Business in Farming

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

Business in Farming

A Taranaki-ite’s Example

Eliminating Waste

RECKXTIA someone in the Taranaki District discovered a model farm. The owner, who was a retired accountant, had a plied business efficiency' to farming and installed several novel appliances for speeding up and lightening work. To-day, while there is : noticeable trend toward the adopt on of business methods among progressive men on the land, there is still much room for improvement. \o one farm should be singled out. All to a greater or less extent should be models. Only when such a state of affairs is established will the farmer generally be on the right highway to profitable occupation.

The particular farm discovered by the Taranaki investigator had amonj it« labour-savers pipes running from the separator to a tank at the pig styes. Each pen was connected up by pipe with the tank and there was no waste time carrying milk. Othe * special time eliminating devices wer ; installed at the shed, simple and eco - nomical in their way, yet answering th > purpose. In his work in and among various farm* the writer has come across many novel schemes for helping on tho day’s work. In the aggregate, applied to one farm, then that farm would in- - be a model. Yet, the average man is content to dodge along under the old stereotyped rule of thumb

methods and any Improvements installed are generally bought. There i» too little internal effort. In most progressive commercial businesses the? management is generally scheming to cut down expenses and increase profits. For preference, the cheapest way out is sought after. i3o it should be on the farm. The trouble to-day, in many instances, is not so much that men are holding fictitiously priced land, but thut they are not developing what they hold to the best advantage. Tides the average run of farm properties to-day. There are exceptions certainly, many of them, and they are run by the men who are getting the greatest comparative return, but many ar3 holding properties beyond their capabilities, financial and otherwise, tnd are merely doing their best under

the old recognised methods, without much originality. A little of the Taranaki accountant’s spirit incorporated into their work would do much to lighten their lot and give them time to look around for avenues of greater profit. On every hand there is room for the application of system and of time-sav-ing devices. At the cowshed the layout is most important. Every second saved in getting the milker through means much at the end of the season. Everything that makes for cleanliness, everything that makes for speed, all go to eliminate waste and cut down time, giving the farmer a chance to apply his activities in another direction.

The same rule can be applied to the stock. When the herd can be improved so as to have one cow, for instance, producing the same amount of butterfat taken from two animals a year or so before, it all makes for efficiency and greater profit with less effort. Yet it can be done and has been. Few farmers realise, and the writer has erred in that direction himself before to-day, that it is not the area of land that is occupied, but the way it is occupied, which counts in the making up of the annual returns. “More business in farming,” is a slogan that might well be followed to great advantage. In fact, it is only when this is more; generally recognised by many farmers that they will begin to see daylight. At no time is their job an easy one, especially if it is carried out without originality or system.