The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1927 A FRIEND OF THE FARMERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 107, 27 July 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1927 A FRIEND OF THE FARMERS

IT is a good shot, though perhaps a lueky one, that kills two * birds with one stone. This the Prime Minister appears to have done neatly at W ellington yesterday in an informative speech at the opening of the Dominion Conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. * In addition to soothing the delegates with some cheerful arithmetic about primary production, prices, prospects and all the other P’s a leading politician has to mind, Mr. Coates impressed, or at least pleased, the conference with an assurance that the Reform Government was, is, and ever must be the friend of the farmers. If politeness did not demand a straight face on such occasions, most of the farmer delegates themselves would have guffawed at the comic side of the declaration of friendship. There really has been no reason to suspect the Government s relation to farmers at any time during the past fifteen years. It is probably quite true that the Administration has not befriended the farmers as much as they have desired and even deserved, but a survey of legislation and State expenditure will show at any rate that there has been no lack of sympathy with the poor man on the land. If there be any lurking doubt about it, let the Government ask the pampered workers in sheltered industries and the men and women who cannot get work at all! Still, ingratitude is a common -weakness, and there has beeu much discontent with the Reform Administration among the farmers of the Dominion. Indeed, dissatisfaction has been so acute that many of them have given support to the new Country Party and dream of a radiant era in national politics. And the movement indubitably grows. The Farmers’ Party has .declared a policy and devised a platform with enough bucolic Socialism in it to cause the old departed Tories to wander disconsolate and in tears on the Elysian fields. Hence the necessity of the Prime Minister’s presence at the. farmers’ conference; hence the soft answer that turneth wrath away. Like everybody else in the country, the farmer suffers from economic ills and the reaction of many well-intentioned, but foolish, measures to bolster up prosperity against the force of economic laws. Naturally, he must have a hit at somebody or something in authority. And what is the Government there for, if not for a bash now and again? It may be that working farmers have become weary awaiting the fulfilment of political promises, but their weariness is not comparable with that of the rest of the community. But it is ludicrous for farmers to suggest, or even to think, that the Reform Government is not their best friend. As Mr. Coates has told them with a naive frankness that explains a great deal more than he probably intended to disclose, “he himself is a farmer, and thinks in the terms of the farmer.” Quite so, and he might have added that six of twelve Cabinet Ministers are farmers and also think in the terms of farmers. And the Reform Party behind the Government is stiff with farmers and farming thoughts. In reality, too much heed is given to class interests in politics. What the country needs is government for all the people, and an equal measure of encouragement to town and country. MILLIONS IN HERD IMPROVEMENT NEW ZEALAND will owe much gratitude to the men who so persistently advocated herd-testing and the culling of inferior animals from the milk-producing cattle of this country; for their work ranks in value with that of the man who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before. The worth of these endeavours was only forced upon the notice of the Government by slow degrees, herd-testing here in its infancy being carried out at the expense of private associations. But there is at last recognition of these pioneer efforts, for Cabinet has decided to assist the work of the herd-testing associations of the Dominion this year to the extent of £B,OOO. This seems to be a substantial sum, but when the immense value of herd-testing and culling is properly appreciated, it must prove to be money well spent—so infinitesimal, judged by results, that the wonder will be that so higlily-profitable an investment was not made years before. In the dairy section at the Winter Show there are displayed some charts which give even the novice in matters pertaining to production an idea of the magnitude of the money involved by improving dairying stock. These show that four years ago, in 630 herds tested, no less than 44 per cent, of the cows gave 2001 b. of butter-fat or under and were to be regarded as unprofitable, or as returning very little profit, at the best. Following this astounding revelation, there was vigorous culling among these herds. Only the best cows were bred from, and the result to-day is that the percentage of 2001 b.-cows has dropped to 14. To go farther: 51 per cent, of the cows in 1923-24 yielded from 2501 b. to 3001 b. of butter-fat. They were profitable cows. Last year the percentage had risen to 66. But it is in the higlily-profitable cow class that the improvement is most marked. Of the herds tested in 1923-24, only 3.65 per cent, of the cows yielded 3001 b. or over of butter-fat. Last year they had increased to 19.42 per cent.—the result of heifers bred" from the best cows after the first culling coming into milk. Herd-testing and its consequent increased production are only in an early stage. What has been done with the herds already experimented with may be done with every herd in the Dominion, and the butter-fat yield be increasingly stimulated up to the highest point attainable. The possibilities are wonderful, the final accruement inestimable. In this Dominion there are 1,303,856 dairy cows and heifers intended for dairying, and, with the expansion of the industry, the time is near when a million cows will be milked regularly in the season. If, by herd-testing, the average butter-fat yield of a cow will have been raised by only 501 b. a year, taking the price of butter-fat at Is fid a lb., the result will be an additional yield of 50.000,0001 b.. worth an additional £3,750,000 a year to this country. A wise Government will not stint aid to so strikingly reproductive an enterprise as that of lierd-testing.