Science and Industry Combine to Launch Province on New Era of Prosperity.

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 684, 8 June 1929, Page 17

Science and Industry Combine to Launch Province on New Era of Prosperity.

(Written for THE SUN by

RONALD CORSON

] IME was when the g= country sheep did did not thrive, and the heavy logs strewn over the land made agricultural farming economically impossible. In his extremity even the fungus hanging to the rotting logs proved a meagre source of revenue when dried and sold for export. Despite their better climate, Auckland farmers were in practically the same position, but much of their land was so poor that it wouldn’t even grow fungus. A lone Chinese came to Taranaki and opened the district’s first dairy factory. It was little more than a slab whare to which farmers dragged their milk over rough bush tracks; yet

it opened the way to prosperity. "Chinaman's luck” attended the enterprise. and Taranaki never looked back. Last season over 160 dairy factories operated throughout the province.

About the time that Taranaki’s novice dairymen were being initiated into the mysteries of “yield” and “production.” a meeting of farmers was held

at Pukekura, Cambridge, to discuss the question of starting a factory. The local storekeeper paid the hire of the hail, as he desired to see the “fun” which he was sure would follow the attempt of the convenor, Mr. Henry Reynolds, to put the proposition. The "fun” didn’t eventuate, however, and in 1886 the first butter factory in the Auckland province was opened.

Despite many set-backs, the industry gradually developed. Methods, both on the farm and at the factory, were haphazard to a degree, but "Chinaman’s luck” followed in its wake, and neither poor markets nor inferior methods of production could keep it down.

Not until the beginning of the present decade, however, did dairying really come to the front as one of the Dominion’s staple industries. Within two years of 1919 it developed from a state of inefficiency and disorganisation to one in which science and commercial enterprise combined to induce the man on the land to attain the highest possible return for the time and labour involved.

Within three years, production increased by 50 per cent., and ever since it has been increasing steadily. The season 1926-27 constituted a record; iast season fell little short of eclipsing the performance of the previous season owing to a prolonged drought during the summer months. This season, with one month yet to go, the total figures of production, assessed on a hutter-fat basis, show a considerable

advance on those for the record season of 1926-27. So often this season, as the monthly returns have come to hand, have the words “increased production” been used in regard to the dairying industry that they threaten to become commonplace. Month by month the best achievements of the past have been surpassed until today, in the Auckland province, with four weeks’ return yet to come, production, on a butter-fat basis, is already over 10 per cent, above that for the whole of the previous record season. Progress such has been registered in the dairying industry over the past decade should not become commonplace, however. It should give incentive to greater optimism and provide the foundation for an even more prosperous New Zealand. * • * In no part of the Dominion has the dairying industry made greater progress over the past decade than in the

Waikato. Time was when Taranaki claimed pride of place as New Zealand’s chief dairying province; to-day, the Waikato holds that position unchallenged, and the day is not far distant when the North will be running a close second; at the moment, in number of dairy cows, it has a slight lead on Taranaki.

According to the latest returns compiled by the Department of Agriculture, there are approximately 1,087,606 dairy cattle of milking age in the Dominion; 374,513 of these are held by South Auckland dairymen, 221,315 by North Auckland dairymen, and 207,179 help to keep Taranaki’s 160 factories going at capacity.

The Waikato, and the surrounding districts, with slightly over one-quar- ■ ter of the Dominion's dairy cattle, produces over one-third of the butter that leaves these shores for overseas markets. Its marketing concerns . have trade connections with all parts ■ of the world and, in common with most other parts of New Zealand, its dairy produce is held in very high regard wherever it is marketed.

In the Waikato the old haphazard methods of the past have been jettisoned in favour of those advocated as a result of scientific research and modern business efficiency.

One of the biggest factors making for the success of dairying in the

province has been the increasing use of top-dressing manures. It is a significant fact that each year’s ex-

pansion in butter-fat production has been foretold to a great degree by an increase in sales of top-dressing

manures. Today artificial manures are regarded as a dominating factor in successful farming, and results in the past have been such as to justify the farmer in increasing his outlay on top-dressing requirements. The amazing results attained by top-dressing are apparent to the practical traveller in all parts of the Waikato. In no part can 1 hey be seen with greater vividness than in the run between Morrinsville and Matamata. On some parts of the road on country that, in its natural state, grew stunted scrub and rushes, healthy pastures now support highly productive dairy herds.

At the moment three large manufacturing concerns work for the greater part of the year to capacity to supply the fertiliser needs of Auckland farmers. In addition, regular shipments come to hand from overseas sources. So great was the rush of orders at certain times during the summer months that the Railway Department had difficulty in coping with orders for trucks, and delays, amounting to weeks at a time, were frequent.

Yet, the fertiliser business in the province is regarded as but in its infancy, and far-seeing farmers and others, alive to the possibilities of the country, consider that within the next decade production will increase al- | most two-fold, largely as a result of | a greater use of fertilisers.

Another factor which has played a large part in the development of dairying in the Waikato has beon herd-testing and systematic culling. The Waikato has led the way in this direction and today has many thousands of cows under regular test. The result has been that production for

each individual herd under test has been more than double. Time was when Waikato farmers

went outside for high quality stock to improve the quality of their herds. Today they have some of the best blood in the country, and pedigree sales held in the Waikato attract buyers from all parts of New Zealand.

This was strikingly indicated at the last Waikato A. and P. Show, where the exhibition of dairy cattle, particularly Jerseys, was regarded to be one of the best ever seen in a New Zealand show-ring. At that fixture bulls, imported at

a cost of 2,000 guineas and 3,000 guineas, competed with New Zealandbred animals. In one instance a highly priced importation had to give place to a Waikato-bred animal.

Not only with butter and cheese do Waikato dairymen seek to excel on the world's markets. Other products such as dried milk, condensed milk and casein now find their way from Waikato dairy farms to all parts of the world.

New Zealand dairy produce, particularly that from the Waikato, now finds its way to many lands overseas. The time has past when the producer was satisfied to rely on the English market to take all his surplus. About the year 1920, Waikato interests placed their selling arrangements on a sound basis and opened up markets in all parts of the world and began to build up a high reputation for New * Zealand dairy produce. In countries not requiring special packing, other parts of New Zealand followed the trail blazed by the Waikato leaders, and introduced competitive selling, a feature regarded by many as not in the best interests of the producer. Following the withdrawal of the Dairy Control Board from active participation in marketing, the Waikato again came to the fore with a co-oper-ative selling policy of a national character and, again, sales of New Zealand dairy produce are being pushed in all parts of the world. Today patients in the Singapore Hospital received synthetic milk—sweet and as good to taste as if it had come straight from the cow—and don’t realise that it may have been

months finding its way there from Waikato pastures. Passengers on transatlantic liners eating ice-cream, as they near the end of an extensive dinner menu, have nothing to tell them that it has been made up of dried milk and butter, the produce of New Zealand dairy farms. Recently in one of the northern districts of England the National Farmers’ Union was greatly agitated because one of its members was forced out of a creamery business because of competition from a vendor of synthetic cream, which sold readily at lower prices. The “opposition cream” was made up of Waikato produce. * * • During the record season of 1926-27, New Zealand exported approximately 137,677 tons of butter and cheese, in addition to other dairy produce. This season indications are that these figures will show an advance of 9 to 11 per cent. Yet, in the opinion of those intimately connected with the industry, only the surface of the Auckland Province has been touched. The advance made in dairying over the past decade will be as nothing compared with that which will be shown over the next ten years. Al-

ready there are signs of a new awakening. The big increase in production shown over the past season has not . been the result of happy circumstance and favourable weather conditions. It has been the direct sequel to better farming methods, increasing use of artificial manures, herd testing, and,

generally, to the greater application of intensive farming principles. Not only has there been an increase

in the production of butterfat throughout the province over the past

season, but, in the development of side industries, the Waikato and North Auckland farmer has been particularly active. This season's figures for bobbyveal exported showed an increase on those for the previous record year of over 300 per cent! Figures showing the total number of pigs slaughtered for local and overseas requirements

are not yet available, but, indications are that, in this department also, the increase will be equally phenomenal.

A leading Auckland merchant who has had his finger on the pulse of the dairying industry in the province for over a quarter of a century, put the question to the writer very concisely the other day: “Develop?” he said, “Why we haven’t reached a quarter of the district's possibilities yet. I had an uncle farming in the North. He died and the farm was divided among his three sons. Today each of those farms is producing more than the old farm, and none of them has reached the limits of economical productlo*. So it is with most parts of the province. Few really realise the possibilities of scientific pasture control combined with top-dressing and systematic culling.” Yes, great as have been the achievements of Auckland farmers in the past they serve hut as a reminder of the greater possibilities of the future.