Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 1932, Page 8

Farming Column

LARGE SCALE FARMING. A SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE. Large-scale farming is not confined to the Dominions, as the figures given in the Scottish Farmer of an enterprise in Britain make clear. Alexander Wished, of Aberdeenshire, does not limit his activities to Scotland. In addition to 11 farms ,in his home shire, extending to 2214.spiffs arable, he carries on two farms, in Oxfordshire extending to' 780 acres. Besides this, he rents 1(X)6 acres of sheep grazing winterings. Mr Wish art’s activities are not wholly agricultural, lor he assists in his father’s butcher business and is also owner of a dairy in Aberdeen.

As a youth Mr Wishart took advantage. of the training provided by the North of Scotland College of Agricuj'tiure, and in his ' farming operations he successfully combines th e scientific with the practical. He believes in framing so as to secure the greatest possible production from the soil. "Maximum yields,” lie says, "help to reduce costs.”

The extent of Mr Wishart’s farming operations may be judged , from ho fact that he finishes off between 700 and 800 fat cattle yearly, and keeps above 900 stores, while he also has a stock o'l 500 breeding and feeding pigs, including 60 sows. He keeps 2760 breeding ewes of various breeds, 3000 feeding sheep, and between 70 and 80 stud rains. Crossbred live stock are favoured. Slie-'p are of mixed breeding; so are his pigs; and for dairy purposes he prefers a first cross between two pure dairy Irceds. For feeding purposes Mr Wishart prefers black polled cattie. The key to successful farming on such a large scale is skilful organisation, persona) supervision, freedom from tradition, and readiness to test new methods. Mr Wishart makes a duply round of his farms, and he spends two clear days each fortnight, in Oxfordshire. Reports have been pub lished of successful large-scale farmers who work with horses only, and of others who make extensive use of traetors. Mr Wishart uses both. Tn Aberdeenshire he has three tractors, and makes the fullest use of them in driving threshers and barn machinery as well as for cultivation. A tractor does the work of three or four pairs oi horses, and brings on the work rapidly in a late season. Tn horse cultivation lie has departed from the usual practice in that his horsemen drive threehorses in a, single-furrow plough, ploughing eigh inches deep. The.se' three-horse teams do practically the same work as two ploughmen with a pair of horses each.

ENGLAND IMPORTS MILK. BIG SUPPLY FROM DENMARK. To wards the end of last year there was apparently’ a shortage of milk in England, and large quantities wen imported from Denmark. There was also a controversy as to the price the English farmer should receive for milk, and after long deliberations >• settlement was reached whereby the producer should receive an additions' 4d per gallon over the prices agreed upon at a settlement arrived at in September.

When the news was published that fresh milk was being imported from Denmark at the rate of 1000 gallons a day by one large distributing firm alone, a storm of protest was raise l ' from the English producers, who had so long been assured that the home market in fresh miSk was the one likely to continue. Jt had been rumoured that the Continent was sending frozen milk more or less experimentally, and the arrival of fresh milk on a commercial basis was re garded as impracticable. Such opinions. however, had proved to be unfounded, and fresh milk in. liquid form began to arrive daily from Denmark and was sold the next morning in London in the ordinary way without any indication of its source of origin.

The importation was carried out bv the Co-operative Wholesale Society which had found itself short of milk supplies from English farms. It would appear, however, that there is no qnos. tion o'' Danish milk comnot'im "'it' English fresh milk, “(t can’t be done,” said a memlK’r of the concern : ‘‘tin freight kills it as a competitive propos-

ition.” Mi'k has also been imported from Holland. Ireland and Eranee.

MINERAL DEFICIENCY. LOSS OF LIME WHILE MILKING. Under favourable conditions the dairy cow normally loses lime while she is milking and gains lime late in the perk'd of lactation and w •<>.'■ n she is drv There is an exaggerated impulse, savMr Forbes, of an American Institute o l ' Animal Nutrition, of tile imp-oved cow to secrete milk anil a limited ability to assimilite lime, and the cause o' this limited ability to assimilate lime Inis not linen determined. Me emphasises the fact that dining the oil' sc>sori the fending should he sufficiently liberal to permit the lni'ldiim up of extensive reserves of mlineral nutriment to protect tbe cow’s vitality and ('liable her to produce to her maximum canacity in the sllhseoimof season. This indicates the need of lih n rnl liming of the land, and whore this has not boon doin' the liberal use ;i| I'm "1 i : m, of I i lino fordina.rv ground limestone') in the wafe*' and the provision W mineral lick? This American authority r;;-

commends that cows be given .roe access in tlie oil season to a mixture of one part of salt and lour parts <d steamed bone llour. DISPARITY IN BUTTER PRICKS. N.Z. AND DANISH COMPARED. “One of the hardest; questions we always have to answer is to explain the difference between Danish and New Zealand butter prices,” states advice received from Messrs A, J. Mills and Co.. Ltd., London. “Practically all the European countries who import any butter were buying this week, and they one and all paid the premium demanded for Danish, whilst the retailers on this side, who handle the regular dairies, continued to pay the price that was demanded and the consumer had to pay Id, 2d or even 3d per lb. more for Danish bukter than they could buy fine freshly-landed New Zealand butter for. In some ways this country is most conservative and the housewife, particularly in the Midlands end the north part of the United Kingdom, will not, change from buying her Danish butter each week, and 'the parts of the United Kingdom which suffer most in unemployment, and who are getting the largest proportion of the relief from doles and allowances, larei the districts wh r re the largest portion of Danish butter gojes. It us a curious situation, but it still exists.”

SILAGE AND PRODUCTION

FORMER’S EFFECT ON LATTER

Those who have had experience in the feeding of silage to dairy stock will realise that it is essentially a milk producing food and, moreover, it is excellent for keeping cattle m good health. This is indicated hv the glossiness of the cows’ coa f s. which is produced by a diet containing teilnge. experiments in Germany, however, provide .definite evidence of the effect of silage in increasing milk and butter-fat production.

Fourteen dairy cows were fed for 30 days on silage and their milk yield during this period was compared with that of the 15 preceding and 15 following days during which the cows received ordinary food. There was on average daily gain during the period of ensilage feeding of about one and a-half gallons 6? milk per head. In tlvis first experiment no observations were made regarding the effect on tlie butter-fat.

In other experiments carried out later, however, it was shown that the y eld and fat content of the milk are noticeably increased by feeding by silage and that each is again lowered by a return to a ration containing no isilage. It should he emphasised that in the experiments referred to ample supplies of silage were fed. Many people who have found silage incapable of increasing the milk How ,ave used quite an insufficient amount for the purpose. In a series of experiments conducted at the University Farm, Cambridge ’University, 'to test oat and tare silage against oat and tare hay and maize silage against roots (turnips and mangels) the result in each case was in favour of the silage.

DISEASES IN CATTLI

AU.STRAMAX IX VESTKIATK )\

A more extensive investigation of cattle diseases in Australia has been decided upon .as the result of a conference held by representatives of Australian States at the Sydney Royal Show grounds. 1 was decided to form a Commonwealth committee to iuvesii:rate and discover remedies for disease* vhtifh cause considerable losses among dairy cattle every year l)r Kinross, of New South Wales, who presided, said that last year a commitwhich had been appointed had done a large amount of pioneering work ; bu.: (here was still much to be done from a Commonwealth point of view. It had been realised by the New South Wales branch that greater good would he doin' if the knowledge that had already been acquired regarding diseases in car.tle were extended to the other States, especially if the States could be induced to co-operate. Valuable research work had been done at Glenfield and by v terinarv experts. The aid of scientiAs to the dairy farmer was l most valuable, and while Farmers themselves were doing much to improve their herds, it was necessary that scientific assistance should be given. Two diseases that were worrying producers were contagious abortion and rnainmitis, and here was a field in which science could do much. He expressed sati-Taction with tile encouragement given by tbe var'ous societies, and ventured the hope that a strong eoiumijkee of two represent aI iv s each from X’cw S'u.’i Males ami the other .States would be formed to thoroughly investigate the diseases nieiit ipned.

A committee of representatives was appointed as a step toward forming an organisation to investigate diseases in dairy cattle.