IMPROVING PRODUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1921, Page 6

IMPROVING PRODUCTION.

THE CURSE OF OVER-STOCKING. The need for taking steps in order to increase production, so as to meet tfv? fall in prices that must be expected • when things settle down again, was i briefly touched on by Mr. A. V. Tait. | chairman of directors, at tbe ann’ial meeting of the Kaponga Dairy Co. yes- ! terday. He was, he said, going to say I that production was going back. This was not solely due to clima’tic conditions, ae during the past few years he i would say that taken on the whole it had gradually gone back. This was a j serious matter in view of rhe lower i prices they would have to face. In- | deed, he did not anticipate that afrer i this season prices' would he much over

I tho<se of pre-war times, for there was ‘ nothing to warrant them. Prospects this season would not have been so bright but for the' drought in the Old Country. Owing to the price of manure it had been impossible to fertilise much during the past few years, but now that prices of fertilisers were being reduced they had got to make up the leeway lost durinsr the war. Also, with the high price of land, unless they increased production considerably they would be left in a bad position. Testing, he admitted, would do a lot of good, but he main tained that was the wrong end co stun. ’•When he was actively i-ngaged in dairy- ; ing he milked a herd of 85, and they ; gave an average of 3D3lbs .of fat. and he ; never tested a cow. He maintaine.d that what went down the cow’s throat j was what they got in the bucket, and ‘until a proper system of feeding was ‘ adopted, they would not get the be<st ro- ; suit. He considered that, to put it j plainly, the trouble was that 90 per cent. iof them were apt to over-stock. (Hear. ! hear.) He personally had an expert ; cnee of that, as he started with a z herd ' of 100, including some heifers, and th | results were not satisfactory. He reI dneed the number to 90. Still the re- ‘ suits were not satisfactory. Then he I reduced his herd to 84. and for the last two years averaged over 300 lb of butter fat. lie held that a lot depended on what was fed to the animals.

Mr. D. Matone: You might, have ha an average of 350 lbs if you had teste.

The chairman quite agreed that testing would do a lot of good, but it wars not the sole remedy. If the majority of suppliers reduced their herds by ten they would get results. He admitted that last season was a bad season from a climatic point of view, but he did not consider it had been riieh a had season. Of course he admitted that a good deal of the reduced supply tost year was owing to the fact that a number of their suppliers were on their fajms for the first season, and did not have the same chance of providing suitable feed, as otherwise would have been the case.