THE NORTH ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 4032, 23 June 1931, Page 14

THE NORTH ISLAND.

GENERAL. The Kaiti Freezing Works are stilll receiving stock, and so far there is no sug--gestion of an early closing. The freezing; season usually closes about the end of’ June, but as the last of the killings are: not in sight yet no indication can be: given as to when the works are likely to» close down. Commenting on an explanation given: by trading firms that any reduction pos-. sible on certain small articles would be infinitesimal, the president of the PovertyBay and East Coast Sheepfarmers’ Union: (Mr C. H. Williams), at a recent meeting, said he could not agree with this: argument. Farmers must urge for reduotions, however small, for in the aggregate: all small savings would mean a great deal; to the man on the land.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the? Ayrshire Breeders’Association at Palmer--ston North on Thursday, Mr J. M'Ljnden,, veterinary surgeon at Massey College, characterised as humbug and nonsense theopposition to the proposal to lift the embargo on the importation of live stock, from Great Britain to New Zealand. A motion whs passed supporting the raising; of the embargo.

Certain farmers in the Eltham district have cause to congratulate themselves upon, their foresight (says the Argus). In February when fat ewes were selling at the ; sacrifice price of 3s fid to 4s, a numberof farmers who had their ewes drafted to> the Patea works arranged to have the car-, casses remain in cool storage for six; months, the company imposing no charge: for this service. These carcasses havenow been sold, netting the farmers Ils on the farms.

On the Wairoa flatlands where dairy--ing is established as a successful industry* an exceptional season having been en--joyed this year, a great deal of am* moniated super is used. For some time farmers used to mix the super with sul--phate of ammonia, this latter being ineluded with the object of bringing away an early flush of feed in the spring, but: ammoniated super has now taken th© place of the two manures and is giving very satisfactory results. Native farmers on the Mohaka block bad a fair year this season up until the. time of the earthquake, which caused a great deal of damage in the area. Prior to .the disaster, the Maori farmers were doing remarkably good work, breaking in an exceptionally hard class of country, and their difficulties have now been con» siderably increased with the possibilities of the completion of the East Coast rail’ way reduced to a minimum for some years at least.

“Unless there is something behind all this —something we do not know—l cannot understand why there is all thia talk about Russian butter,” said an Auckland butter merchant on Tuesday. “ Just look at the figures.” He quoted the statistical position, comparing the amount of Russian butter imported by Britain with a vastly greater total of imports. In 1930 Britain’s total imports were 294,720 tons, of which 65,496 were from New Zealand and 10,631 from Russia. He concluded that there might be more behind the question, but the statistical position was such that anyone interested in butter would not for a moment consider Russian butter as a possible factor in affecting New Zealand’s position on the Home market.” A correspondent of the Wanganui Herald writes: It is a well-known fact that in the days of our grandfathers it was a regular thing to take quantities of wheat to the mills to have it gristed. The cost of gristing was 9d per bushel. The farmer, for instance, taking ”48 bushels of wheat to the mill received a ton of flour, 8001 b of pollard and bran on the payment of £1 16s. The gristing business in these days was considered to be one of the most payable propositions of the flour-miller. The annual turnover in this department determined the value for sale, as the takings over the bar would in a hotel. Even with the old obsolete machinery, 48 bushels of wheat, 601 b to the bushel, made a ton of flour. Now, with modern conditions, the position is altogether different, and flour to-day is in the region of £l7 5s per ton, leaving £5 5s per ton for the cost of manufacture.

STORE SHEEP MARKET. Recent sales of Gisborne store sheep at Stortford Lodge, Hawke’s Bay, are commented on as follows by the Napier Telegraph:— “ A Gisborne vendor had shipped a number of lines of ewes and of lambs for last week’s large sale, and he was unfortunate that he struck such a big sale with this offering. These sheep were in far better nick than the Gisborne drafts that we have seen lately in the Hawke’s Bay yards, after long journeys overland, but the prices on Wednesday could hardly have repaid the vendor for the costs of shipping. “ Gisborne speculators seem determined to exploit the Hawke’s Bay market,'and there can be no doubt that the thousands of poor conditioned sheep that have been sent on to the Hawke’s Bay market in th past two months have had a certain depressing effect upon values for our Hawke’s Bay sheep, a condition which will always occur when a market is flooded in this fashion, for the range of selection is naturally materially increased. ‘ “ That good sheep will always sell well on the Hawke’s Bay Markets was, however, demonstrated again very clearly, not only at Hastings, but also at Waipukurau. The Hawke’s Bay market i« still just about the best in the Norik Island, and speculators with the righ; stamp of sheep, who fail to quit them at a reasonable figure at Feilding, can usually get what they want for them oh one oother of the Hawke’s Bay markets.” GROUP HERD TESTING; The records of the herds of memben of the South Taranaki Herd Testing Association continue to show steady increase in production (states a circular issued by the association). The average for 7224 cows corrected to May 31 is

275.431 b fat in 275 days, or over 11b per day per cow for a milking period of nine months. If the association average was 3001 b rather than 2751 b fat the members of the association would have received from their various factories a total additional sum of over £9OOO with butter-fat at Is per lb. If the average were the same as the best herd in the association .(and it might be added that this herd is only on average Taranaki land) the additional aggregate income of members would exceed £33,000. That consistent herd testing is helping towards increased output can be readily seen by taking the successive averages of members who continue to test with the association. The progressive records of the association are:— Season. Herds. Cows. Fat. Days. Ib. 1927- 83 4716 255.03 237 1928- 89 4967 260.02 237 1929- 86 5098 270.25 243 1930- 126 7224 275.43 273 Calf marking figures also show an increase as under; 1927-28, nil; 1928-29, 134: 1929-30, 201; 1930-31, 352. The association records of outstanding merit are:— —Herd Averages.— Over 100 cows—Messrs D. and J. Gibson, Riverlea : 3451 b fat in 275 days up to May 18. Fifty to 100 cows—Mr W. F. Lyndon, Auroa : 3671 b fat in 273 days up to May 19. Under 50 cows —Mr A. T. West, Auroa: 3641 b fat in 267 days up to May 18. ■—Best Individuals. — (All up to May 31.) Mr R. E. Harrison, Kapuni : 6321 b fat in 310 days. Mr T. J. Hurley, Normanby : 6241 b fat in 331 days. The number of cows coming under the various production divisions are shown as follows: —Up to 501 b fat, 8; 501 b to 1001 b, 133; 1001 b to 1501 b, 174; 1501 b to 2001 b, 442; 2001 b to 2501 b, 1226; 2501 b to 3001 b, 2136; 3001 b to 3501 b, 2098; 3501 b to 4001 b, 772; 4001 b to 4501 b, 175; 4501 b to 5001 b, 30; 5001 b to 5501 b, 19; 5501 b to 6001 b, 8; 6001 b to 6501 b, 3. Of the total of 7224 cows whose records are as above 465 were robbers, 497 were boarders, 3157 were fair average producers, 2870 produced from 3001 b to 4001 b fat, and 237 produced over 4001 b fat. This shows that over 13 per cent. ®f the cows tested had no right to a place in any herd and that 7 per cent, were actually costing more to milk than their milk was worth.