FARMING WORLD

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21035, 10 February 1940, Page 19 (Supplement)

FARMING WORLD

Views on Margarine | “It is a general presumption that ' articles which have risen in price are those in shorter supply (says the British Co-operative Review). In j the case of butter, for instance, our j natural consumption has fallen. The | alternative is margarine, supplies of 1 which have been increaesd to fill the gap. It is a much cheaper article, J say one-third of the price of butter. 1 The change-over may mean some ! sacrifice ol’ personal taste, but it is 1 the result of war conditions, and the I consumer gets from his lower exj penditure on margarine the same j vitamin qualities as from his prei vious expenditure on butter.” The statement that margarine is sold at “one-third” the price of butter seems somewhat extraordinary; but, if true, it indicates the relative value of the two commodities and the reason why it is so largely used j by poorer people. The information in regard to margarine that has come from England since the war began has indicated the vital importance of increased production of butter in the Dominion. During recent weeks considerable ! publicity has been given to mar- ; garine in England as a substance that can quite readily take the place of butter during war time. This

publicity for this butter substitute may merely be meant as an assurance for the British people, but still at the same time it does not make good reading for the dairy producers of the Dominions. The dairy industry of the Dominion must be alive to the potential danger from margarine during time of war. War conditions create tremendous difficulties, but the present position cannot be altogether neglected or otherwise New Zealand will face a very substantial obstacle indeed at the end of the war in re-establishing butter to its former position on the British market. Increased production is one method by which Dominion producers can lessen the threat from margarine. Wool Research The war has not handicapped the International Wool Secretariat’s research programme in British laboratories, or caused any deviation from the original plans for this technical research on behalf of wool. This assurance is given growers in axf airmail report to the Australian Wool Board received last week from the Secretariat. Reviewing the work, the Secretariat states that at the laboratories at Cambridge and Leeds research is mainly of fundamental nature. Work is being done to obtain knowledge of the construction and properties of the wool fibre on which can be based systematic methods for improving processes or finding new applications. Equally important is the research to discover methods of improving the resistance of wool to exposure to light and air, and to chemical agencies. These investigations are making satisfactory progress. Because artificial fibres are being used extensively for fancy effects in wool textile material, the development of resistant qualities in wool against light, air and chemicals should allow wool to displace such fibres for this purpose. possibilities of this type for the most part are investigated by the Wool Industries Research Association. but no matter where a discovery is made anything that is likely to benefit the wool industry is followed up an dall possibilities of exploiting it are investigated exhaustively. J Germany’s Production What is Germany’s own capacity to produce necessary raw materials and foodstuffs? askes a writer in an Australian exchange. In the first place, he says, her peace-time capacity is not likely to be increased—rather is it likely to be decreased—because of the effects of war. This follows for two reasons. Firstly, Germany has been organising for war for at least three years. The extent to which existing peace-time industries can be converted into, or abandoned for essentially war-time industries, must be very limited. Secondly, the exigencies of war always mean a serious deficiency of labour (both human and animal) and of power (both mechanical and electrical). The experiences of the last war were-that in 1918, as compared with 1913, Germany’s output of wheat had dropped by 45 per cent., oats by

BY “STOCKMAN”

51 per cent., potatoes by 44 per cent., and rough fodders by 28 per cent. Between December, 1914, and December, 1918, the number of cattle bad fallen from 21.3 million to 17.2 million, and of pigs from 28.3 million to 10.0 million. Taking into account c.l' lcs. in weight of these animals, due to poor feeding and un-der-feeding, the index in 1918 (compared with 100 in 1914) was 41 for cattle and 14 for pigs. Declines r;o great may not be repeated, because Germany is more intensely organised than before. But against this, Germany today is not starting off at the same high level of prosperity as in 1914. Beef Production Principles In the production of beef there are two points which are worthy of consideration: (1) Hew much weight an animal will put on in a given rime for a given quantity of food; (2) the quality of such increased carcase growth from the butcher’s standpoint. Growth in live weight, to a great extent, depends upon breeding, but rapid growth cannot be made without suitable feeding. The food that an animal eats is used for two main purposes—(l) For maintenance, i.e., to keep the animal in good health

and to supply energy for its movements, and (2) for production, i.e., for the addition of flesh and fat or milk. The daily amount of food required for (a) maintenance will increase with the size of the animal, and so the quicker the animal can be made ready for the butcher the less will be the total amount of food required for this unproductive but necessary purpose. The maintenance food requirements of the animal may also be economised by reducing the energy required for movement, by grazing the fields where the herbage is thick so that they do not have to wander far in search of food, or by breeding them with a docile, placid disposition, or by making them comfortable with adequate shelter from cold winds. All these things by reducing the maintenance requirements of the animal leave, a larger proportion of the food intake available for productive purposes, i.e., for the addition of live-weight increaseflesh or fat. Leafy Herbage The plant in the early leafy stages of its growth is succulent and a concentrated food (apart from the water it contains, which is itself of great importance for both growth and fattening; lack of water or watery food quickly cause an animal to go back in condition) but as it grows older it runs to stem and becomes stringy and fibrous, forming a bulky food. By keeping grassland grazed close instead of letting the stems develop, one gets, therefore a concentrated instead of a bulky feed; this is of special importance for young stock, as they have a relatively small stomach capacity. Similarly for winter feeding hay made from young grass is a much more concentrated food than that made from grass cut after flowering. Feed and Production “ The problem which faces all farmers is the best practical means of achieving an immediate increase in production,” writes Mr R. B. Tennent, Director of Primary Production in the Journal of Agriculture. “ In livestock farming the quickest way of bringing about greater production would appear to be the provision of more feed.”

Over a long period of years_ the value of breeding to increase the output of stock has been frequently pointed out, and farmers have not been slow to take advantage in raising the most productive types. However, although the importance of feeding has also been constantly reiterated, it has not received the attention it warrants. Improved feeding has such great potentialities that it deserves a key role in the immediate policy of farm production.

It has been stated that without improving the quality or increasing the size of dairy herds, the production of butterfat could be increased by from 25 per cent to 50 per cent merely by better feeding. Such assertions are perhaps optimistic, but the evidence provided in “ good-” years when the supply of nutritious feed has been naturally plentiful in

particular regions strongly supports this contention. There have been instances where the production of herds ( under these conditions has increased by as much as 50 per cent. In other words, the high producing cow has been able to produce to her maximum. In the sheep industry farmers are well aware of detrimental effect on wool growth resulting from a scarcity of feed at critical periods of the year and the difficulty of fattening lambs when feed supplies have not come up to expectations. The success of pig raising depends mainly on the utilisation of dairy byproducts and the provision of supplementary farm crops, and when the supplies of either of these feeds fall away the farmer is unable to finish off his pigs properly. Waste and Scarcity The major weakness in our feeding practice arises largely from the fact that the feed supply is characterised by alternate periods of wasteful and harmful superabundance and acute and injurious scarcity.

The basic cause of the weakness is the failure to realise that New Zealand pastures as a direct sole source of feed possess a grave defect. This defect may be expressed briefly as follows:

The seasonal supply of feed directly available from pastures fails to a serious extent to correspond with the seasonal requirements of efficientlyfed stock.

In dairying for example, investigators have shown:— 1. In the case of pasture of average to good quality under a system of utilisation designed to spread the supply of feed as evenly as possible throughout the year, from 68 per cent to 77.5 per cent of the year’s production took place in October to January inclusive, and in the remaining eight months of the year 22.5 per cent of the whole year’s production of feed took place.

2. An efficiently-fed herd of reasonably good production required 39.5 per cent of the whole year’s feed supply in the period October to January inclusive, and 60.5 per cent in the remaining eight months. In short, the seasonal supply of feed directly available from pastures

is, in its distribution through the year, broadly the reverse of the seasonal requirements of feed. The more this fundamental weakness of pastures used as a direct source of dairy feed is ignored in practice, the greater does the actual yield of dairy herds on farms stocked to their full capacity diverge from the potential yield of such herds.

Way to Efficiency Full efficiency in herd-averages is possible only by the following one of two courses;—

1. Under-stocking so that the feed available during periods of low pasture production is adequate for the herd needs. (This necessarily involves waste of feed during the periods of rapid growth of pastures.) Alternative Plan 2. Suitably levelling the feed supply available from month to month throughout the year by providing feed for use in periods of low growth of pastures.

In sheep farming the weakness in the feed position is not only less acute, but also less obvious in its results. It is nevertheless often very serious and investigation has shown that there is often a close correlation between faulty nutrition and unsatisfactory crops of lambs and v/001. Further, in both dairying and sheep farming the casual relationship between inadequate feeding and the incidence of serious stock disorders is known to be close and considerable.

Two main ways of remedying or improving the position are strongly recommended:—

1. An extension in ensilage and haymaking. 2. The growing of special crops, suefi as mangolds, swedes, turnips, sugar beet, chou moellier, barley, maize and peas. These two ways of improving the feed position are not to be looked upon as alternatives. Far from this being so, it often happens that if both are carried out in the one period on the one farm the position is more advantageous than if one alone is employed for the provision of special feed.