PRODUCTION IN DOMINION

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24898, 11 June 1946, Page 4

PRODUCTION IN DOMINION

RISING TREND SEEN FIGURES QUOTED BY MR C. MORGAN WILLIAMS, M.P. “Mr W. N. Perry, acting-Dominlon president of Federated Farmers, has quoted figures to suit his contention that there has been a general decline in production, but he has not told the full story,” said Mr C. Morgan Williams, M.P., replying to the statement by Mr Perry published yesterday. “I don’t think my original remarks to the South Island Dairy Association in Duneuin on Thursday were published in Christchurch,” Mr Williams continued. “I made the statement that the slight drop in butter-fat production was a sign of the prosperity of dairy farmers. That may have been provocative, and was at first received hilariously; but when I pointed out that farmers apparently were not now compelled to milk cows as they did in the depression, many agreed with me. As a director of the Central Dairy Company in Christchurch, I saw what happened. Insolvent farmers were put on a budget by firms, and their wives began to milk a few cows to obtain a little ready cash. There were a large number of what we called ‘billy-can’ suppliers, because they were not dairy farmers. When better times returned we lost hundreds of those suppliers.” A booklet recently published by Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln. about farming in Southland attributed the decline in dairying there to the improved prosperity of farmers. Although dairying was not unprofitable, fat Ramb raising was just as profitable and a good deal less arduous, Mr Williams continued. The figures seized on by Mr Perry in butter-fat production represented a decline caused by a bad season. Next year it rose 10 per cent. Butter-fat production has been as follows:—l93435. 183,000 tons; 1935-36. 192.300 tons: 1940-41, 210,500 tons; 1943-44, 173.100 tons; 1944-45, 192.000 tons.

Mr Williams said he would admit there had been a slight decline in the number of dairy cows, but this was scarcely significant. From 1,828,000 in 1934-35. the total had dropped to 1,700,000 in 1944-45, but this was more than balanced in increased wool and meat production. The 1943-44 total of 1,669,000 cows indicated that an upward trend had begun, and this prospect was ‘supported by the census of 379,000 heifer calves being raised at January 31, 1945, when the number of one to two-year-old heifers was only 319,000. In gross meat production, the average for the years 1936-39 was 470,000 tons, increasing to 535,000 in 1939-40 and to 539,000 tons in 1944-45. Mr Williams said. Sheep had increased from 31.062,875 in 1940 to 33,974,612 in 1945. The average wool production of 138,000 tons in 1936-39 had risen to 166.000 tons in 1944-45. Crop returns had shown a general increase in production, especially peas and small seeds. Wheat had fluctuated violently through varying seasons, but all over the general trend of production was upward.