Not major sprout problem in wheat crops

Press, 20 April 1979, Page 6

Not major sprout problem in wheat crops

Problems involved in handling the harvest in South Canterbury because of the weather has not resulted in a major sprouting problem with wheat.

The director of the Wheat Research Institute in Christchurch, Mr R. W. Cawley, said early this week that while there has been some severe sprouting in lines — of the order of S 3 and worse — the majority of lines from the district recently tested by the institute has been sound.

Wheats with a sprout score of only SI are acceptable for milling. Those lines which had been found to be sprouted did not constitute a major part of the crop that had been tested so far, Mr Cawley said. In terms of the general level of wheat quality, he said that lines recently tested had not changed the general picture. The harvest has started in Southland and several hundred samples from that crop have now been tested. Mr Cawley said that these w ere of good quality. There had been a little sprouting but so far it had been at a very low level. The' chairman of the Dominion agriculture section of Federated Farmers, Mr A. L. Mulholland, said this week that the recent spell of more kindly weather had enabled a fair percentage of the harvest in South Canterbury to be

completed, except in isolated areas such as Seadown where it had not been possible to get machines on to the ground.

Mr Mulholland said that some sales of undergrade wheat had been made but disposal of undergrade barley was proving to be a serious problem. Speaking after a recent meeting of the agriculture section council, at which the plight of the cropping farmer had been discussed, Mr Mulholland said that two resolutions had been sent to the federation’s Dominion council — one relating to the easing of the burden of loan repayments and the other on a variation of the existing

income equalisation scheme. If approved by the

council these resolutions would be taken to the Government for action.