PRODUCTIVE PLAINS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 257, 13 January 1941, Page 5

PRODUCTIVE PLAINS

RICH FARM LANDS j; $ STATEMENTS TO MANPOWER! ' J COMMITTEE ' " ' ' - • •" ' • •- ■—- i - V That farmers in other dairying districts do not yet realise the amaz- -x ing productivity of drained swamp iand on the Rangitaiki Plains seems! evident from the proceedings of the Manpower Committee which sat at Whakatane recently. One farmer in appealing for his v, employee stated that only- 40 acres of his 100 acre 1 property was in grass, " v the balance being swamp in. its na- '* ■ tural state which provided rough, grazing in the dry months. He was milking 50 cows and producing 11,OOOlbs of butterfat, besides carrying young stock and. horses. This statement appeared incredI ible to Mr G. Buchanan,, of Paeroa, | a farmer member of the committeeMr Buchanan questioned the appel- . lant at some length" as to how 'he managed to carry so many head pf stock on a property that was so little improved. Mr Buchanan seemed to doubt the farmer's statements, and at one stage of the discussion remarked: "You have not been honest with the committee." This profurther discussion, the farm-* er protesting that he was the mosthonest person in the district. In the end it seemed that Mr Buchanan still . believed that the farmer was telling a "hard-luck tale'" to im- - press the committee. Actually the carrying capacity of this partially-improved property is as stated in evidence. A represen.- , tative of the "Beacon" has visited the property on several occasions and can vouch for the correctness - ; of this farmer's evidence as to Mril farming operations. It seems that Mr Buchanan, who :, is an experienced Thames Valley farmer, fails tQ give the Rangitaiki Plains credit for its great natural l fertility. At the present time much of the Plains is producing abundant feed in the form of paspalum, and herds are showing no real falling off in butterfat at a time when ;

the grasslands of much of the Wai-> kato are parched and brown.

At the first sitting of the Man- . power Committee at Whakatane it had to be explained to nfembers that on the Rangitaiki Plains production, of butterfat was maintained at a remarkably high rate in the hot •. T ; months of the year f and that cows milk well right up to winter. This makes it difficult for farmers to release men to go to camp until the! end of the dairying season. Byway of contrast, it is well known, that in other districts less favoured by Nature there is a rapid fal'ljr* ing off in the milk yield after New Year. Not so on the RangitaikJ Plains, where paspalum grows luxuriantly from November until the r / frosts set in. v However unimproved the back ; paddocks of some Rangitaiki farms may appear there will always be much rough feed for cattle because % of the paspaUim, lotus major, timothy and other wardy grasses which: \ ; thrive on heavy country. - Another factor that assists production on the Rangitaiki Plains is thet comparative shortness and mildness of "the winters. True there ap- ' pear to be plenty of frosts, but actually there are less than in the* Waikato. Dairy stock came througt the short winters well, when given x a good ration of hay as soon as tjhe «■ paspalum ceases to make growth -al In some inland dairying districts »J| the cows have a lean time in the dry autumn months, and so are in low condition in winter, and so do not! , give as good a yield butterfat as j. herds on the fertile Rangitaiki IS Plains. The figures of the Bay of » Plenty Herd Testing Association in- . ' M dicates how well this district corn- ; pares with others. . . _