitic control work New Zealand has' men in its service having the necessary training and ability. This being so they can render the service expected of them. • * * x> Controlling Tuberculosis. The importance of calf-marking when scientific investigation is required has been emphasised in England. It was 1 in connection with a suggested large scale test of Spahlinger’s anti-tuberculosis vaccine. The idea is that the most thorough type of test could be made through herdesting societies and their marked-calf schemes. The calves being marked and their identity thereby being made certain conclusive evidence could be secured as to the efficacy of the vaccine. iSome enthusiastic statements have been made at Home in regard to the successful test of the vaccine by the Government of Northern Ireland. Sir Bruce Bruce-Porter, C.M.G., says that “the report is so conclusive that it will be nothing less than a crime if this method of ensuring a non-tuber-culous milk supply is not enforced throughout the world.” Spahlinger himself is certain that his case is proved. He says: “This country (Britain) can be cleared of bovine tuberculosis in five to seven years. The time necessary to accomplish this depends entirely on the life of the present infected stock. If all calves are vaccinated against tuberculosis they will be immunised against the disease, and it will die out with the old cattle.” Again he says: “The report proves conclusively that lam right. At long last my work has received recognition. For years everyone and everything seemed against me. Now, quite suddenly, people have become friendly. It is very strange.”