PASTORAL OUTLOOK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24399, 10 September 1940, Page 6

PASTORAL OUTLOOK

WOOL, STOCK AND FEED SATISFACTORY PROSPECTS RESULT OF MILD WINTER A larger wool clip, of better quality than was the case last season, should enable growers to take the fullest advantage of the extra threepence a pound they are now receiving under the Empire purchase scheme, compared with the 1938-39 season, when auctions were last held. Last year the benefit of the increase in the average price was largely lost by producers owing to the clip being lighter and of poorer quality, as the result of which a great deal of' Otago-grown, wool had to be appraised in lower grades than usual. A Mild Season Following on one of, the mildest winters, experienced in Otago for many years, the wool -clip for the coming appraisal season should show a marked improvement on that of last year. Stock has wintered exceptionally well, and there have been practically no losses. In most districts growers anticipate an encouraging shearing, with ouality well above last year's, very ordinary .standard. The wool should be well grown, and there should be no sign of any break in the staple. -Indications also point ..to a much larger weight of wool.' There have been numerous instances of growers reporting that, sheep were carrying at the close of the winter as much wool as they brought to last year's shearing.. The season should furnish an excellent example of Nature's habit of compensating sooner or later for the frugality she indulges at times. Around the Province Crop and feed conditions throughout the province are on the whole excellent, North Otago being the only real exception. Farm work generally, thanks to a fine, mild and dry whiter, is well ahead of the normal schedule, except in such districts' as the wetter parts of West and South Taieri. North Otago is now becoming seriously dry, and some anxiety is being felt by farmers on the lighter lands. In the main Taieri district, feed conditions are good. Root crops have lasted well, and in most cases have escaped dry rot and disease. The Clutha district is in much the same fortunate position. Many farmers are sowing or making preparations to sow " war wheat," tempted by the satisfactory price the Government has fixed. Even in Roxburgh ' and other Central Otago districts, which do not normally grow any appreciable acreage of ..wheat, large areas have lately been got ready for spring sowings of this cereal. Stock generally are in good heart, even on the high country, where there has been a minimum of serious snows; and. with a cbntinuance of present conditions until' lambing becomes general in about a month's time, record lambing percentages should be obtained: