HAWKE'S BAY RYEGRASS SOUND MOUTHED EWES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21412, 2 March 1935, Page 19

HAWKE'S BAY RYEGRASS

SOUND MOUTHED EWES

GROWERS' BETTER PRICES ■ ____ The "Napier Daily Telegraph" states that some growers of ryegrass are holding seed in the apparent hope of. a further rise in market values. On the other hand, under, existing economic conditions, there must be a definite limit to the price that the farmer can afford to pay for his seed, and it is quite understandable that, rather than exceed these limits, farmers will sow down temporary swards of Italian rye and cowgrass, in the hope that next season values will have declined as a result of increased supply. . The present ruling values certainly leave no cause for complaint on the part of growers, particularly when they are compared with those which ruled at this stage last season. Recent quotations for permanent pasture seed off the mills around the district range from 6s 3d to 7s 6d a bushel, according to sample, while the outside price for permanent pasture seed off the mill last season in February was about ss. From 7s 6d to 8s a bushel is being offered for mother seed off the mills, compared with 6s last February.

HAWKE'S BAY EXPERIENCE The farm writer in the "Napier Daily Telegraph" noted a comment on this page recently on the high prices realised at the Hawke's Bay ram fairs for five and six-year ewes. The northern writer observes that some areas of the province were noticeably better than others in the facility with which five-year and older sheep in the Bay maintained their mouths. A Waimarama farmer told him that three seasons ago he purchased the annual draft of five-year ewes from a wellknown coastal station. These sheep had been on his property ever since, he has had two crops of lambs from them, and he is putting them to the ram again this season, for they are still, without exception, possessed of perfectly sound mouths. On farms in the Waimarama Valley are to be found breeding ewes'of eight and nine years old that could be sold on the condition of their mouths as five-year-olds, and the average buyer would be perfectly satisfied that he was getting good sheep. There were several lines of six-year ewes from

the Waimarama and Maraetotara districts sold at the two Hastings fairs earlier this month, and practically all these lines possessed guaranteed sound mouths. WOOL SALES REMAINDER OF ROSTER The following are the dates of the remainder of the current season's Dominion wool sales:— March 4— Invercargill. March 9 —Dunedin. March 13—Timaru. March 20—Wellington. March 25—Napier. March 29—Auckland. April I—Wanganui. April s—Christchurch. April B—Dunedin. April 13—Wellington.