FARMERS UNEASY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 92, 9 October 1911, Page 2

FARMERS UNEASY

DRY WEATHER AND FROSTS RETARD HERBAGE. Auckland, Saturday. A long spell of dry weather is causing fanners some uneasiness. Just around Auckland the conditions are not so bad, but all through the Waikato and further south the growth of herbage is retarded for want of moisture.

Several sharp frosts have been experienced, and the pastures have suffered accordingly. September proved to be a particulalry dry month south of Auckland, and nearly every rainstorm was followed by a southwest wind which dried up the. moisture almost before any material advantage had been obtained.

What affected the dairy .farmer ana the gru/ier even more seriously was the fact that, concomitant with the phenomenally dry winter and spring, the turnip crop failed. Thousands of acres were put under turnips this winter in the Auckland province, and the whole crop has been practically a total failure.

The result h that hundreds, of cows and a great number of sheep died of starvation, the pastures became practically baro, and the haystacks were demolished early in the winter. Usually, stock-owners have been able to keep their cattle in good condition through the winter months by turning them into the turnip fields, and store stock so fattended have always been worth at least £1 more in market value than those which have had to rough it for winter fodder. The failure of the crop this year, therefore, has been largely responsible for the high price of beef and mutton, and kine which should now be sleek with pasturing amongst much rich herbage are, instead, emaciated for lack of sufficient winter feed.

Tho season opened with an early spring, and had good "growing weather" prevailed there would have been a record established inn tlic dairying industry thii year. Even now, if satisfactory rains fall within a week, the position will not be so bad.

Butter, however, has probably reached its lowest price to the consumer. The London market is wonderfully firm, and the New Zealand exports will meet with a big demand, but should the dry weather continue—and already the hills show signs of burning—then the outlook for the season will be indeed serious.