KING COUNTRY PROSPECTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 189, 31 October 1927, Page 12

KING COUNTRY PROSPECTS

A FINE SEASON The general opinion of farmers of the Northern King Country is that the country has never been seen to better advantage than it is at the present. The value of top-dressing is now well appreciated by all farmers, and the reduction in the price of fertilisers has enabled their use this year when before it was impossible among many. THE SUN’S correspondent made an extensive tour of the country aiound Otorohanga on Saturday, and a number of dairy farmers stated that their output of butter-fat, since the beginning of the season, was, up to the present, double that of the same period last year, and it could be safely surmised that there would be scores of others who were in a similar happy position. The country in every direction is looking a beautiful verdant green, proving the ready response the land gives to the application of fertilisers. There is however an urgent need for rain as the month of October has proved to be one of the dryest ever recorded in the North. King Country, less than an inch of rain falling on five days in the month. Herd-testing and culling is also playing an important part in the increased output of butter-fat, for there are few dairy farmers who do not recognise the great benefits of eliminating the “dud” cow.

The Otorohanga factory of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company is now manufacturing seven tons of butter a day, which is a production of a ton a day more than at the same period last yeser, and the peak is not expected until late in November. The outlook gives every cause for optimism in the dairying industry in this district.