BAD WINTER'S EFFECTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1918, Page 3

BAD WINTER'S EFFECTS.

DAIRY FAKIIEES' BIG LOSSES. In some of the chief dairying centres of New Zealand things went badly during the winter, and tliey have not recovered sufficiently for matters to right themselves in time to bring the season up to the equal of recent years. Last winter was the worst that most living New Zealandera have ever known, and the fact is that it caught many farmers napping. In the far south and in the far north they probably escaped, for reasons that can be mentioned later, but in a mid-New Zealand district like Taranaki they took the chances and lost heavily. • The winter was so severe that it placed a tremendous strain upon dairy cows that were due to come into milk for the new 6eason. In addition to this there was a great shortage of feed for the cattle, and the result is that after enduring considerable suffering hundreds and hundreds of the milch cows have succumbed this spring. Apart from those which have succumbed there are many hundreds of others which are so low in condition that they are not producing anything like the quantity of milk that they would if well conditioned. The loss to Taranki farmers is a serious one, and the effect on the Dominion may be a drop in the total output of dairy produce for the season. There is no certainty, of course, that because some of the fanners in Taranaki have been hard hit that there will be a drop in the Dominion I output, because the farmers in the north probably experienced a less severe winter, and are in consequence not suffering anything like t'he losses that have besn experienced on the west coast of this island. Also, there may not be a fallingoff in the south, for the farmers of Southland would be certain to provide against a severe winter, and their stock would be got through without much mishap. Nevertheless, Taranaki's proportions of the butter and cheese outputs are usually so large that a serious reduction in that quarter may very easily be noticeable in the Dominion tally when the year's figures are announced.

The real reason of the trouble is not the severity of the winter, but the failure of the farmers to provide winter feed for the stock. For years, as all are quite aware, the experts whose advice the farmers migfot be expected to heed have besought the men on the land to put aside food for the winter, so that the stock would not suffer privations, and so that they would come into milk in the best possible condition. For just the same number of years most of the farmers have allowed the advice to go unheeded. Time after time a good winter •rolled along, and there was no particular trouble. This year we encountered something like a winter, and now everyone in Taranaki and everywhere else in the country believes that there is something in what the experts said. . It has been a bitter and costly pill to many Taranaki and West Coast fanners and it has been an even worse experience for the unfortunate cattle, whose sufferings have been considerable. The wretched condition of many of the cows which have survived is ample evidence of tliis.—Dominion.