BARLEY FOR PIG FEED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1939, Page 3

BARLEY FOR PIG FEED

GOVERNMENT IMPORTS. AVAILABLE TO FARMERS. Farmers who keep pigs should be interested in the latest development that has taken place in the matter of feed supplies. The Internal Marketing Department has arranged to secure a quantity of barley that will be distributed through the usual merchant channels at 3s 8d per bushel unclipped, 4s 2d clipped, ex wharf,' main ports. This low price is possible only so long as the barley has not to go into store, and farmers are asked to lend their assistance by placing orders with their merchants immediately. The minimum lot that can be delivered at this rate is 10 sacks. Information collected during the last year from 200 farms all over New Zealand, and published in the Journal of Agriculture, shows that the net earning value of skim-milk after paying for meal and crops used is as follows for different amounts of meal used: — Average amounts of meal used (lb.) per 100 gallons milk, 2,8, 19, 34. Return per gallon milk (pence) 0.78, 0.89, 1.02, 0.75. These calculations are based on pork at 6d per lb., and meal at £l4 per ton. If meal is taken at £9 per ton —i.e., 4s per bushel of barley—the earning value of skim becomes 0.79 d, 0.74 d, l.lld, and 0.92 d per gallon for the different quantities used. There are two points of interest in the table: First, that when meal is used at the rate of 20 per cent of the whole feed supply (lib. of meal to 5 gallons of milk, or roughly lcwt. per cow milked), the earning value of skimmilk (after paying for meal bought) is greatest and approaches 2|d per lb. of butter-fat, being 20 per cent greater than the earnings obtained when meal represents 2 per cent of the whole feed supply (21b per 100 gallons, or 10-121 b. per cow milked). The second point is that when the price of meal is £9 per ton (4s per bushel or barley) the earning value of skim-milk increases most when meal represents 20 per cent of the total feed supply. The reduced price of meal does not enhance the earning value of milk when meal is only 2 per cent of the feed used, but it does improve the returns in proportion to the amount of meal that is used; the greatest improvement being made when meal represents 34 per cent of the total feed supply. The service now offered by the Internal Marketing Department to farmers through their own merchants is valuable just in proportion to the use that is made of it, and farmers are asked to place then’ orders as soon as possible. Farmers need not purchase a year’s supply now, since arrangements have been made for regular monthly shipments to North Island ports.