Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 16 April 1932, Page 8

Farming Column

THE WORLD’S WHEAT. INCREASE IN PRODUCTION. The twentieth report of the Imperial Economic Committee deals with wheat. It is a survey, without recommendations, of the wheat situation throughout j the world in 1931. The Committee set itself in particular to find out whether there has been over production of wheat, j whether requirements are likely to in- j crease and what the prospects of prices are likely to be. The report shows that in the years since the close of the war the quantity of wheat grown has greatly increased. Before the war there was, on an average, an annual expansion of 53 million bushels, and just before the war the world’s annual crop was about 3,000 1 million bushels, leaving out Russia and China. This production dropped sharply in the war hy something over 100 rail- j lion bushels a year. There was a big drop in European countries, which had produced before the war nearly half the world's wheat and which diminished their output 'by a third. They were producing 400 million bushels less in 1920 than in 1913. On the other hand the wheat countries outside Europe, Canada, Argentina, United States, Australia and India, under the stimulus of war time demand were producing 300 million bushels more. So that the net decline was only 100 million bushels, in the years since the war Europe has regained her old output. The five nonEuropean countries have continued to increase and now produce. 2,000 million bushels whore before the war they produced 1,500 million bushels. \ So that it is true to say that production has increased steadily. Prices during the same period have fallen steadily. In an era when there is widespread unemployment and privation there is a superabundance of the world s primary foodstuff, at prices which, over a vast area of wheat growing land, do not repay the cost of production. Prices, began to fa'll in 1920, and fell at fiist more rapidly lor wheat than for the run of other commodities. In 1930 wheat was selling for about two fifths of what it had fetched in 1920, but the big drop had come between 1920 and 1923 and prices in 1930 were in general about three quarters of the prices in 1923. ..... j On the whole, in the last ten years, the fall in the price of wheat has followed. the general trend of declining prices so closely that it is plain that general causes rather than causes special to wheat have been at work. i That it is these larger economic and monetary influences which have kept the price of wheat declining, rather than excessive production, is brought out by a. striking diagram in the report which shows that wheat production, for all the strides it has made since the war, has not yet reached, the level it would have reached if the pre-war rate of increase had been continued, The set-hack to production between 1914-1917 was so severe that recovery ha,s necessarily been slow. But special factors told against wheat after 1929. The United States Federal Farm Board held a huge and growing visible surplus stock—4so million bushels in July 1931—wind: it kept off the market in the hope of iidpir..: the price-. The'mere existence of this stock had a. depressing effect. Russia I reappeared as an exporter of wheat on a large scale. But the main reasons why a smaller crop in 1929 was followed not by a rise but a continued fall in price must be sought in the general economic condition of the world.

INCREASED CONSUMPTION. Nevertheless the stocks have accumulated and to-day are double what they were ten years ago; they cannot be measured very closely because so much wheat is in the hands of farmers and millers, but the known existence, oi huge supplies depresses prices. Consumption is not very easily measured, but some " concfusions are established. In the first place, the world demand for wheat is increasing in consequence of the growth of population. The consumption per head is increasing in (Russia, the, Orient and tropical countries. The report quotes the conclusion of the Food Research Bureau of Leland 'Stamford University, that tropical countries show an increase in consumption not onlv absolutely, because ot inereas«d population, but also per head. There p.-opw a nil each person is eating more wheat. In more civilised mi .iic ; . less wheat is being eaten for bread, as fruit, vegetables, dairy pro duce and sugar have become more important in the daily diet. The Ameiican who used, thirty years ago. to eat ; 5.4 bushels now eats only 4.2 bushels ; but there has not been any great drop since the war oil her in the United Sl:il.,s or elsewhere. 'I iic demand tor | wheat for human food is inelastic in the chief wheat consuming countries and abundance means a fall ill price j But per head consumption includes the wheat a man buys to give his herns m other livestock or to uso lor indust.iia!

purposes. The great importing count nos. nod especially the free market, of <irenf. 'Britain, acted as shock absorbers and stabilised prices by accumulating stocks in cheap limes and drawing on them in yeans of poor .harvests. The new policy, both in Great Britain, and Germany, of becoming more self-sufficed will lessen the steadying elfeet of these buyers, and world prices will probably fluctuate more. An energetic campaign has been started in the United States to feed livestock with cheap "li.-at.. d this movement may assume large proportions. • !

NEWS AND VIEWS

CHAMPION BUTTER-FAT BULL. The latest champion butter-fat bull is Mr C. G. C. Dernier’s Vivandiere’s Prince, the title being, won by reason of having five daughters Iron, different dams that have, reached eeT tain standards of production. Thai Prince should prove a great butterfat sire is only what might be expected, as the dam, Viviindiere, is the champion Jersey cow ol New Zealand on twice-a-day milking, he j-. : .„u heimi ,lu3t>ib. of fat in .todays

the latest news. It is an old saying that one has to go from home to hear news. Hep. is a very interesting statement from an English paper : “New Zealand but ter is made from graded and pasteurised cream, so as to give it the keeping qualities to stand the journey ot 13.000 miles from the Dominion. West Country butter is made from fresh cream, and consequently is fuller flavoured than the New Zealand butter. New Zealand agriculturists have now discovered a special starter which starts the setting of the cream and imparts to the butter the same flavour as the West, Country butter. The new Dominion product will, therefore, have West Country flavour at the low Dominion price. It has been introduced primarily to compete with the full-flav-oured Danish butter in the North, but it may seriously challenge Devon and Cornish butter also.

MINERAL DEFICIENCY. Under favourable conditions the dairy cow normally 'uses lime while she is milking, and gains lime late in the period of lactation and when she is dry. There is an exagger aed impulse, says Mr Forbes, of the .American Institute of Animal Nutrition, of the improved cow to secrete milk and a limited ability to assimilate lime, and that the cause of th'-s limited ability to assimilate lime has not been determined. He emphasises the fact that during the off s son the feeding, . should be sufficiently liberal to permit the building up of extensive reserve® of mineral nutriment to protect the cow’s vitality and enable her to produce to her maximum capacity, in the subsequent season. This indicates the need of ■liberal liming of the land, and where this has not been done the liberal use at the present tjme of lime (ordinary ground limestone) in the water, and the provision of mineral licks. This American authority recommends that cows be given free access in the off season to a mixture of one part of salt and four parts of steamed bone flour.

FRESH 'PASTURES P- iV At a recent conference in Ireland a Government expert stated that while there was no better food for milking cows 'than good (grass, lie considered that very heavy milkers may with advantage get a little feeding in the end of their lactation, but to extend the practice generally t° all the cows was, in view of creamery prices -at that Time, doubtful economy. He pointed out the mistake of allowing cows to range over the 'entire pasture from the beginning of the grass season. Cows should -be confined to a couple of fields at ip, time, and exchanged every few weeks. The change to a fresh pasture stimulates the flow of milk and the yield is thereby increased. In autumn when the grass is scarce and cows are on pasture alone, a littleexpense 'involved in the way of supplementing the, declining pasture would he amply rewarded by longerlived cows, bettor condition when next calving, and consequently a higher yield of milk.

PIG INDUSTRY IN SWEDENThe Swedish authorities are circulating in Britain an attractive illustrated booklet on “The Pig Industry and Bacon Curing in Sweden." 'I In’ book shows how the pig breeding industry has been developed in -Sweden, and how the type of pig habeen improved by tackling the prob lorn in an organised manner. In 4925 there, were 780 pig breeding associations ,in the country; and between 1918 and 1925 the annual production of bacon and perk advanc'd from 132,700 tons to 150,000 tons. I’he predominant breed ol b'lCoii pigs in Sweden is the native breed, which ha,? been greatly improved by crossing with the barge White Yorkshire. The breed, that comes second in importance is the Swedish l/’i" 1 - rnee, which is closely related to t’’" Danish Landraoe. Since 1908 th' Animal Husbandry Department the Agricultural 'Experimental Station has -been applying extensive practical tests to the influence of W fnrent foods on the rate ol gain, a”' l on the quality of the flesh. The ii im of the work is to breed P'""of first-rate quality for the p'oduction of bacon; and the have advanced so far that the two I, r( .ods—Large While and Sw«.' Land race-—are nearly equal, and lr both reached a high degree of P fectio.il.