FARM & DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1915, Page 11 (Supplement)

FARM & DAIRY.

SOME DAIRYING PROBLEMS. THE VIEWS OF AN AUTHORITY. Winter milking has been pushed into the forefront of attention by the recent scarcity of winter butter. Winter dairying is not popular. It possesses serious disadvantages, but that there is money in it is undoubted. "If I had plenty of money, and were going in for dairying," said Mr. Middleton, manager of the Canterbury Central Dairy Company, to the New Zealand Farmer's representative, "I would take up winter dairying. I would make it my liobby." You think it would pay? "I am satisfied it would. But it must be done on proper lines. The cows must be warmly housed, well fed with crops grown on the farm, and given decent care." Would the results warrant a farmer facing the disadvantages of milking in winter time? "No. The conditions existing on summer-milking farms are unsuited to winter dairying. The stock must be housed, fed in their houses, given reasonable exercise, but otherwise have no mud to go through. The milker, morning and evening, will enter a warm, comfortable shed to do his work. I am satisfied that if the herd were run on these lines the work would not be severely unpleasant, and the cows would yield scarcely anything less than in summer conditions. They can do it in Canada. Why not here ? In Canada, if they did not house their stock all the winter they would have no cows left alive in the spring." Nobody is taking it up in New Zealand? "They want a lead. If somebody wil. make'the beginning, and prove it sue cessful, others will soon follow." Canterbury Central Company, for in stance, might run a model winter dairy ing farm? "I don't think so. If we were totell our suppliers that butter-fat, instead of being, say, Is 3d next season, would be Is '2d because we were going to launch out into a winter milking farm they would say, 'No thanks, give us the Is 3d.'" But it would pay a profit ? "Ah, perhaps hot at first. There are various little difficulties likely to be encountered in a new undertaking of that kind. The cows may not take well to the housing in the first season." WHY FARMERS DON'T WINTERMILK. "You would not pay enough extra for winter butter-fat to make it a good proposition?" suggested the journalist. Mr. Middleton admitted it. "Cold storage," he said, "has made that impossible. I'll give you an instance oi the position. It is a common experience before the winter arrives for us to be asked by growers to quote them a, price for a certain quantity of butter, to be stored on their account and delivered through the winter as required. We must quote them summer prices. If we say to the grocer, "Oh, prices are going to be very dear next winter we must charge you accordingly," he will go off and place liis order with some exporting firm, which probably never, in the ordinary way, supplies the local market with a single pound. In this winter £3OO aB a deposit on butter bought for storing has given back £I,OOO. That is very tempting. There is a grocer in Christchurch now who bought on forward terms a large stock of a certain factory's butter with the factory's brand on and is now selling it at 2d. per lb. less than the same brarid in other shops. With such things possible, very lucrative returns from winter dairying are impossible. Then on what grounds can it be advocated f "Winter dairying, by warm housing and fodder feeding, would lengthen the lactation period, 'and Increase the profit in that way. The fodder growing would increase the carrying capacity of the land. It is well known that crops yield better if they are allowed to develop, and are them cut, than if constantly grazed down by stock. Lucerne, we know, grows luxuriantly in most dairying districts. It makes ideal milking feed, either green or as silage, or as hay. With this and roots, all in ample supply, the yield of a herd can be greatly increased and lengthened. By feeding roots immediately after milking, and giving good sweet hay just before milking, the feed flavour trouble can be avoided." WINTER OUTPUT VANISHING. The question was raised as to whether the winter make of butter is increasing at the same speed as the summer output. "It is quite the reverse," said Mr. Middleton. "In our own case our winter supply of milk or cream is only one half or one-third what it was eighteen years ago. Our total output for the year has increased en6rmously, but the winter supplies have almost vanished. Cold storage has done that. It has made summer cream almost as valuable as winter cream, and the farmers naturally have chosen the former. Years ago we could give 1/- for winter butter-fat as against 9d for that produced in summer, and winter milking was then rather popular. At one time our winter supply was almost" half as 'much as that of summer." CHEESE, PICS, AND BY-PRODUCTS. Mr. Middleton does not think the upward flight of cheese prices will lesson the keeping of pigs. The meal will be used to fortify the whey. He thinks also there will be no decrease in the rearing of calves for the dairy or the range. "Butter," he said, "will be in the ascendant again before long. It is obvious that while the war lasts cheese will be in very strong demand, because a soldier can carry cheese and bread in liis pocket for a long time, while he could not carry butter. And no doubt it is very nourishing food. But when the war is over— They will have acquired the cheese habit? "Not likely. It is more probable they will be sick of it. That is the usual result when you are restricted to one class of food." The cheese factories have paid suppliers as high as 1/6 per pound. "Yes. That is a very high price. But I have heard suppliers declare they would not part with their skimmed milk for less than 2d extra, They make a good margin by the pigs and calves." Casein, condensed milk, dried milk, sugar of milk—will these things affect butter ? There are prophecies in the air of New Zealand coing out of butter.

"I don't think so. There is a strong future for butter. These by-products are only small matters. Dried milk and milk sugar consume a lot of fuel, and there can't be enough profit in them to make them serious competitors. Besides, many dairy farmers would rather feed it to their pigs and calves than sell their skimmed milk aud whey for casein. Or lor making skimmed-milk cheese? "We have been considering that. During a visit to Australia I made some inquiries as to the best way to utilise the skimmed milk. No doubt while cheese is so badly wanted we ought to consider any means of increasing the output. I am not sure the inquiry for skimmed milk cheese would be very large, and the results of my enquiries in Australia rather favoured making casein. Fuller information, however, has yet to reach us." DROUGHT IN CANTERBURY. ANXIOUS. The prolonged dry spell of weather experienced in the Asfrburton county, and indeed in all parts of Canterbury (states the Ashburton correspondent of the Lyttelton Times), is being viewed with much concern by agriculturists and graziers. Owing to the parched condition of the soil below ploughing depth there has been little or no growth of cereal crops or grass pastures, and to make matters worse the majority of farmers are overstocked. Lambing is now jvell advanced in the lower districts, and as a large proportion of the ewes are weak as a result of a dearth of succulent feed, there has been a heavy mortality among the flocks. Many farm- | ers have lost as many as fifty ewes and I upwards 4jut of a flock of less than 300, and in these cases the lambing percentages have been unsatisfactory. 'Die scarcity of feed at this period of the year has completely upset the calculation of graziers, and with no immediate prospects of rain and a consequent growth of grass, the position is bound to become worse. What makes the situation more precarious, too, is the almost complete listlessness of the stock market; and graziers, who would sell their stock at a loss are unable to so, for the reason that there are no buyers. Many sheep and cattle are. dying of actual starvation in various parts of .mid and South Canterbury, but in instances where fanners are understocked and the ewes have been well wintered, the increases in the flocks are above the average. Rather than allow their stock to starve, several large sheep farmers have secured feed in Otago and Southland. It is many years since such a similar unsatisfactory state of affairs existed, and if there is not a good downpour of rain during the present month farmers will suffer heavy losses in respect of their florks. There is, however, one exception to the above condition, and that is in the districts bordering the hills and at Methven. The heavy rain a few weeks ago did a great deal to replenish the earth with moisture, and, although the sub•oil is not excessively well off in the latter respect, nor'-west showers of recent months have done much to prevent the land assuming that dry. dusty appearonce which is now so marked ill the districts east of the railway line and which is at present typical of all the districts below the Mount Hutt centre. Crops have done and are doing remarkably well, and everywhere they furnish a healthy appearance and are growing splendidly. As for feed, there is a moderate supply, and farmers are not crying out on that score. Of course there are isolated "wes where feed in paddocks is rather short, but this has been caused by fanners overstocking, of which, luckily, there are only a few cases. ' ATI ENORMOUS HARVEST. The harvest in Australia this year will be an immense one. The area sown in wheat in New South WSles, according to the estimate just issued by the Government Statistician, is 5,138,000 acres. This exceeds by 980,400 acres last year's acreage, which stood as the State's record. New South Wales is thus the first State in the Commonwealth to reach the 6,000,000-acre mark. This year 4,202,500 acres have been sown for grain, as compared with 3.428,841 acres last season. As a matter of fact, however, only 2,713,841 acres were stripped last summer, owing to failures caused by drought. The estimate puts the area for hay down at 875,500 acres, but it is officially explained that this may exceed a million acres, owing to the depletion of fodder stocks and the anticipated heavy call for hay and chaff. The area of new ground cultivated is 554,614 acres, which has only been exceeded by the 500.750 acres of new land sown in 1913. Tlic Puverina, with 1.824.000 acres; supplies the greatest area of any division, uud the south-west, with 1,120,100 acres, ranks next. Of the various districts Tcmora takes the lead with 165,134 acres, followed by Ardlethan 113,882 acres, Wagga 109,707 acres, Barmcdman 107,853 acres, and Wvalong 103,953 acres. As a whole the crops at present promise exceedingly well. They have never looked better in mid-September for the past twelve years. The prospect may yet be completely changed by adverse weather next month. But with only an average yield the harvest should realise close upon 50,00,000 bushels, and should it reach, say, the IV/i bushel crop obtained in 1903-IM it would run to something like 70,000,000 bushels.