Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1932, Page 8

Farming Column

PRODUCE PRICES.

butter

In the last report, Messrs Weddell and Co., advised a weak market gWing ,to the continued . heavy gradings in both • New Zealand aifd Australia and the pressure to sell, on the . part of weaker, holders. This caused the drop of 3s cabled on June 111th,: since, when you will notice a steady improvement in prices', the latest cabled news, being 99s to 101 s per cwt. with market firm. This rise coming in,-, the face of the heavier gradings for June and also greatly increased stocks for arrival? ini the United Kingdom during July, August and September, is 'all the more reassuring. 1 V ,

Previously, a sudden .*• improvement has been followed almost immediately by a collapse but there has been heavy buying on the part of retailers to protect their price of Is per lb, to the public and in view of the possibility of some relaxation jin the German and French quotas. This being! so, and with the improved tofte in ’ all markets, there should be every .probability of, prices further advancing in the near future. ,

,In the meantime, there has been some renewed activity on the part of f.o.b. buyers-, lOfd, 10-13/16ths and even lid having ben paid for finest quality. '

, CHEESE. j The statistical position of ’cheese stocks is very much stronger than that of butter. True, there is an increase for the month of June' of 75.34 per cent but this only means .1,000 tons. Stocks in the United Kingdom '•show a pronounced shortage, whilst favourable weather is stimulating the consumption. Prices have, recently advanced; latest cabled quotations being 59s 61s with a firm market am' with further improvement probable. F.o.b. buyers ihave been fairly active, ,sfd to 6d being paid for parcels unshipped and sfd for afloats.- Many factories are selling, in order to wine up old season’s supply. . • FOOT ROT IN SHEEP.S%dt, \TLte cause of foot rot is, as j known, bacterial, and due to ganism which causes a. necrosis of;' tissues. Yet this germ cannot gain entrance unless the. •sheep scalds or. injures the cleft of the. foot or scalds the coronet. There is also a possibility, that ergot and .’ounder may in some instances interfere 1 with the blood* supply and lay the foot oj>en to infection a should the organism be present. How often does a farmer find that his '''hitherto clean farm has been infected, by a line of bought-in sheep with footrot. It is so difficult once the condition- is seen to get rid of it. Usually the jpais-: tures have been improved and t-ere is an jncrease in the length of feed, nioie sheep are being carried and tfm ground gets less spell, there is failure to make the best use .of cattle, or the season has been exceptionally frosty or exceptionally wet. Dryiiess and short feed are against, foot rot;' Therefore, poor hill country is rarely af-fected;-iVi " • • ■

Preventive treatment is naturally best. Where the flock is 'affected it is as well to put ’the sheep through a foot bath regularly and every fortnight through the winter and spring or any wet: season. The foot Ijath should contain slb bluestone' and ilb of arsenic dissolved in 11 gallons of water. It is necessary to dissolve these drugs in hot water before adding 1 to the footbath. In making the foot bath it should, under ideal conditions, be placed as an offshoot from the shearing shed so that sheep may puss over a batten floor and then run through the race in concrete holding yards/ which may still be under a roof; The exits must then be straight .rnto ail - open paddock rather than through a ’.race so that mud will ,be at a?mini--mum. The disease is highly contagious 1 iand mud is one of the best carriers. •If this be borne in mind, then the farmer is one sten nearer eradication. To put sheep into muddy yards is ruinous.

When sheep are badly affected with •foot rot then they can be divided into two lots, those only moderately affected and which can lift run through the foot bath after a slight paring of the foot, and those which req'uire hand dressing. This latter number can be kept near the house in a clean paddock where sheep do not continuously run and should be dressed consistently at least once—preferably twice or three timos —a week until - they can be put with the foot bath lot. /<' THE SALESMAN FARMER. M A New Zealander who has been -abroad comes back with a suggestion that farmers who live near towns should, develop the system of marketing their, own wares, that there should be *► regular market day, with stalls set up and floods on sale, and all that kind o(' thine. Why not anyway? Farming is the oldest industry of them all, with the possible exception of hunting and fishing. The system of the farmer marketjn<T his produce himself, or a good deal of his produce, is pliably as old a? farming. To deliver to a factory, wait for a buyer to visit the farm, : or send produce to auction are all of them, much more modern innovations. So is, the idea that a farmer should sell all he raises and buy all he needs to eat or wear, Tt is the result of an age of specialisation, of course, ■ and when times are good it is probably the more

profitable way. But when times are not so good it is unreasonable to won* der whether there mightn’t be something in going back to the ways of o u v fathers. Some tilings are not likely, to i; come back. The churn and the cheese press might be given a new lease of life. To cure the bacon and ham consumed by the household may not he impossible; though the wide kitchen chimney and the wood fire were necessary conditions for/that, and an electric stove isn’t much use as a,substitute.. But the farmer could not very well take his grist to the mill and have it ground for domestic use, since the mill isn’t there. Neither is it altogether feasible to have the wool spun at home and woven for use by the;family. Still there--might be some return to the more self-sufficient ways of an earlier generation and the personal :marketing of produce seems a distind possibility. ' . Old customs are dying out but it might pay to revive some of them. Milk is now about the only farm product retailed fi'om door to door, eggs farm butter., dressed poultry, etc. f Prices for all farm produce have fallen enormously during the past three years but consumers are not getting, a fair share in the reductions of many of the commodities.' The closer producer and consumer can get together the hettei for both and One way of doing this to some purpose is direct trading. DANISH SUPPLIERS. At each of the 83 bacon factories in Denmark a veterinary surgeon and his assistants carefully examine evem, pig each individual carcase before applying the control stamp. Without this proof of a clean bill of health the bacon cannot be. exported. ■ ' - > ! . But Danish bacon is constantly undergoing overhaul to see in which direction it can be further improved. For example in April, 1930, the Ministry of Agriculture enacted, new regulations to this end. The first ’concerns 'the manner of butchering and trimming sides of bacon at the factory. ‘ / The Ministry specifies the precise’ manner in which factories shall treat the bacon,' ,how the various- bodies are to be removed, how the neck and fore end and streak and. gammon are ’to be trimmed so that tile British pub-

gffeinay be protected against having tc , •pay for something they cannot use. .All this careful butchering- if carried out according to a standard chart in the possession of all the factories.

The’ exact number of hours required for tanking is specified, and even the length of time the sides are to bo drained of moisture before packing for export. Stringent rules for. grading make it impossible, for bacon to be selected for the wrong market.- There are regulations covering the manner in which the bacon is’to be baled, and even packing materials are specified both as to weight and quality.

BONUS TO S. AFRICAN FARMERS. Messrs Joseph Nathan and 'Company, Ltd., 'have been advised by their Capetown correspondent that the Union Government has increased its payments of bounties on exports as Under; Butter, 7d, 6d and 4d a pound, on first, second aiid third grade butters. and in the case of cheese 6d, 5d and 4d a pound. These rates replace the scale Of 6ljd, s*d and 3d respectively in the Case of butter, and of 4d, '3J and 3d respectively in the case of cheese. The bounties will be paid in respect of all, butter and cheese exported since November 1 last.