Remits Before Fanners’ Agriculture Council

Press, Volume C, Issue 29504, 4 May 1961, Page 8

Remits Before Fanners’ Agriculture Council

Rather than seek a wheat which was “less prone to sprouting” it would be better to have research carried out into methods o£ processing sprouted wheat to make it suitable for milling into baking flour, said Mr F. M. Henderson at the quarterly meeting of the Dominion agriculture produce section council of Federated Farmers in Christchurch yesterday. The council was discussing a remit from South Canterbury which its mover, Mr S. J. Lester, said arose out of a meeting held at the height of the “sprouting season” this year. Mr Henderson said that research into using sprouted wheat was more likely to give restilts more quickly than any breeding programme. "The . farm tractor and equipment have outstripped the transport laws.” said Mr R. W. Stokes (Hawke’s Bay) during discussion of remits from Southland on registration of tractors and trailers and implements which were towed behind on roads. On the motion of Mr G. A. Nutt (North Canterbury) a deputation from the council is to wait on the federation’s transport committee to discuss licensing of tractors and towed equipment, the definition of the term "adjoining properties” as set out in the regulations, and a proposal that the Transport Act, 1949. itself be redrafted. Members said that there was too much variation in interpretation of the regulations in different centres by department offices and by the individual enforcement officers themselves. There should be a uniform national policy on these matters. Control Of Birds The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is to be requested to resume research on “the most suitable methods of controlling the depredations of small birds among all classes of agricultural crops, with a view to instituting a national campaign to overcome this problem.”

A remit to this effect from Hawke’s Bay was carried after some discussion. Mr W. R. Martin said that experiments in the United States to find a bird repellent were being carried out by a petroleum products firm, and he suggested that Mr C. J. Crosbie. a Department of Agriculture officer who is soon to visit that country to study grain handling and drying, be asked to look into the matter. A remit proposing that turnip seed be marked with an expiry date, btought for* ward from Waikato, did not find favour with the council and was withdrawn. Mr Henderson said that expiry dates meant nothing unless the seed had been properly stored, was of good germination, and had not been near hormone preparations. The present code letter system was satisfactory to growers, and their safeguard was to save the bags after sowing to enable identification of any faulty lines. The secretary of the council (Mr A. G. Dawson) said that a date of the season the seed had been harvested could be misleading. Older seed might be of better quality than that harvested more recently. Mr E. J. Henshaw said that it was up to farmers to make themselves familiar with the code letter for each year. This was available from any Department of Agriculture office. Farmers would still have to be observant of wheat sack quality and note the brands on faulty sacks, Mr Henshaw said. Brands identifying the factory which made the sacks could be found on the inside of the sacks. Pakistan bags had not been as good as they had been promised, members said, and a common complaint was of wrong sizes. Many bags were short' in length. Mr A. N. Mclntosh (MidCanterbury) quoted correspondence with a Pakistan jute mill in which it was said workers had mixed Up orders for New Zealand with the shorter bags sold to Australia. Mr Henderson said that he had found 2Jin gaps in the seams of Pakistan sacks. Other members had also experienced faulty seams. Mr Mclntosh said that the faulty seams gave a lot of trouble when linseed was being threshed.