FARMERS’ OUTLOOK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1938, Page 5

FARMERS’ OUTLOOK

SURVEY BY WAIRARAPA PRESIDENT FACING UNECONOMIC PRICES. PROBLEM OF DETERIORATED LANDS. The ifieep farmer it at the moment facing uneconomic prices for wool, a certain amount of deterioration in his land, the gradual loss of his market for mature mutton and beef, high and rising costs which he is unable to pass on, and falling prices for the majority of his items of production,” stated a report by the president, Mr H. Morrison, read at yesterday’s meeting of the Wairarapa Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union. “As the farmer is the greatest individual producer in the Dominion,” added Mr Morrison, “a continuance of his present handicaps will certainly have the effect of throwing the whole Dominion element of oroduction out of economic balance.”

“Sheep farming in New Zealand is divided into two main sections,” he continued—“the fat lamb trade on the first-class lowlands and hill country and secondly the grower of wool, breeding ewes and store sheep on second and third class country, particularly the hill country. Dealing first with the outlook on the fat lamb trade, the price on the London markets looks fairly satisfactory for the coming season. which is gratifying not only to the lamb.grower, but to the grower of the breeding ewes on the hill country who provides the where-withal for this trade, as it helps him also to maintain a useful price for his product.

LAMB LOSSES. “Looking at the past season from a national point of view, the fat lamb grower has had to face considerable losses through facial eczema from Waikato right down through the North Island, whereas in Southland and Otago, drought conditions took a heavy toll in light weights and poorly finished lambs, coupled with mortality to the extent of 400,000 on the Canterbury Plains. Lamb on the New Zealand schedule fell Id to lid last season principally on account of the slump in the value of the by-products. The surplus ewes usually fattened for the local market dropped to the level of pre-war prices, and the low prices for wool have combined to greatly reduce the profit made on the turnover of the lamb. Finally the growers’ general costs have increased in every phase of his activities. HILL COUNTRY FARMER. “Turning now to the hill farmer on the second class land of New Zealand including that land of even poorer than second class quality, I again want to deal with facts, the first of which is that this class of farming is rapidly getting out of economic balance. For instance, the total sheep population of New Zealand today, is approximately 30,000,000 with 9,000,000 lambs exported last year. Local consumption is to be added to that; therefore approximately 10,000,000 breeding ewes are utilised in the fat lamb trade today, leaving about 20,000,000 of hill country sheep to provide the bulk of our wool export. The hill farmer depends firstly on wool. The price of ordinary crossbred wool today is practically only a few decimal points higher than for ten years prior to the Great War. This means that they are producing wool below cost, and although the cost of wool production varies under different conditions (clear country can produce more cheaply than reverting scrub country) taking a reasonable average, it costs Is per pound to produce wool today, against today’s realisation of a mean average for all types of crossbred wool at between BJd to 9d per pound. Australian growers say the'y,cannot produce wool even at this price. FUTURE FOR WOOL. “No one can predict what the opening price of wool in New Zealand will be this season; it may be up, or down, but the opening prices in Australia and our own opening prices for skins and dead wool are inclined towards a slight drop. It is an outstanding fact therefore, that unless a reasonable rise towards the cost of production is experienced, the lack of economic balance I have already referred to, becomes quite apparent. A continuance of low prices for wool is again reflected in the lower price obtained for the surplus stock of all descriptions at the close of the season. Another factor is that the market conditions and price for matured mutton, i.e. wether and ewe mutton have a very poor outlook in these days of small family joints of meat. In the past when we had the dry sheep country, the big wether was a profitable proposition with his good wool clip and a sound store market, but of later years we had been forced to use this class of country for breeding purposes, and breeding on this class of country is not so profitable as the mature wether was. DETERIORATED COUNTRY, “It is admitted by all experienced farmers that deterioration of the second class country in both North and South Islands is setting in. The soil survey operations of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under specially qualified officers, reveal that this is undoubtedly the case. In some areas it is quite slight, but in other areas it is indeed a serious matter. “This problem could be checked if the occupiers of the land could regain sufficient income to enable them to erect more fences, carry more cattle in proportion to their sheep, and apply fertilisers, but their costs are so high today, that being at the bottom of the laddei’ and unable to pass on these costs, they are financially debarred from effecting these very necessary steps to arrest the deterioration. It is a godsend to the North Island farmer that the chilled beef trade is now in existence, enabling the cattle breeding industry to become profitable again, although this system is still more costly than in the old days of the mature bullock and wether.” 1 POSITION OF SHEEP FARMER. The chairman, Mr D. McGregor, said the idea of Mr Morrison was to - get the general public to realise that the position of the sheep farmer was not as good as it was before the slump. “He doesn’t suggest a guaranteed price for wool does he?” asked Mr A. Ross, who added that Mr Morrison’s statement was not complete because it did not show any avenue of improvement. Mr J. H. Bremner said it was a difficult matter to indicate any way of improving the position. They had known in a vague way for years that soil deterioration had been going on. Much of the deterioration had been accentuated and intensified by the Government’s policy of high costs, a consequent shortage of labour and an increase in the Graduated Land Tax. The matter had not been given the consideration it deserved in the past. Every acre of second and third class land that went out of production increased the economic load on the first-class land remaining in production. FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. Mr Bremner went on to point to the difficulty of financial methods for the improvement of deteriorated land. In the past a mistake had been made in denuding much of the high country of the scrub and bush. That had left the lower lands liable to flooding and ero-

sion. He advocated a tree planting scheme for the middle country so that protective brakes would be established to stop the volume of water coming down suddenly as had happened in Hawke’s Bay. Mr Ross said the tendency to blame the Land Tax was wrong as much of the deteriorated land had been written off as worthless and was not affected by the tax to any great extent. The fencing of hill country was an important point and was now being carried out much more extensively. He thought it might be a good proposal to leave much of the deteriorated land until it had reached its worst state before doing anything to improve it as its fertility might be increased during the dormant years. Mr A. G. Dawson said the problem to be faced was not so much one of bringing poor land back into production as of maintaining the standard of land now in production. He thought that money now being expended on public works might be used to better advantage in bringing deteriorated hill country into a state of production. The question of costs was the biggest problem with regard to second and third' class land, remarked Mr J. Andrew. Sub-division by fencing was most important but it cost £2OO a mile to fence back country. Too high a Government valuation on the land was another problem. Mr McGregor suggested that something might be done by concentrating on an improvement of grass land pastures. In the past we had relied too much on one particular breed of sheep irrespective of the type of land. There was room for the importation of other breeds that would do well on poor land. The embargo on the importation of stock was, however, a big handicap to be overcome. A hearty vote of thanks was passed to Mr Morrison for his report.