EFFECT ON FARMING

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 17, 15 October 1943, Page 4

EFFECT ON FARMING

Season Held Worst Since 1919 * The abnormally spring following a wet winter has had an effect nothing short of disastrous on farming operations in the neighbourhood of Wellington, according to an official of the Department of Agriculture. , r The department states that, taking the Dominion as a yvhole, it has been generally speaking a very bad spring, the only favoured exception being Southland. AH the returns received to date by' the department indicate that there has been a considerable decrease in the butterfat yield compared with last. year. Lambing has been seriously affected by the adverse weather conditions throughout the North Island and in Canterbury, percentage losses in many areas being very high. All seasonal operations on the land have been held up, and the spring sowing of wheat in Canterbury is very much behind. Many crops, such as peas, in Canterbury and Nelson, have had to be resown. Maliara Suffers. “It is the worst season I have known since I came back from the last war in 1919,” remarked Mr. W. J. Trotter, a well-known Makara farmer, when discussing the serious plight of the farming community generally. “I have never experienced anything so bad in my time so far as feed for stock is concerned, and I am told that the position is much worse in some other parts of the country.’.’ The dry' autumn and the continued rainfall since July, it was stated, had caused big losses of stock, which suffered heavily from tlie inadequacy of feed. A bad spring season had accounted for very poor hay crops in the Makara district last year, the yield being about only half the tonnage to the acre of the previous year. Tlie prospects for hay crops this year were regarded as “practically nil,” the farmers being forced to keep stock in paddocks that would, with otherwise.sufficient quantities of feed, be closed for a time and cropped. The whole countryside yvas saturated, and on 'the low ground mueh feed was lost through the grass being trodden into the ground by stock. Many of the higher levels were also very soggy, a condition yvhich all round held up the preparing of the land for sowings. Stock yvhich had come through the winter was in low condition, and, therefore, the production yvas low. This meant that supplies of milk were affected to the extent that some of the nearby farmers were unable to supply the municipal milk depot, as was their usual practice. As an illustration it yvas stated that one farm, yvhich at this time last year WU3 providing over 100 gallons a day, was down in milk production by about 30 gallons a day. If that were a sample of the general position, it. would seem that, a serious situation bad developed so far as the needs of the community yvere concerned.

Sheep-farming had also been heavily hit by’ the persistence of the bad weather. The ewes had wintered 'very badly and, through luck of feed, the sheep were. in low condition. . The experience yv.ith lambing had been disastrous, it, being estimated that, at least 20 per cent, of the lambs died. That percentage yvas much higher in some cases.