HIGHER PRODUCTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 42, 18 June 1947, Page 3

HIGHER PRODUCTION

DOUBLED IN 25 YEARS DOMINION’S ACHIEVEMENT How New Zealand farmers have doubled the Dominion’s production of dairy produce, meat and wool since 1922 was commented on by Mr H. E. Blyde, acting-president of Federated Farmers of N.Z. in a recent address. Though in the last quarter of a century half a million acres in New Zealand had gone out of production, the farmer has more than doubled his production of meat and has doubled his production of wool. In the period the number of cows has increased by not much more than 50 per cent., yet production has increased 100 per cent. To achieve

that the dairy farmer has stepped up the production per cow by over 25 per cent., but to do that he has had to have the assistance of the scientists.

“I do not believe we have anything like the peak production figures we shall ultimately reach,” continued Mr Blyde. “For instance, in Britain each of the many breeds of sheep and cattle has been evolved to suit conditions peculiar to different parts of England and Scotland. Though New Zealand conditions are very different, we have not, with the exception of the Corriedale sheep, evolved a breed of sheep to suit a particular set of conditions in a particular part of the Dominion. The Romney sheep as we have evolved it may be an exception, but it does seem to me that on the poorer land of the North Island hill country there is room for a different type of sheep again. Here is a job that one day the scientificiallytrained farmer will tackle, and there may be a modern Bakewell in this hall at the moment who will do it.

“Animal husbandry is, of course, the backbone of New Zealand farming, and I think we can claim, as far as Romney sheep are concerned, that we in this Dominion have had our Bakewells. It is not generally realised that only 50 years ago the value of a sheep in New Zealand was only that of its wool. Today the wool is a by-product. It was only after 1750 in England that the sheep was valued for its meat. Prior to that it was valued for its, wool and for its manure. The value of the sheep’s carcase in New Zealand came with the development of refrigeration, and it may be that science will provide still more uses for animal products.”