Review of Farm Production Drive

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 79, Issue 5, 15 November 1949, Page 445

Review of Farm Production Drive

by

Mr. F. P. Walsh

“SUFFICIENT real evidence is now available to show that New Zealand’s farming economy is well advanced into a period of post-war expansion,” said Mr. F. P. Walsh, Chairman of the Aid for Britain National Council and of the Farm Production Committee, to “The New Zealand Journal of Agriculture” recently. “The expansion, now well under way is founded primarily upon a well-laid basis of security, a basis determined and built up largely by our farmers themselves, by their leaders, and by their organisations.

THIS expansion is consistent with, and runs parallel to, A the recent long-term agreements for the supply of greater quantities of food to the people of Britain. “The background to our present success lies very deep. It consists in part of long years of solid research by our agricultural scientists, whose work today is studied in every advanced country in the world, and in part of a commendable readiness by the farmers of this country to apply the results of that research. First and foremost, the Department of Agriculture has built up a scientific and extension service to farmers which has won their regard and wholehearted support. Their Extension, Animal Research, Livestock, Dairy, and Horticulture Divisions are staffed with first-class scientists and practical men who, among other attainments, have placed New Zealand’s methods of grassland farming and livestock management foremost in the world.

“With this Department’s work has gone brilliant research by the Soil Survey, Plant Research, and Plant Chemistry sections of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and by the Wheat Research Institute. Practical application of scientific advances has been given wider scope through the teaching work of Massey and Canterbury Agricultural Colleges. An outstanding basis for an expansionist programme had been well laid over many years.

The Second Stage

“The second period of background development,” said Mr. Walsh, “began with the inception of the guaranteed price to our dairy farmers. Insecurity and the constant threat of disastrously low prices have always hung close over the heads of the world’s food producers. The guaranteed price was a long step toward security, taken after full discussion with the farmers, and is now accepted as a corner stone of progress in the dairy industry.

“While our fighting men were overseas defending our liberties the prospect of inflation loomed, with ever-mount-ing costs threatening to create a top-heavy structure which would crash in ruins as did the farming structure after the last war. An organised defence against this new threat brought every section of our community into a new fight, on the home front. A programme to bring the threat under control was designed, a programme which reached into every corner of our country and touched every individual. As the Prime Minister said in 1942, ‘Social security implies much more than a system of monetary benefits. It implies an order of society in which every citizen—wage earner, trader, farmer, professional man, or pensioner—is safeguarded against economic fluctuations.’

Stabilisation

“From this defensive organisation on the home front came the great 1942 stabilisation campaign, a successful fight which, besides protecting every individual in our community in the war years, succeeded in bringing our country through into the post-war period to a position of far greater stability and economic security than any other country in the world was to attain. New Zealanders travelling abroad and visitors knowing our country have no illusions on this point.

“Indeed, outside New Zealand the outcome of our stabilisation programme is considered to be so important that our methods have been held up as an example to be followed by food producers throughout the world. At the third Annual Conference of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, an entirely independent body of the world’s producers, financed entirely by voluntary

subscriptions from producers’ organisations, certain recommendations were considered for stimulating high levels of purchasing power, reinforced by national agricultural price stabilisation measures as prerequisites to international price stability. This Annual Conference, consisting of some 150 farmers from 23 countries, including the United States, Great Britain, and other world powers, an essential qualification for membership of which is that any national farm or co-operative organisation must ‘demonstrate that they are free and independent of Governments,’ produced certain unanimous recommendations for forwarding to the November, 1949, Fifth World Food and Agriculture Organization for their consideration as practical methods of meeting producers’ problems. Among these, as quoted in the I.F.A.P. Bulletin Vol. 1, No. 5 for June-July, 1949, were certain measures agreed as basic to expanding international trade in agricultural products at stable prices, including:— ‘(d) where practicable, suitable international adaptation of the price stabilisation programs of producers, such as exist in Australia and New Zealand, which accumulate financial reserves in periods of high prices to supplement income of producers in periods of low prices.’

“No better endorsement of the success of our country’s stabilisation policy could be envisaged. To have a responsible international body of farmers, with a full knowledge of international farming problems, hold up our farm stabilisation success as a standard for adoption throughout the world gives the measure of the great boon this policy has been to our producers.

“For our farmers this finely conceived and admirably administered scheme, devised and carried out with the full consent and co-operation of the producers’ representatives on their statutory boards, has meant that they came out into the clear light of post-war opportunity with land prices at a new level of moderation, material costs kept within reason, labour costs saved from runaway levels, and finally

pool accounts built up for the farmers’ own use and protection, sufficient to meet the threat of falling overseas returns and to guarantee the maintenance of farmers’ standards. “Thus moderation and restraint combined with foresight brought our farmers to the post-war years in a position of stability prepared to move fast into maximum expansion. Recent Background “With the threat of collapse in our principal market in Britain,” said Mr. Walsh, “came the setting, up in 1947 of our Aid for Britain National Council, which has played a most valuable part in stimulating our food production to meet the crisis. The members of this council, representing every interest; in our community, farming, commercial, manufacturing, and labouring, have worked together in a notable spirit of comradeship which is both a credit to the individual members and a most important guide to what can be achieved in a truly national spirit in our country’s future. Shortages delaying production were tackled vigorously. With the co-operation of Federated Farmers vitally needed farm machinery was obtained from dollar or sterling sources, wherever the best machinery was available. Materials necessary to open up new land or fully develop existing holdings were sought out in every world market, and fencing wire, galvanised piping, fertilisers, and every farm need were kept moving to those in greatest need. Special weekend fertiliser trains to speed supplies to the farms, subsidised hay relief schemes for . drought- or flood-stricken areas, and hundreds of minor problems were tackled promptly and effectively. “Federated Farmers, the farmers’ own organisation, realising the importance of machinery to the modern farmer, not only in giving greater production but in taking the drudgery out of farming, organised, in 1947-48, a Dominion wide survey of farm machinery needs, and with the assistance of the Aid for Britain National Council took the resulting requests to the Government, who speedily granted dollar funds and sterling licences to the limit of farmers’ needs. Long-term Agreements “By 1948,” Mr. Walsh continued, “New Zealand had entered into long-term agreements with the British Government, who agreed to take, over a 7-year period, all the meat and dairy produce that our farmers could export, at regulated prices which would not vary by more than 7| per cent, up or down annually. This bulk-purchase agreement is a first-class example of the form of action recommended by the Annual Conference of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers referred to previously, where they unanimously resolved that ‘a basic method of achieving expanding international trade in' agricultural products at stable prices should be intergovernmental commodity agreements.’ In return for this gain the British Government asked that we should produce and export as much meat and dairy produce as we could, and our representatives agreed to aim at a 20 per cent, increase in dairy production and the export of 50,000 more tons of meat by 1955, when the agreement expires.. The latest development, which this year, obtained for our farmers a 7J per cent, increase on the 1947-48 agreement prices, has already given production another grand incentive. The conclusion of this long-term agreement was another turning point in our farming history and opened the door wide to further rapid expansion. Farm Production Committee “To assist the farmers in their efforts to meet these

commitments the Government set up a Farm Production Committee to investigate methods of increasing production and to make recommendations to the Government. This committee consists of the Chairman of the Aid for Britain National Council, Mr. F. P. Walsh, the Director-General of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. E. J. Fawcett, the Director of Marketing, Mr. L. C. Webb, the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. B. C. Ashwin, and the Secretary of Labour, Mr. H. L. Bockett. To assist the committee the Department of Agriculture has provided a secretariat whose exceptional work in the preparation of valuable report material has been a major factor in enabling the committee to obtain quick and effective action.

Fertilisers “The first result was rapid. The committee came to the Government with proposals for an immediate expansion of fertiliser supply as the key to increases. After consulting with the Dairy and Meat Boards the Government came to a quick decision providing for the financing of a new fertiliser works in Napier and looking, to. the building of two further works elsewhere. Already the plans for the Napier works are drawn up and building should start soon. Secondly, to cover the period until the new works could boost our fertiliser supplies, arrangements were made for large-scale imports to be subsidised so that farmers could immediately place orders for fertiliser the use of which became reasonably economic to them. This move has had an important effect, and deliveries of something like 50,000 tons of basic slag are already under way. North African rock phosphate also is in good supply, with at least four ships at present loading or en route. Farm Machinery “Following the fertiliser action,” said Mr. Walsh, “came further rapid action on farm machinery. Federated Farmers had taken in 1949 another full survey of needs and presented detailed requests to the Government for further imports for 1950, both from dollar and sterling areas. Realising that a good part of this machinery would be urgently needed for the 1949-50 harvest, the Farm Production Committee strongly recommended to the Government that advance arrangements be made to get in haymaking and harvesting machinery before the end of 1949. This was agreed to and this machinery, portion of the 1950 allocation, is already in part on the water. More recently the Government has announced that further large allocations covering the first half of 1950 have been agreed to, so that the machinery available in 1950, particularly from dollar sources, is likely to meet the farmers’ requests almost in full once again. “What this means in terms of mechanising our farms is clear from a brief glance to pre-war days. Prior to the war our farmers owned some 8000 farm tractors. Today they possess over 24,000. Prior to the war farm tractor imports averaged about 1000 per year. In 1945 and on to 1947 this , rose to about 2000 to 3000 per year. With the impetus of the expansion plans 6000 were imported in 1948, 7000 in 1949, and as many again will come in in 1950. This must have a tremendous effect, and combined with the other farm machinery imports designed for use with the tractors will give production a wonderful fillip in the next few years. Farm Labour “After farm machinery came labour. The Government’s immigration plans have already brought in farm workers from the United Kingdom in useful numbers, but there is a limit to the number of farm workers we are prepared or desire to lift from Britain’s own farm lands. Federated Farmers have recently given attention to obtaining skilled Dutch farm workers and arranged with the Government earlier for one hundred of these to be brought in. More recently they came to Aid for Britain to seek help in having this number doubled, and to this the Government has now agreed, so that by the time our season is properly under way 200 of these men will be engaged on our farms. “But there is a limit to the speed at which farm labour from overseas can be fed into our farm economy, and the final answer is to draw our own workers on to the farms and to retain them there when they _ arrive. This depends upon better housing, better home amenities, better schools, better road access, a better and wider community life, and upon similar factors which are being steadily attended to. Housing “Already,” said Mr. Walsh, “the rural housing figures are showing striking changes. Before the war houses erected in rural areas averaged about a steady 1600 per year. Last year permits were issued for the erection of over 5000 houses in rural areas. With the easing of building shortages this figure will be maintained and exceeded, until our rural workers enjoy the same standards of housing, with every electrical convenience, that the city dweller now enjoys. The Government has agreed that the policy of building rental houses in rural areas will be further expanded, and the various ways in which this policy can best be applied are being studied.

Aerial .Topdressing

“The latest activity of the Farm Production Committee has been directed upon an examination of the work carried out in the aerial topdressing of our farm lands and the seeding of pastures from the air. For a year or more under the supervision of the Soil Erosion and Rivers Control Council important experiments have been carried on with the help of the Air Force. Considerable areas have been successfully topdressed at a cost which the sponsors consider economic. Indeed, commercial operators have since begun operations in several districts, spreading 2cwt. per acre at a cost of about 10s. per acre, a cost which when the normal costs of land transport, packhorse or sled haulage, extended weeks of the payment of wages, etc., are taken into account, has proved most attractive to farmers.

“Now the Farm Production Committee has had discussions with the Air Force and the Soil Erosion authorities and has asked the Government to give urgent consideration to certain recommendations which the Soil Erosion and Rivers Control Council recently placed before Cabinet.

“Aerial topdressing has already been proved to be of real value in our farming methods. If proposals at present under investigation prove feasible and economic, aerial topdressing may open a new world of prosperity to our farmers and to our Dominion. A New Future “This then is the background,” said Mr. Walsh. “We have been many years preparing for this moment, but now a new future lies before us. Even today our farmers have set themselves well upon the road to the new prosperity. “Dairy farmers last year, with the help of a favourable season, increased butterfat production by more than 10 per cent, over the previous year, resulting in increased gradings for export of 14,500 tons of butter and 12,000 tons of cheese. This year, in the first two months, these figures are , already 25 per cent, up each month on the corresponding months of last year’s fine effort, or 5300 tons in butter and 1250 tons in cheese. The farmers now have the fencing to subdivide and graze extensively. They have the fertiliser to spur growth. They have the machines to plant and reap winter feed, to collect speedily and cheaply the hay growing so luxuriantly. To use this extra feed they have added this year, according to the Dairy Board, 50,000 cows to their herds, which should bring our dairy cows in milk back to the highest peak reached in our dairy history, in the remarkable 1940-41 season. , ./.

“Expansion in our dairy industry is already a fact.

“Our meat producers last year sent rather fewer lambs and sheep to the works, but still showed an increase in weights killed. Beef killings were down, bringing an over-all decrease, but this may mean that farmers were

stocking up for the future. Breeding ewes as at April 30,, 1948, were 400,000 up on the previous year. There are indications that this increase will be repeated this year, so that our flocks are obviously being built up to enable our sheep farmers to share in the coming expansion. Beef heifers under one year of age also showed an increase in 1948 and there is reason to believe that there will be a. further increase this year. “These are the first indicators. The expansion is under way and the- impetus will grow. Britain and Our Farm Economy “Whether for good or for ill our prosperity is linked, with the prosperity of Britain. New Zealand must live primarily by producing and selling food. The buyers of food in the great quantities we produce must be those millions who are engaged essentially in producing specialised manufactured goods and those unable to grow enough food for their own use. “The greatest aggregation of such people lies in Great Britain. America and other manufacturing countries with great areas of fertile land are' to a large extent able to supply their own foodstuffs. Our only great market must be Britain, and thus our farm economy is inextricably locked with Britain’s prosperity.

“During the war years this country marshalled its productive forces, pushed politics and sectional interests aside, and our farmers rallied inspiringly to see that Britain was given the food she - needed to enable her to make the tremendous historical effort she put forward in the successful defence of democracy and freedom. Short of essential materials, with great numbers of our fittest producers overseas in the armed forces, our farmers held on grimly, worked from before daylight to beyond dusk, and succeeded in maintaining and even increasing the vital food we sent to Britain.

“That is the spirit,” concluded Mr. Walsh, “which I am satisfied still lies behind our more recent production expansion. Our farmers are today building up their production not only to ensure greater security and higher standards of living for themselves, but also as their contribution to solving Britain’s post-war crisis and their contribution to a peaceful solution of the world’s present illnesses.

“If this spirit continues to spur our producers, and continues to unite them with other members of the community in a common cause, prosperity will follow as the inevitable reward.”