DOWN ON THE FARM

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 167, 17 July 1942, Page 4

DOWN ON THE FARM

PROBLEMS OF "COW COCKII":"

HOW TO GET MEN TO WORK A farmer who has had over 20 years' experience in the King Country and who now, close to the seventies, milks a herd of 57 cows (reduced from 75) with the sole assistance of one man considerably older than himself, described to a Star representative to-day some of the problems which now face the milk producer. He met them squarely, with no word of complaint, and his ready acceptance of increasingly hard conditions was an eloquent | testimony to his courage and determination. But, while ready to accept such conditions for himself, he had sufficient vision and experience to visual- } ise what they meant to the country and to its productivity when multiplied a thousandfold on such small farms as his own, and to an even greater extent on the areas larger than his 250 acres. Men who will really work on the land, he said, were now almost impossible to obtain. The army had drafted so many that the balance left was insufficient for the demand upon it. The result was waste and inefficiency in the small labour pool available, for many of those still on the farms, if asked to do a decent day's work, just disappeared, making for somewhere else, before again moving on. The man from the Rohe potae was not very optimistic as to the prospects of the dairy farmer obtaining solid help from the new policy of withdrawing men from the military camps to help the man on the land. Existing award rates on farm work which were as high as the dairyman could pay at the present price of butterfat, plus the free services offered in the way of housing, firing, milk and garden space, would not he was afraid, attract men who were receiving military pay plus family allowances. The effects of the competition of Public Works wages and °L 1 . pay and Purchasing terms offered under the small farm plan were also felt by the "cow cockie," making it more difficult for him to get, and to hold, labour on the farm. Another unforeseen problem, for which, of course, nobody in New Zealand could be held responsible arose from the change-over last year from butter to cheese and the return to butter this year. Each change was fairly costly, but apart from that those who had sent their milk to the cheese factory had perforce to give up pig raising, since they had no skim milk to feed the pigs. Now they had to pay as much for store stock as they got a year ago for the porker or baconer, and the limited exchequer of the small fanner could not stand the strain. Rationing of fertilisers, higher prices for everything used on the farm, and especially for fencing posts and wire—when anv was obtainable—added to the difficulties. The rubber parts of milking machines required renewal every six months or so, and rubber tubing was now on a special list requiring official authority before replacements could be obtained. Rubber boots, too for drainage work or for work round the cowshed were also hard to come by. in the aggregate, these difficulties made a fairly stiff hurdle to normal progress. The man from the countrv accepted it all in a philosophical spirit so far as he himself was concorned and he was going back home to put all his energy into running the farm But he had perforce reduccd his herd, the vast majority of his neighhoms had done the same thing if they had not been forced to sell out f ♦ was definitely concerned for the future of the industry as well as for its immediate present, and not unreasonably, he feared the effects of any shortage in butterfat producDominion! 6 economic lif e of the